Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what discussions he has had with Northern Ireland’s business community in areas of localised covid-19 lockdown on the provision of additional financial support to businesses and employees in those areas.

The UK Government remains committed to supporting businesses in Northern Ireland, and across the UK, as they continue to deal with the impact of Covid-19.

We continue to regularly engage with business representatives and businesses on a range of issues, including the response to Covid-19. We will continue to work closely with the Executive to support businesses, jobs and the economy in Northern Ireland.

The Government has provided some of the most generous support packages in the world to support the economy through the pandemic. This includes UK-wide measures such as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the Self-Employed Job Support Scheme and the Job Support Scheme. On 9 October, the Chancellor announced that the Job Support Scheme will be extended so that firms in areas affected by local restrictions will be able to pay staff up to two thirds of employee wages, to a maximum of £2,100 a month, should they legally be required to close. We will continue to support businesses in Northern Ireland and across the UK to build back better.

In addition to these measures, the Government has provided £2.4bn in additional funding to the Northern Ireland Executive as part of our response to Covid-19. This additional funding is being used by the Executive to help support businesses as they deal with the impact of this crisis.