To ask the Minister of Health to provide details on the COVID payment, given to Health and Social Care Trust employees who do overtime, including (i) which roles are eligible; (ii) how the COVID payment rate is calculated; and (iii) how much has been spent by his Department on the COVID payments.

The COVID Rapid Response Payment Scheme, which commenced in August 2021, is available to all staff on agenda for change terms and conditions.

This scheme operates within designated areas across each HSC Organisation when there is clear evidence of a negative impact on service delivery and staffing to sustain services as a result of COVID related issues.

When a rota is initially developed, ALL options must be explored to cover gaps in the rota in the following order:

•Overtime/ additional hours within contractual arrangements

•Corporate Bank (where applicable)

•Agencies listed within existing Framework

If the above options have been exhausted, and a shift remains unfilled, then the shift can be designated and requested as a COVID Rapid Response (CRR) shift.

The rates payable to staff are shown in the table below;

Up until the end of January 2022, £14M has been spent on the scheme.