Spend Local card: Equality Commission to investigate £100 voucher scheme

The scheme was set up to encourage consumer spending and help businesses badly affected by the Covid pandemic

Northern Ireland's High Street Voucher Scheme is to be investigated over a complaint that under-18s were excluded.

The Equality Commission investigation will look at whether the Department for the Economy failed to comply with its approved equality scheme.

The complaint, from someone under-18, is being assisted by the Children's Law Centre (CLC).

A spokesperson for the department has said it had carried out an equality impact assessment.

The assessment, which was published online on 10 September, stated that "the impact regarding age is judged to be minor".

A department spokesperson said that "given the tight timeframe in which to deliver the scheme", from an "affordability, operational and legal perspective, there is a strong rationale for restricting eligibility" for the scheme to adults aged over-18.

"The Department complied fully with regard to its commitments set out in its Equality Scheme," they said.

The scheme was set up to encourage consumer spending and help businesses badly affected by the Covid pandemic.

It had been due to close at the end of November but the deadline was extended until Sunday amid problems with delivering cards..

More than 1.4 million people applied and last week Stormont said 10,000 cards were yet to be delivered.

'Department failed to do equality screening'

Policy officer at the Children's Law Centre, Claire Kemp, said the department "failed to carry out an equality screening exercise" until the young person complained, despite the scheme being announced in February 2021.

She said the screening document provided to the young person was completed, signed off and published on the same day as the response to their complaint on 10 September.

"This was not the earliest opportunity as is required, it was an afterthought," she said.

"Decision makers have a duty to ensure the decisions they make do not adversely impact or discriminate against sections of the population.

"This includes children and young people. To ensure they avoid making decisions that discriminate they have to carry out an equality screening exercise at the earliest opportunity.

"In this case it was clear the Department for the Economy failed to do that.

"What chance do children and young people have against discrimination if executive departments fail to uphold even their own equality duties?"

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The department's assessment stated that there were regulatory and financial concerns around issuing cards to minors, child-specific data protection issues and verification problems as no datasets currently exist which could be used to confirm the identity of 16 and 17-year-olds.

The scheme was set up to encourage consumer spending and help businesses badly affected by the Covid pandemic.

It had been due to close at the end of November but the deadline was extended amid problems with delivering cards.

More than 1.4 million people applied and last week Stormont said 10,000 cards were yet to be delivered.