The UK isn’t saying who got emergency loans, while the US battle over transparency grows

Politicians from London to Washington agree: small businesses need billions of dollars of government support if they’re going to survive the coronavirus pandemic. Britain refuses to name recipients, and how much they’re getting, while a fight over disclosure is under way across the Atlantic. “We recognise that there is a general public interest in the disclosure of information, as greater transparency makes Government more accountable,” the British Business Bank wrote in a letter to Quartz, in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request about the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) that it manages.