Restaurants serving African/Caribbean cuisines in London before March 2020

Release date:
7 May 2024

FOI reference: FOI-2024-1941

You asked

I would like to make a Freedom Of Information Request.

Could I please have an answer for the following; 

  1. How many restaurants serving African and/or Caribbean cuisines were there in the London before March 2020 specifically (Covid-19 Pandemic Lockdown), and how many closed down by March 2021 due to financial issues as a result of the pandemic? 

  2. How many restaurants serving Traditional British cuisine were there in London before March 23rd 2020 specifically (Covid-19 Pandemic Lockdown), and how many closed down by March 2021 due to financial issues as a result of the pandemic?

  3. How many restaurants serving Traditional British cuisine in London were granted financial support from local councils/local government MPs between March 23rd 2020 and March 23rd 2021?

  4. How many restaurants serving African and/or Caribbean cuisines in London were granted financial support from local councils/local government MPs between March 23rd 2020 and March 23rd 2021?

  5. What was the amount of money granted to restaurants in London that serve Traditional British cuisine from local councils/local government MPs, as a form of financial aid, between March 23rd 2020 and March 23rd 2021?

  6. What was the amount of money granted to restaurants in London that serve African and/or Caribbean cuisines from local councils/local government MPs, as a form of financial aid, between March 23rd 2020 and March 23rd 2021?

We said

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request. You asked six questions about restaurants based in London which serve different types of cuisine. 

Unfortunately, it is not possible for us to answer the questions numbered 3) to 6) since ONS does not hold information on financial help offered to businesses as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

ONS would usually answer the questions numbered 1) and 2) using the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR), the business register ONS uses as a sampling frame from which to conduct its business surveys.   

However, it is not possible to distinguish from the IDBR the type of cuisine offered by restaurants for which information is held on IDBR. 

It is possible to find information on the number of restaurants in London from our UK Business publication. The best source for this information is found here: Nomis - Official Census and Labour Market Statistics (nomisweb.co.uk) 

You can find information on the number of business closures, broken down by region and industry, here: Business demography, UK - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) 

It is not possible, from the information we hold, to determine the number of business closures which were directly caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

If you have any further queries about this data, our IDBR data service team can be contacted at idbrdas@ons.gov.uk.

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