Minister 'surprised' at Jersey coronavirus spending

Jersey spent £190m fighting coronavirus

The treasury minister said she was surprised at Jersey spending £190m on fighting coronavirus in the last year.

Deputy Susie Pinel told the BBC she expected the figure to be higher.

"It was encouraging to see that it had been directed in the right way and not quite as demanding as we thought it was going to be," she said.

The minister warned, however, that it would take "a long time" to pay the money back.

She said the vaccination and test and tracing programmes, as well as the opening of the hospitality industry shows tax payers money has been well spent.

According to the Government of Jersey it spent:

• £97.9m on the Co-Funded Payroll scheme

• £16.2 million on Phase 2 of the Test and Trace programme

• £11.6 million on the Spend Local Card scheme and increased Income Support payments

• £9.6 million on the Nightingale Wing

• £6.5million on additional benefits costs, including £6m on Income Support

• £5.1 million on redeploying GPs to assist with the response to Covid-19

• £1.9 million to open schools for children of critical workers and for vulnerable children, supporting nurseries, and developing IT systems to support learning at home

• £1.9 million on Contact Tracing, including staff, software, and other non-staff costs

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