State Aid De Minimis Guidance Notes

Some of the assistance and support we offer to small businesses on or via this website and our associated programmes is State aid. State Aid is financial support that is provided by the State to business organisations.

State Aid rules exist to avoid public funded interventions distorting competition within the European Union. Generally State Aid is prohibited and unlawful. However there are number of exemptions, which if they apply, render the State Aid lawful and permitted.

Any de minimis aid given to you by us will be relevant if you wish to apply, or have applied, for any other de minimis aid from other bodies. For the purposes of the Regulation, you must keep a written record of any award for 3 years from the date you receive it and produce it on any request by the UK public authorities or the European Commission.

Under the Regulation the total de minimis aid granted to any one undertaking shall not exceed EUR 200 000 over any period of three fiscal years. In this context an undertaking is defined to be all companies in a group which fall under the direct or indirect ownership or control of the same ultimate parent company. The limit of EUR 200 000 applies in aggregate across all companies in the group and individual companies do NOT have their own EUR 200 000 threshold allocation.

Before we are able to confirm mentoring you must declare any support received in the last three years. We reserve the right to refuse you access if you are unable or unwilling to provide this declaration.

You should have been made aware by the other bodies if their funds have been supplied under the De Minimis Regulation, but it remains your responsibility to confirm this if you are not sure.

In certain cases you will have been sent a letter if you have received over the De Minimis total amount.