To ask the Minister for the Economy (i) to detail the mechanism by which the £200 High Street Voucher Scheme will be distributed to households; (ii) which businesses will the voucher be able to be used in; and (iii) how the term household will be determined.

The Department for the Economy has been provided with a financial allocation for a Northern Ireland wide High Street Stimulus scheme and has a clear policy objective for this funding.

The scheme is not being designed for households. Rather, it will provide individual citizens with a prepaid card to be spent at ‘bricks and mortar’ businesses including retail, restaurants and hotels before the end of March 2021. It will not be available for online sales.

The delivery of the scheme will inject £95m into our local economy. The multiplier effect of this innovative financial support offering – from people spending more than the value of the card and the ripple effects from purchases – will deliver even greater economic benefits and make a significant step to kick-starting our recovery.

In developing the specifics of the Northern Ireland High Street Stimulus scheme, the Department will implement learnings from Jersey, Malta and other jurisdictions that have rolled out similar initiatives. This will include considerations such as the card value per individual, and how the card will operate in practice.

It is anticipated that the scheme will to ‘go live’ in early 2021 and its implementation will take into account all public health guidance.