To ask the Minister of Finance how (i) 480 businesses were required to repay grants received under the Localised Restrictions Support Scheme; and (ii) some of those businesses were then advised that they did not have to repay their grants.

(i) Land & Property Services was tasked with administering the Localised Restrictions Support Scheme (LRSS) at pace. Payments under LRSS are linked to the restrictions imposed by the Health Protection Regulations. These Regulations have changed many times making the Scheme complex to administer. The changes have resulted in 30 different payment amounts being payable to businesses for the period up to 14 April 2021. In the circumstances that the scheme was established and administered, it was accepted that there was a risk that payments may be made in error.

Therefore, Land & Property Services has been regularly reviewing all approved applications to ensure the scheme is being administered in line with the associated regulations and to identify instances where incorrect payments may have been made, including payments made outside of the scope of the regulations. This kind of ‘post event assurance checking’ is encouraged by the Northern Ireland Audit Office in Covid funding schemes and it was always intended that we would do this.

The review of payments has identified the following reasons for overpayment:

Business Type not eligible

Business Type eligible for a limited period during restrictions only, but paid for a longer period

Business not occupying a commercial premises

Business not open and trading when restrictions began

Business ceased trading during period of restrictions

Accommodation business not Tourism NI approved

For context, the amount involved in these cases is £4.26 million, which is less than 1.6% of all payments made under the scheme to date.

(ii) The review was conducted using information held by Land & Property Services or freely available online. Businesses have the opportunity to appeal the decision regarding their eligibility and provide further evidence to support their appeal. If further information is supplied, the case will be reconsidered. On appeal, it may be determined that no overpayment has been made and the applicant will be advised of this.

I have written to the Finance Committee and the Permanent Secretary has written to the Public Accounts Committee and the Comptroller and Auditor General to advise them of this process.