Legislation – The Travel Agents (Coronavirus, Financial Assistance) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2021
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The First Minister and deputy First Minister, acting jointly, have made a determination that exceptional circumstances exist for travel agents, including financial hardship arising from the loss of business, as a consequence of the outbreak of coronavirus.
Accordingly, these Regulations provide for the setting up of a Scheme under which the Executive Office (‘TEO’) may make financial assistance payments to eligible travel agents who have suffered because of the exceptional circumstances identified.
The Schedule to these Regulations sets out the details of the Travel Agents (Coronavirus) Financial Assistance Scheme 2021. The Scheme—
defines some key terms including ‘travel agent’ and ‘eligible period’ (paragraph 2);
states the purpose of the Scheme (paragraph 3);
specifies the manner in which applications are to be made (paragraph 4);
specifies the eligibility criteria for travel agents, whether operating in commercial premises or from home (paragraph 5);
specifies the nature of the financial assistance – a payment of £10,000 for travel agents operating in commercial premises and £3,500 for those operating from home (paragraph 6(1) to (6));
requires TEO to inform applicants of its decision and to make payments to eligible persons (paragraph 6(7) and (8));
enables TEO to obtain information about applicants from other public bodies (paragraph 7);
provides for the recovery by TEO of any amounts paid in excess of entitlement under the Scheme (paragraph 8).
An Explanatory Memorandum has been produced and is available alongside these Regulations at http://www.legislation.gov.uk.