PS21129 - Evaluation of BEIS' LA Covid Business Support Grants RAF008/2122

**THIS IS NOT A CALL FOR COMPETITION**

This was made under Crown Commercial Services Research Marketplace Dynamic Purchasing System RM6018.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) was created in July 2016, to bring together responsibilities for business, industrial strategy, science, innovation, energy, and climate change. To find out more about our work visit the BEIS website at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-businessenergy-and-industrial-strategy

Due to the unprecedented nature of the COVID 19 pandemic, the associated lockdowns and the business support response, there is very little existing research in this area. Some pieces of research consider the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, but none examine business support (if any existed at the time).

Several other business support schemes were implemented around the same time as the business support grants and are undergoing evaluations. Most relevant to the Business Support Grants programme is the evaluation of the package of loans provided by the British Business Bank, including the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), Coronavirus Large Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) and Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS). The findings of this evaluation will be very relevant to the proposed evaluation set out herein. Moreover, HMRC's evaluations of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS), and the UKRI's evaluation of their support scheme for science and research sectors working on Covid-19 related projects will also likely be relevant to our own evaluation.

The evaluation will be used to understand how successful the COVID 19 business support measures were and how a similar scheme could be more effective in future. This might inform post-Covid business policy as well as the design and implementation of schemes of a similar nature in future. The evaluation will also inform BEIS' overarching Covid Monitoring and Evaluation framework and is expected to support both the Covid Public Inquiry and scrutiny by the National Audit Office.

The purpose of this evaluation is to understand: • How effectively the grants programme was implemented. • How effective grants were at supporting businesses during various stages of the pandemic. • What lessons can be learned from the design and implementation of this scheme to inform similar schemes in future.