COVID-19 business support grants: FOI release

Information requested

Information regarding how much of total grant funding was allocated to business owners in Scotland. You also asked for information on how much funding was received into Scotland, how much was allocated, used and what happens to monies not used. We have summarised upfront the funding received by business owners and then taken each area in turn.

Response

The information provided below is in relation to Covid-19 business support grants that have been issued to business recipients in Scotland.

Summary: Grant funding allocated to business owners in Scotland:
Since the start of the pandemic, businesses have benefitted from more than £4.4bn in financial support from the Scottish Government. This is more than the funding we received from the UK Government for that purpose. In addition to that £375m of funds as a support package for businesses impacted by the necessary measures introduced to control the spread of Omicron has also been allocated in financial year 2021/22.

Funding to business has been guided by a number of financial reporting stages such as Autumn and Spring Budget Revisions and account reporting needs as the pandemic has progressed. A summary of Coronavirus (COVID-19) Scottish business support funding is available at:
Coronavirus (COVID-19): summary of Scottish business support funding - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

1. How much was received into Scotland and what was allocated:
In total, to date, the Scottish Government has received confirmation of £14.6 billion in Barnett consequentials from the UK Government in respect of the Covid 19 response; £9.7 billion in 2020-21 and a further £4.9 billion in 2021-22 for a co-ordinated approach supporting all parts of society – not just business.

£1.1 billion of the consequentials received in 2020-21 were allocated very late in the financial year and were therefore carried forward to 2021-22, so the profile allocated by the Scottish Government is slightly different at £8.6 billion for 2020-21 and £6.0 billion for 2021-22. So far, the Scottish Government has deployed the £14.6 billion plus funds from central reserves and other sources of funding to support the Covid response in Scotland. In total this has resulted in almost £14.9 billion in additional funding being deployed. The following table provides details of the amounts received into Scotland and deployed/allocated.

UK Government COVID Allocations to SG (£m)	Resource	Capital and FTs	Total
2020-21 Allocated by UK Gov	8,600		8,600
2020-21 Allocated by UK Gov at Supps	874	278	1,152
2021-22 Allocated by UK Gov- SR20	1,328		1,328
2021-22 Allocated by UK Gov- Budget	1,206		1,206
2021-22 Allocated by UK Gov- Main Estimate	1,000		1,000
2021-22 Allocated by UK Gov- UKSR	516		516
2021-22 Allocated by UK Gove- Estimated Supplementary Estimate	707	55	762
Total	14,231	333	14,564

*Includes BCT on test and tract which UK Gov did not classify as Covid.

Deployment of funds to support COVID response by Scottish Government (£m)	Resource	Capital and FTs	Total
2020-21 Budget Revisions	8,677	11	8,688
2021-22 Scottish Budget Bill as Amended	3,593	278	3,871
2021-22 Autumn Budget Revision	1,050		1,050
2021-22 Spring Budget Revision	1,162	84	1,246
Total	14,482	373	14,855

Details about funding allocations to business

The Scottish Government set out its response to the pandemic for 2020-21 at three points during the year as details emerged from the UK government about the Covid-19 funding being allocated to Scotland.

Firstly, the Summer Budget Revision was exceptionally introduced last year, on 27 May 2021, to provide the Scottish Parliament with the opportunity to scrutinise the spending decisions made by Scottish Ministers to that point in time. Full details of the allocations are included in the supporting document which can be viewed at:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/2020-21-summer-budget-revision/.

It included the allocation of just over £4 billion in funding for the Covid response:-

• This total included a comprehensive £2.3 billion package of support for business, a £620 million boost for health services and £350 million funds for communities.
• The spending was largely funded by a rise in the block grant of more than £3.5 billion resulting from extra UK Government Covid-19 spending, and £112 million of non-Covid related funding received following the UK Budget of March 2020.
• A further £255 million was reprioritised from within existing departmental budgets, including where Covid-19 has had an unavoidable impact on planned spending.

The Autumn Budget Revision was published on 24 September 2021 and is available at:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/2020-21-autumn-budget-revision/.

