£430 million of additional funding from the UK Reserve will be
made available to the governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland to progress their vaccine rollout and wider Covid-19
response.
While the devolved administrations are well-funded to continue
their response to Covid-19, and have their own reserves and
contingency funds, any additional in-year Barnett funding will
not be confirmed until early 2022 through the Supplementary
Estimates process. HM Treasury has therefore announced that
additional funding will be made available to the devolved
administrations to provide greater certainty and allow them to
plan as they tackle Covid-19 during the crucial weeks ahead.
The amounts being provided to each government are:
- Scottish Government - £220 million
- Welsh Government - £135 million
- Northern Ireland Executive - £75 million
These amounts will be kept under review in the coming weeks.
These are confirmed additional amounts on top of the funding set
out at the Autumn Budget 2021, relating to health pressures and
the Covid-19 Additional Relief Funding. It means that the
devolved administrations have the certainty they requested to
spend additional funding now rather than waiting for
Supplementary Estimates in the new year.
The UK Government has already provided the devolved
administrations with an extra £12.6 billion through the Barnett
formula this year – this includes £1.3 billion confirmed at the
recent Autumn Budget, which took their total funding this year to
£77.6 billion.
This is on top of UK Government spending on vaccines and tests
for the whole of the UK and UK-wide support for businesses and
jobs.
Chancellor said:
Throughout this pandemic, the United Kingdom has stood together
as one family, and we will continue to do so.
We are working with the governments in Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland to drive the vaccine rollout to all corners of
the United Kingdom and ensure people and businesses all across
the country are supported.
If the amount of funding provided up front to each devolved
administration is more than the Barnett consequentials confirmed
at Supplementary Estimates then the difference will be repaid in
2022-23, or over the Spending Review period if necessary.
If the Barnett consequentials are higher than the amount provided
up front then the devolved administrations will keep the extra
funding.
Further information:
-
Any changes to departments’ funding are confirmed at the end
of the financial year through the Supplementary Estimates
process. This process usually concludes in January/February
before being voted on in Parliament. At this point the UK
Government also confirms any changes to the devolved
administrations’ funding.
-
The UK Government and devolved administration ministers and
officials continue to work closely together, including
regular COBR meetings chaired by the Secretary of State for
Levelling Up. The additional funding being confirmed today
was discussed in advance by officials and at COBR.
