COVID-19: Monies received from Westminster to assist businesses: FOI release
Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
Information requested
“Since March 2020 how much has the Scottish Government received from Westminster to help small businesses and how much of that total has been spent on these businesses.”
Response
I enclose a response to your request. While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested as the Scottish Government does not hold the information as set out in your request.
We do not measure business support in terms of whether it is supporting small businesses or not. Neither do the funds we receive from the UK Government specify how much should be allocated to small businesses.
However we would like to provide you with the information we do hold and publish regularly relating to Covid-19 economy and business support funding that may useful to you. I have answered both of your individual queries in turn below based on the information we hold and routinely publish:
1) On 23 July 2020 the Chief Secretary to the Treasury confirmed a minimum allocation of Covid-19 resource funding for the Scottish Government of £6.5 billion. This subsequently increased in August, November and December as circumstances changed to a final total of £8.6 billion. Confirmation of this funding is expected in the forthcoming UK Supplementary Estimate. However, we would like to clarify that this funding allocation received by the Scottish Government was not specifically for the purposes of supporting small businesses alone.
2) Since the start of the pandemic, Scottish Government support for business and the economy totals more than £3 billion, more than a third of total COVID-19 funding from where, from UK Government?
The Scottish Government does not hold or catalogue the total funding allocated to small businesses specifically. Instead, the funding is brigaded under specific funds designed to meet the needs of sectoral or industry specific businesses in order to tailor our support as best fits the challenges that Scottish businesses are facing at this difficult time.
The exact figure for funding given to small businesses for Covid-19 support is not currently held by the Scottish Government.
The Scottish Government publishes statistics on grant funding provided to businesses via our website. Details on how much money has been distributed through various Covid-19 business support funding schemes are updated regularly and can be found on the Scottish Government website at Publications - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).
For the purposes of your request response I have included hard copies of the most up to date statistics detailing how funds have been distributed through grant funding schemes and how much has been allocated through local authorities. This data does not detail the support allocated directly to small business alone. If this format does not meet your needs, please let me know and I will endeavour to source a more helpful format.
Meanwhile the following summary table of the current level of funding to businesses in Scotland from the Scottish Government may be helpful:
for publication purposes, please see Annex (a) attached
About FOI
The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.
Contact
Please quote the FOI reference
Central Enquiry Unit
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000
The Scottish Government
St Andrews House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG
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