Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many companies in the creative industries have claimed support through the (a) Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (b) Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (c) VAT payment deferral (e) PAYE self-assessment payment deferral and (f) Statutory Sick Pay rebate; the amounts supplied through each; and if he will publish this information on a regular basis.

Applications for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) opened on Monday 20th April. As of midnight on 23 April, HMRC had over half a million claims with a total value of around £4.5bn. CJRS, tax deferral of VAT payments due to coronavirus, deferral of Self-Assessment payments due to coronavirus and Statutory Sick Pay rebate are new schemes and HMRC are currently working through the analysis they will be able to provide based on the data available. HMRC will make the timescales for publication and the types of data available in due course.

As of 22 April, over £2.8bn worth of loans have been issued under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme across all sectors, to over 16,600 businesses. At this time, the Government cannot provide a breakdown of funding by sector, as lenders have been given a temporary dispensation from uploading their data to the British Business Bank’s system in order to let lenders focus on issuing new loans. This is a pragmatic step that reflects the urgency of getting loans issued.