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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the average time taken for banks to process applications to the Bounce Back Loan Scheme.

In order to apply for the Bounce Back Loans scheme, businesses complete a short, simple, online application form, meaning that applications can be submitted and processed rapidly. The Government is providing lenders with a 100% guarantee on each loan to give them the confidence they need to quickly support the smallest businesses in the country.

The scheme has proved popular with businesses and as of 5 July, there had been 1,013,410 approved loans totalling £30.93 billion.