Policy paper

Overview of the subsidy control transparency obligations

Published 30 June 2021

This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government

Transparency of subsidies awarded in the UK is a key tool for the UK’s subsidy control regime. Subsidy transparency enables the public to see what is being spent and for what purpose. It will also enable businesses, and other interested parties, to see details of subsidies that may affect them. In addition, the recording of subsidies will provide data which can be used to improve both individual subsidy design as well as the domestic regime as a whole.

The Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has developed a subsidy transparency database where subsidies can be uploaded and viewed.

Why should subsidies be uploaded?

It is in the public interest to be able to see which subsidies are being granted and to which beneficiaries. Public scrutiny of subsidies should lead to better subsidy design.

Subsidy transparency is central to the UK’s new subsidy control regime, facilitating the access by competitors, other authorities and the general public to relevant subsidy details. If an interested party, such as a competitor to the business receiving the subsidy, thinks it might be negatively affected by the subsidy, it may choose to challenge it by pursuing a judicial review in the Competition Appeal Tribunal.

This challenge needs to be made within 1 month of the subsidy being placed on the database (although this can be extended in response to a pre-action information request or a Secretary of State post-award referral to the Subsidy Advice Unit). In some limited circumstances, the judicial review can result in a court order for the recovery of the subsidy by the public authority.

The Bill’s transparency requirements also allow us to meet our international commitments, including those made at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and in various free trade agreements (FTAs) such as the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA).

Which subsidies need to be uploaded?

Subsidies can be awarded both as individual subsidies or as part of a subsidy scheme.

Individual subsidies need to be uploaded to the database within 6 months of granting (or 12 months in the case of a tax measure).

Certain subsidy awards will not need to be uploaded. This includes:

• any subsidies under the ‘minimal financial assistance’ exemption – currently set at £315,000 over 3 years
• subsidies of less than £14.5 million which are for Services of Public Economic Interest (SPEI)

Every subsidy scheme, under which multiple subsidy awards can be made, must also be uploaded to the database.

A subsidy award made as part of a scheme only needs to be uploaded if it is at least £500,000. This is because the scheme will already provide some information about the subsidies granted under that scheme, warranting a higher transparency threshold. This includes ‘streamlined routes’, which are created by the UK government for subsidies which carry low risk of distorting competition.

What sort of information should be uploaded?

Public authorities will be obliged to upload information including the legal basis, policy objective, the name of the enterprise to which a subsidy is given as well as the amount. The government will keep the subsidy information requirements under review.

Where information is required to be uploaded but cannot be put on the database (because it is too complex or requires a longer explanation) a public authority may put this information on a publicly accessible website with a link on the database. It is important that the information provided is sufficient for interested parties to see whether they will be affected by the subsidy.