A £10 million fund to support seafood businesses during the coronavirus crisis has been closed to new applicants despite only passing on £5.6 million in grants.
Labour expressed concern that fish processors were missing out on financial support following the fund’s closure. But First Minister Nicola Sturgeon insisted that the remaining cash would go to businesses in need of support.
The fund was launched in April in response to the hardship being suffered by seafood firms, many of which are based in the north-east.
Labour finance spokeswoman Jackie Baillie claimed there was “the potential for companies to miss out on vital support”.
Ms Baillie said: “If the excess funds left after the closing of applications are not needed then the Scottish Government must deploy the funds elsewhere.
“It is of paramount importance that we support the world-renowned Scottish seafood industry through the choppy waters of this pandemic.”
But Jimmy Buchan, CEO of the Scottish Seafood Association, said people who had applied to the scheme had been successful. He added that if there were any companies still facing hardship there was still the opportunity for their case to be considered.
Mr Buchan said: “Everyone got their opportunity to put their application in. I presume most people have been successful, those who have applied, and I think the fund will now be opened up to other people in the food and drink sector. So it is not a case of the money being lost.
“I do genuinely feel those that were in peril applied very quickly. I have to say, the government acted very, very swiftly. If we continue to find companies in crisis we can go back and revisit on a case-by-case basis if someone was treated unfairly.”
We want to make sure that every penny we promised to the economy generally – to businesses generally and individual sectors – goes where it is intended.”
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon
Questioned about the fund at her daily coronavirus briefing, Ms Sturgeon said she did not believe firms were missing out.
“We will try in different ways to assess whether we have met demand, in which case we can recycle any other remaining monies into other forms of support. We want to make sure that every penny we promised to the economy generally – to businesses generally and individual sectors – goes where it is intended,” the first minister said.
“We have to manage different schemes, I’m not talking specifically about the seafood scheme, but generally we don’t want particular schemes that may have lower demand than we previously thought with underspends when that money could be supporting businesses and even businesses in the same sector.
“We have to manage these things as carefully as possible, but the intention is to get as much money into the hands of businesses as possible, so that we can support them as far as possible through this crisis.”