Department for Business and Trade
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much his Department spent on first class flights in each year since its creation.
Justin Madders:
Since its creation on 7 February 2023 and up until 31 March 2024, the Department for Business and Trade has incurred no first-class air travel expenditure as it is not permitted under the travel policy.
Question: How many positions in his Department included (a) diversity, (b) inclusion, (c) equity and (d) equality in their job title in each of the last five years; and what the total cost of the salaries of each such job was in each of those years.
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) does not routinely collate information on specific words and collating this information would come at a disproportionate cost.
Information on spending and staffing can be found in the Department’s annual report and accounts.
Question: What the cost to the public purse was of the Bounce Back Loans scheme; what proportion of the loans have been (a) returned and (b) written off; and whether all data related to the scheme has been recorded in OSCAR II.
Businesses have drawn a total of £46.59 billion under the Bounce Back Loan Scheme. 12.97% of facilities by volume have been repaid and 59.44% of facilities by volume are on schedule. 19.77% of facilities by volume have been settled under the Government guarantee. The Department publishes performance data on the COVID-19 loan guarantee schemes on a quarterly basis.
The final year-end outturn is recorded in OSCAR II for years 22-23 and prior. The 23-24 data is still pending final updates based on the finalisation of DBT’s accounts for 23-24.