Written question asked by Stewart Hosie (Scottish National Party) on Wednesday, 10 June 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 12 June 2009. It was answered by Lord Brennan of Canton (Labour) on Wednesday, 16 September 2009 on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme

Question: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many applications have been made to the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme; and how many of these have met the eligibility criteria.

Answer: As of 12 August, of the over 6,600 cases which have been logged on the Enterprise Finance Guarantee web portal, more than 6,000 firms have been granted, being processed, or assessed, over £680 million. So far, over 4,500 businesses have been offered loans totalling over £450 million.Businesses may apply for a loan from one of the participating lenders who will assess which form of lending, including the Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG), is most appropriate. EFG is open to small and medium enterprises with a turnover of less than £25 million and is designed to operate at the margins of banks' normal lending activity to SMEs, allowing lenders to provide additional loans to viable companies that are at the margins of commercial lending, because they have insufficient security or their proposal involves a higher risk of loss at default.We do not hold figures for those businesses which are instead offered a normal commercial loan, or are rejected for failing to meet the lender's commercial criteria.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 496 c2199W; 280004
Session: 2008-09
Related items: Written Questions: Government Responses
Monday, 12 October 2009
Written questions
House of Commons
Subjects: Business Government assistance Enterprise finance guarantee scheme
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk