Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the withdrawal of the Coronavirus Job Retention Bonus Scheme on business planning.

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) has been extended until the end of March 2021 for all parts of the UK, with employees receiving 80% of their usual salary for hours not worked, up to a maximum of £2,500 per month.

The Job Retention Bonus (JRB) will not be paid in February 2021 and the Government will redeploy a retention incentive at the appropriate time. The purpose of the JRB was to encourage employers to keep people in work until the end of January 2021. Having extended the CJRS, the objective of the JRB falls away and the Government will return to that issue once the position on that has become clearer. The Government remains committed to providing some form of employer support of this kind in due course.