The First Minister and deputy First Minister, acting jointly, made a determination on 3rd November 2020 that exceptional circumstances existed for licensed bus operators, including financial hardship arising from the loss of business, as a consequence of the outbreak of Coronavirus.
Accordingly, the Bus Operator (Coronavirus, Financial Assistance) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020 (S.R. 2020 No. 282) provided for the setting up of a Scheme, “the Bus Operator Financial Assistance Scheme 2020” (“the 2020 Scheme”), under which the Department for Infrastructure made financial assistance payments to eligible licensed bus operators towards directly incurred overhead costs and expenses. This initial Scheme covered the 1st April 2020 to 30th September 2020 period.
On 23rd February 2021, the First Minister and deputy First Minister, acting jointly, made a further determination recognising that exceptional circumstances continue to exist for licensed bus and coach operators, including financial hardship arising from the loss of business, as a consequence of the outbreak of Coronavirus.
These Regulations therefore provide for the setting up of a further Scheme “the Bus Operator Financial Assistance Scheme 2021” under which the Department for Infrastructure may make financial assistance payments to eligible licensed bus operators who have suffered because of the exceptional circumstances identified over the 1st October 2020 to 31st March 2021 period. The eligibility criteria and the basis of the Scheme remains the same as before, i.e. to provide financial assistance in relation to directly incurred overhead costs and expenses. However the maximum amount payable cap of £100,000 that applied to the 2020 Scheme has been removed. In addition, any person whose 2020 Scheme payment was restricted by that £100,000 cap, may, under this Scheme, receive a supplementary payment which will be the amount in excess of £100,000 that would otherwise have been paid had their 2020 Scheme payment not been restricted by that cap.
The Schedule to these Regulations sets out the detail of the Bus Operator Financial Assistance Scheme 2021.
The Scheme—
specifies the manner in which applications are to be made (paragraph 4);
specifies the eligibility criteria and the payment amount (paragraphs 5 and 6);
provides for the Department to approve or reject applications, make payments of financial assistance and advise applicants of its decision regarding payment (paragraph 7);
provides for the payment of a supplementary financial assistance amount to those whose payments were capped under the 2020 Scheme by the £100,000 maximum applied (paragraph 8);
provides for the recovery by the Department of any amounts paid in excess of entitlement under the Scheme (paragraph 9);
provides for a review of the decisions made by the Department (paragraphs 10 and 11); and
provides for the request of information from other public bodies for use in determining eligibility and for the sharing of information in relation to eligibility with other public bodies (paragraph 12).
An Explanatory Memorandum has been produced and is available from the Safe and Accessible Travel Division, Department for Infrastructure, Clarence Court, 10-18 Adelaide Street, Town Parks, Belfast, BT2 8GB or online alongside these Regulations at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr.