Contingencies Fund Advance: Covid-19 Business Support

I hereby give notice of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy having drawn an advance from the Contingencies Fund totalling £2,262,587,000 to enable expenditure on covid-19 support packages for business to be spent ahead of the passage of the Supply and Appropriation Bill in March 2021. The schemes are:

Local Restrictions Support Grant (LRSG) (closed) and (open) schemes

Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) scheme.

The funding is urgently required to support businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.

Parliamentary approval for additional resources of £2,262,587,000 will be sought in a supplementary estimate for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Pending that approval, urgent expenditure estimated at £2,262,587,000 has been met by repayable cash advances from the Contingencies Fund.

The cash advance will be repaid upon receiving Royal Assent on the Supply and Appropriation Bill.

[HCWS604]