To ask the Minister of Finance (i) for an update on progress in bringing forward required regulations for his Department to pay out recently announced one-off grants for businesses totalling £178m, to assist with Covid-19 challenges; and (ii) when these payments are expected to be made.

Three Regulations to provide the legal authority for the £178 million in new business support grants which I announced on 15 March 2021, were made on 30 March and came into operation on 31 March 2021.

The schemes and payment timeframes Land and Property Services (LPS) is working towards are:

The application portal for the £50,000 grant scheme for businesses in large NAV properties, as provided for in The Financial Assistance (Coronavirus) (Large Business) Regulations (NI) 2021, will open on 21 April and will remain open for 2 weeks;

Payments for the £25,000 grant scheme to mid-sized manufacturing businesses that did not receive funding in the first lockdown, as provided for in The Financial Assistance (Coronavirus) (Industrial Business) Regulations (NI) 2021 provide, will commence to be paid automatically from the end of April; and

Top-up payments to businesses that received the £10,000 and £25,000 grants in the first lockdown but have not received support in the second lockdown, as provided for in The Financial Assistance (Coronavirus) (Business Support) Regulations (NI) 2021, will commence to be paid automatically from the mid May.

I anticipate that the majority of payments from all three grant schemes will be processed by the end of May.