To ask the Minister for Communities (i) why some arts organisations have been asked to repay Stability and Renewal funding; (ii) who made the decision to withdraw the funding after grant offers had been confirmed; and (iii) whether the repayment decisions were made on a case by case basis or applied to all in receipt of the funds.

(i) Only one organisation has been asked to repay a small amount of duplicate grant funding (£1888.50 against an award of £593,103) from Arts Council’s Stability and Renewal Programme for Organisations which formed part of DfC’s Covid-19 Culture, Languages, Arts and Heritage Support Programme 2020/2021.

(ii) In consultation with other Executive Departments, and in line with best practice to deliver value for money for public funds, it was decided that DoF’s Localised Restrictions Support Scheme (LRSS) and DfE’s Wet Pubs Benefit Support Scheme (WPBSS) constitute double funding with Covid-19 support provided by this Department to organisations to stabilise their financial position

In their letter of offer, organisations were advised that where grant funding had been overpaid, repayment would be requested by the delivery partner.

(iii) Many applicants were unsure about the amount of other Executive support provided and a data matching exercise was undertaken by my Department to identify potential funding duplication. Pending the outcome, Arts Council made an initial payment of 50% of assessed need. I am happy to report that following the completion of this process, for the majority of applicants, no adjustments were necessary to the original assess grant award.

Every organisation received the full amount as assessed by ACNI or other DfC delivery bodies to meet their financial stability needs, albeit in some cases funding was provided by more than one Executive scheme.