This revision allocated a further £2.5 billion to Covid related measures in Scotland including those to business owners:-

• The budget revision allocated capital expenditure for the economic recovery stimulus package announced by the Cabinet Secretary of Finance in June.
• £222 million of additional resource funding was allocated to support our bus, rail and local transport operators.
• £190 million in additional support was provided for business and the arts.
• £119 million was added to the Education and Skills budget as part of the Education Recovery package and also ensured free school meals were continued over the course of the Summer Holidays.
• An additional £1.8 billion in funding was allocated to Health and Social Care. This is on top of the £620 million additional Health funding which was allocated at Summer Budget Revision, meaning over £2.4 billion of financial support has been provided to the NHS to support its ongoing Covid- 19 support.
• This was funded through a further £2.4 billion of Barnett consequentials from the UK Government, £142 million of reprioritisation of existing expenditure, and £30m of Scotland Reserve drawdowns.

Finally, the remainder of the £8.6 billion received for 2020-21 was allocated in the Spring Budget Revision (SBR), published on 25 February 2021 and available:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/2020-21-spring-budget-revision/.

This revision allocated a further £3.2 billion in Covid-19 and other funding changes:-

• £780 million was allocated to business support bringing total business support to over £3 billion in the financial year.
• A further £494m was allocated to Health and Sport.
• £270m of transport support was provided in this budget revision meaning £850m was provided in 2020-21 to support our rail and bus networks through the pandemic.
• Support for Education and skills reached £450m following the SBR.
• The SBR was funded through £2.6 billion of Barnett consequentials and £745 million of reprioritisation of existing expenditure.

All three of these budget revisions were approved by the Scottish Parliament following a full scrutiny process by the Finance and Constitution Committee. Final expenditure figures are published in the Scottish Government's consolidated accounts and can be found here: The Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts - year ended 31 March 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

A further £1.1 billion of Covid-19 funding was allocated to the Scottish Government in February 2021, but it was too late to be effectively deployed in the 2020-21 financial year. This was therefore carried forward to 2021-22, and was allocated as part of the Stage 2 and 3 amendments to the Budget Act for 2021-22 alongside further funding for 2021-22 allocated by the UK Government at the Budget in March.

This was approved by the Parliament on 9 March and details can be viewed at:
Scottish budget 2021 to 2022: amendments after introduction of the Budget (Scotland) (No.5) Bill - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

Prior to these amendments, the Scottish Government published details of its proposed spending plans, including the allocation of any Covid allocations, for 2021-22 in the Scottish Budget 2021-22 published on 29 January and available at:
Scottish Budget 2021 to 2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

The Autumn Budget Revision was published on 27 September and is available at Budget (Scotland) Act: Autumn Budget Revision 2021-2022 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

This revision allocated a further £1.1 billion in Covid-19 funding including :-

• an additional £834 million to Health and Social Care
• £104 million to support our bus, rail and local transport operators; and
• £71 million is provided for business and the arts.

The latest Spring Budget Revision was published on 3rd February 2022 and is available at Spring Budget Revision 2021-22 supporting document - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

This revision has allocated a further £1.4 billion in Covid-19 funding including :-

• £782 million is provided to Health and Social Care
• an additional £329 million to support businesses and tourism
• £131 million is provided for self-isolation support

A further report, named the Final Outturn Report for 2020 to 2021, was published on 23rd December 2021 and details the actual spend against the statutory limits as set by the Scottish Budget for 2020-21. This is available at Scottish Budget: final outturn report - year ended 31 March 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

The Final Outturn Report for 2021 to 2022 will be published later this year and will detail the actual spend for 2021-22 at this point.

2. What funding has been applied for/used and what happens to monies not used

What funding has been applied for and used
SG publishes a table that logs the total amount of support businesses have received since the start of the pandemic (Spring 2020) which has been used to help mitigate the economic impacts of the virus at this link: Coronavirus (COVID-19): summary of Scottish business support funding - gov.scot (www.gov.scot).

This document provides Scotland-wide management information on the funds delivered up to January 2022. The table covers the vast majority of funds and was compiled from existing publications of funds though it may not include a smaller number of unpublished schemes. The total reported here includes several types of funding. It includes direct grants paid to businesses, as well as a small number of loans. It also includes non-domestic rates (NDR) relief granted to businesses. Since the start of the pandemic, businesses have benefitted from more than £4.4bn in financial support from the Scottish Government. This is more than the funding we received from the UK Government for that purpose. In addition, a further £375 million was announced by the First Minister in December 2021 to support businesses impacted by the Omicron variant. This is also more funding than the UK Government provided for that purpose. This £375 million has now been allocated in full.

What happens to monies not used
Any underspends that have emerged from the £375 million have been repurposed to support the recently announced COVID Economic Recovery Fund which includes reusing some underspend emerging from other business support funds where demand was less than anticipated.
https://www.gov.scot/news/covid-economic-recovery-fund/.

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