The Financial Assistance (Coronavirus: Hospitality) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022

Citation and interpretation N.I.

1.—(1) This Scheme may be cited as the Coronavirus Financial Assistance (Hospitality) Scheme 2022.

(2) In this Scheme:—

“capital value list” has the same meaning as in Article 2(2) of the Rates Order;

“Coronavirus Financial Assistance” means financial assistance provided under this Scheme;

“the Department” means the Department of Finance;

“hereditament” has the same meaning as in Article 2(2) of the Rates Order;

“higher rate” means a single payment of £20,000;

“hospitality sector” means, for the purposes of this Scheme,

(a)

restaurants licensed under Article 5(1)(e) of the Licensing (Northern Ireland) Order 1996(1),

(b)

unlicensed restaurants, cafés, coffee shops, bistros and snack bars,

(c)

public houses licensed under Article 5(1)(a) of the Licensing (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, F1 ...

(d)

social clubs and private members clubs (but not sporting clubhouses) [F2 , and]

(e)

[F3 hotels, that is to say the premises of any establishment allocated a certificate under Article 13 of the Tourism (Northern Ireland) Order 1992]

“the Insolvency Order” means the Insolvency (Northern Ireland) Order 1989(2);

“lower rate” means a single payment of £10,000;

“Minister of the Crown” has the same meaning as in the Ministers of the Crown Act 1975(3);

“net annual value” has the same meaning as in Article 2(2) of the Rates Order;

“occupier” means a person who carries on a relevant business in a restricted hereditament where–

(a)

the relevant business is separate and distinct from any activity carried on by any other occupier of the restricted hereditament;

(b)

they are not the employee or agent of any other occupier of the restricted hereditament;

(c)

their occupation of the whole or a part of the restricted hereditament to conduct their relevant business is exclusive of the activity of any other occupier during their business hours; and

(d)

their occupation is not transient;

“the Rates Order” means the Rates (Northern Ireland) Order 1977(4);

[F4 “relevant activity business” means a business carried on as an inflatable park, a soft play business (that is to say a business wholly or mainly used for the purposes of the provision of soft play facilities) or a trampoline park, that operates a café facility as part of that business and that—

(a)

has previously received support under the schemes provided by the Financial Assistance (Coronavirus) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020(2) or The Financial Assistance (Coronavirus) (No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020(3); or

(b)

would have been eligible for support under the schemes referred to in sub-paragraph (a) had an application been made to those schemes on the basis of the circumstances pertaining to that business as at 20th December 2021;]

“relevant business” means a business carried on in the hospitality sector that–

(a)

has previously received support under the schemes provided by the Financial Assistance (Coronavirus) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020(5) or The Financial Assistance (Coronavirus) (No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020(6); or

(b)

would have been eligible for support under the schemes referred to in sub-paragraph (a) had an application been made to those schemes on the basis of the circumstances pertaining to that business as at 20th December 2021;

[F5 “relevant sports club facility” means a bar or restaurant which is—

(a)

wholly occupied by a sports club which has received less than £50,000 from the Sports Sustainability Fund as delivered by Sport Northern Ireland on behalf of the Department for Communities, and

(b)

licensed under Article 5(1)(a) or (e) of the Licensing (Northern Ireland) Order 1996;]

“restricted hereditament” means a hereditament within which an occupier carries on a relevant business;

“standard rate” means a single payment of £15,000;

“statutory undertaker” means persons authorised by any statutory provision to carry on any railway, road transport, water transport, inland navigation or dock undertaking, or a gas undertaker, an electricity undertaker, a water undertaker or a sewerage undertaker or the airport operator (within the meaning of the Airports (Northern Ireland) Order 1994(7)) of any airport to which Article 25 of that Order applies.

Textual Amendments

F1 Word in Sch. para. 1(2)(c) omitted (9.2.2022) by virtue of The Financial Assistance (Coronavirus: Hospitality) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022 (S.R. 2022/29), regs. 1, 2(a)(i)

F2 Word in Sch. para. 1(2)(d) substituted (9.2.2022) by The Financial Assistance (Coronavirus: Hospitality) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022 (S.R. 2022/29), regs. 1, 2(a)(ii)

F3 Sch. 1(2)(e) added (9.2.2022) by The Financial Assistance (Coronavirus: Hospitality) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022 (S.R. 2022/29), regs. 1, 2(a)(iii)

F4 Words in Sch. para. 1(2) added (9.2.2022) by The Financial Assistance (Coronavirus: Hospitality) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022 (S.R. 2022/29), regs. 1, 2(b)

F5 Words in Sch. para. 1(2) added (9.2.2022) by The Financial Assistance (Coronavirus: Hospitality) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2022 (S.R. 2022/29), regs. 1, 2(c)

Commencement Information

I1 Sch. para. 1 in operation at 17.1.2022, see reg. 1

(1)

S.I. 1996/3158 (N.I. 22)

(2)

S.I. 1989/2405 (N.I. 19)

(3)

1975 c. 26.

(4)

S.I. 1977//2157 (N.I. 28)

(5)

S.R. 2020 No. 221

(6)

S.R. 2020 No. 230 as amended by S.R. 2020 No. 262, S.R. 2020 No. 262, S.R. 2020 No. 354, and S.R. 2021 No. 94

(7)

S.I. 1994/426 (N.I.1)