To ask the Minister for the Economy to detail the amount of extra funding that would be required to provide lifeline financial assistance to those businesses, the self-employed and sole-traders who have so far been ineligible for any of the COVID-19 grants and support schemes.

My Department has delivered more than £390million of much needed financial support to businesses across all sectors and of all sizes since April 2020, and through a range of recent schemes, is delivering millions of pounds to thousands more.

In addition to the previous and ongoing UK Government initiatives, such as the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS), a number of the packages have been designed with a view to supporting self-employed business people and sole traders.

It is not possible to provide the information that the member has requested.