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

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Callanan on 2 December (HL9789), what assessment they have made of the case for publishing the names of those firms borrowing under Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme and Bounce Back Loan Scheme to facilitate identification of fraud; and why they are delaying publication of this information until it is made available on the European Commission's Transparency Aid Module.

Given the necessary preparation and administration involved in publishing the information, we consider that the best use of public resources would be directed to pulling this information together to meet our existing obligations.

We continue to work across Departments, and with lenders and law enforcement agencies, to tackle fraudulent abuse of the schemes.