To ask the Minister for Communities (i) what steps she has taken to highlight the Help Musicians’ Coronavirus Financial Hardship Fund 2022 to local musicians and to encourage them to apply; and (ii) what considerations she has given to creating a similar, Executive-funded, hardship scheme.

I launched the £3million Creative Individuals Recovery Programme in September 2021. It provided awards of up to £2,000 to help creative freelance and self-employed individuals and this was open to musicians.

This followed on from nearly £8million in additional Covid support funding which I provided to 1,600 individual creative people, including musicians, in 2020/2021 through schemes run by Arts Council, the Heritage Fund, Sign Language Partnership and the University of Atypical.

I am pleased that other funders are providing additional support, which they should promote accordingly.