To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that tour operators in the travel sector can access Restart Grant funding.

The Restart Grants announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 3 March 2021 are one-off grants to businesses in the non-essential retail, hospitality, leisure, personal care and accommodation sectors, to support businesses to reopen as Covid-19 restrictions are relaxed. Non-essential retail businesses, such as travel agencies, are able to receive Restart Grants of up to £6,000.

All support is available through Local Authorities in England, as they administer all grant funding and take decisions on eligibility and the value of grant to be paid. The Government is working closely with Local Authorities to ensure that funding can get to the right places as quickly as practicable.

The main service principle will ultimately determine which threshold of Restart funding a business receives; this is based on what constitutes fifty per cent or more of the activity of the business in question. Businesses will need to declare their main service.

Local Authorities will need to exercise their reasonable judgement to determine whether or not a business is eligible for a grant, and under which funding threshold, and be satisfied that they have taken reasonable and practicable steps to pay eligible businesses, and to pay them the correct amount.

Further guidance can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-restrictions-support-grants-lrsg-and-additional-restrictions-grant-arg-guidance-for-local-authorities.