To ask the Minister for the Economy to detail (i) whether the 705 businesses contacted to make an application to the Wet Pubs Business Support Scheme represents an exhaustive list of those that were considered eligible; (ii) the criteria used to create this list; (iii) how many of the 565 applications for the scheme were successful; (iv) the reasons why the unsuccessful applicants were deemed ineligible; and (v) what other efforts were made to encourage wet pubs to apply for the scheme.

In order to qualify for the Wet Pubs Business Support Scheme (WPBSS) a business must first had to have been in receipt of Localised Restrictions Support Scheme (LRSS). My Department has a Data Sharing Agreement in place with Land & Property Services and the verification team were provided with all properties who identified as a wet pub and were successful in their LRSS application. Departmental officials also conducted an investigation of LRSS data to identify any potential applicants who may have indicated that they were in a different sector.

The criteria for eligibility, after it had been established that a business was in receipt of LRSS, was that the business must have been actively trading before they were forced to close due to the COVID-19 regulations and the business had to have been closed for at least one full week during the eligible period, 4 July to 22 September 2020. Once the verification team were satisfied that a business had met this criteria they were included in the list of businesses who were invited to apply.

To date my Department has received 577 valid applications with 412 payments made. There are various reasons why an application would be deemed ineligible and to date for this scheme there have been the following:

•Ceased trading,

•Unwilling to provide supporting evidence,

•Unable to provide completed supplementary information form and supporting evidence,

•Applicant believed they are ineligible,

•Continued to trade / beer garden/ restaurant,

•Did not provide bank statements,

•Do not permit entry to non-members,

•Does not wish to receive support for period in question,

•Failed to provide sufficient evidence,

•No longer leaseholder,

•No response,

•No wish to proceed/ application withdrawn,

•Not eligible for LRSS,

•Not trading prior to lockdown,

•Rejected as closure period was under previous owner,

•Unable to provide evidence of trading pre-covid.

Whilst this scheme was an invite only application process, the industry were made aware of the WPBSS through the announcement I made on 18 December 2020 which received extensive media coverage. In addition, my officials engaged with sector representatives from Hospitality Ulster to raise awareness of the scheme amongst their membership. Details of the scheme were also published on the NI Business Information website with contact details provided for any enquiries.