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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what formula they use to calculate the amount of additional financial support for businesses in areas at (1) very high, and (2) high, COVID-19 alert levels.

During the period of national restrictions, all areas of England will be provided with funding to support both closed and severely impacted businesses.

Areas that were subject to Local Covid Alert Level 2 (High) or equivalent restrictions for the period from the 1^st August will be allocated funding via the Local Restrictions Support Grant (Open) to run local discretionary grant schemes. This means that businesses most impacted by the restrictions can be supported: the appropriate level of grant is for Local Authorities to determine bearing in mind the size of business, its fixed costs and the severity of impact suffered.

Where areas were subject during this period to Local Covid Alert Level 3 (Very High) restrictions Local Authorities will receive an allocation of funding via the Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed) to provide grants of up to £3,000 per four week period to those businesses that have been required by local restrictions to close.

Information on these schemes is available in guidance to local authorities which was published on 3^rd November and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-restrictions-support-grants-lrsg-and-additional-restrictions-grant-arg-guidance-for-local-authorities.