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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the proposal by the Association of Accounting Technicians that Bounce Back Loans for all small businesses should be written off.

We have always been clear that businesses are responsible for repaying any finance they take out. However, we recognise that some borrowers will benefit from flexibility for their repayments. That is why we announced the Pay as you Grow measures.

Pay as You Grow will provide Bounce Back Loan borrowers more time and flexibility over their repayments by giving them the option to:

• Extend the length of the loan from six years to ten.
• Make interest-only payments for six months, with the option to use this up to three times throughout the loan.
• Once six payments have been made, have the option of a six-month repayment holiday.

Businesses will be able to use these options either individually or in combination with each other. In addition they have the option to fully repay their loan early and will face no early repayment charges for doing so.