Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment has been made of the impact of employers being responsible for holiday leave accrued by staff while on furlough, on small businesses.

The CJRS operates within the employment law framework. Rights as an employee are not affected by being on furlough. Existing legislation means that furloughed employees continue to accrue leave as per their employment contract.

In terms of wider support, businesses have access to the Recovery Loan Scheme until 31 December 2021. Eligible businesses will continue to benefit from business rate reliefs until 31 March 2022, and as of 1 April have access to the one-off Restart grant of up to £18,000. In addition, over £2 billion of discretionary business grant funding has been provided to local authorities via the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) fund, including the £425 million top-up announced at the Budget.