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

To ask Her Majesty's Government how much of the £683 million Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund has been paid to claimants; how many claimants have been paid; and what is the mode average amount paid to each claimant.

Since the start of the pandemic, the Government has delivered an unprecedented package of support for business. Nearly £27 billion has been allocated to Local Authorities for the provision of grants for businesses in England. In response to the Omicron variant, BEIS used the latest business property data from the Valuation Office Agency to make available £635 million for Local Authorities to support the hospitality, leisure and accommodation sectors, via the Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant (OHLG)

Local Authorities received OHLG funds by the second week of January 2022, and have so far reported to Government that 22,952 payments have been made by 30 January 2022. (This does not indicate the number of businesses but the number of premises.) Local Authorities report to Government that £79 million has been paid out so far in OHLG grants. Government does not publish individual payment details but the mean average payment is £3,457

Regarding the Small Business Grant Fund (SBGF) and the Retail Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund (RHLGF), Local Authorities reported to Government that they had distributed £11.1 billion to businesses. As recorded by 30 September 2020, 906,673 business premises (not the number of unique businesses) in all English Local Authorities had received grants across the two schemes. The mean average payment as reported by Local Authorities was £12,268 for the RHLGF and SBGF schemes combined. This is the average for each payment as reported, not necessarily the average each claimant received if some claimants received more than one payment. The SBGF and RHLGF schemes closed in August 2020.

A full breakdown of grant funding allocated to, and distributed by, each Local Authority, is available on Gov.UK.