Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme applications have been (a) approved and (b) rejected to date.

As of 21 April, over £2.8bn worth of loans have been issued under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) to over 16,600 businesses.

In order to minimise administrative burden and therefore facilitate the issuing of as many loans as possible, the British Business Bank’s system only gathers data from these lenders when loans are offered and drawn. The system does not capture information on rejected loans. We are working with the British Business Bank, HM Treasury and the lenders on providing transparent and regular data publication going forward.