To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many banks (a) received information on and (b) are operating the Working Capital Guarantee Scheme; how much capital has been loaned to businesses under the scheme to date; and how many businesses have received financial assistance under the scheme. (275879)

[holding answer 15 May 2009]: The Department sent a mini prospectus to the British Banking Association who circulated it to its members. The Working Capital Scheme is not directly available to businesses; however, £2 billion of guarantees have been provided to banks under the scheme to free up regulatory capital for new lending to UK companies. As a result of action by the Government and the regulatory authorities leading to improvements in the capital position of the UK banking system since the introduction of the WCS, the Government have been able to allocate resource provision for the WCS to other measures to support businesses, including as announced at the Budget 2009 a trade credit insurance ‘top-up’ scheme and a possible new letters of credit scheme in the Export Credit Guarantee Department.