MPs on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee have called on the
Government to review how it calculates Northern Ireland’s funding
in a new report published today.
Alongside the deal that accompanied Stormont’s restoration in
February, the UK Government announced a new needs-based element
of funding for Northern Ireland. NI will receive 124% of any
equivalent increase in funding for England – so-called Barnett
consequentials - for the policy areas run out of Stormont,
including crisis-hit services like health, policing and
education. The Committee noted calls, however, for this
change to apply to NI’s overall block grant as of 2022, not just
periodic increases in it from April this year. MPs added that
under the Government’s plans, NI funding will only slowly rise to
a point below which it should never have been permitted to fall
in the first place.
It was “deeply regrettable” that the measure will “act as a
fiscal ceiling”, the Committee’s public services funding in
Northern Ireland report concluded. It added that “the exact
calculation and assessment of the needs-based factor” should be
reviewed in negotiations between Stormont and Westminster on the
details of how the deal will operate.
The UK Government and the Executive should also “rethink” the
financial framework for the Police Service of Northern Ireland to
ensure it “has a greater variety of options in dealing with any
financial difficulty”, the report says. The Service currently has
over 1,000 fewer officers than its 7,500 target as it faces
budgetary challenges including potential fines and compensation
claims relating to last year’s data breach.
Committee Chair Sir said:
“It’s been two years since public funding in Northern Ireland
began to dip below need, and the decline has continued since. The
Government’s offer will fill the void eventually, it could take a
decade to reach funding equal to need again. We urge the
Executive and the UK Government to look again at the baseline and
the size of the uplift as part of the Fiscal Framework
negotiations that will give this deal life.”
MPs on the Committee are also calling for the Executive to set
out its plan for the much-delayed transformation of public
services and to set-up a board to implement the plan “without
delay”. The Bengoa report recommended that NI’s health service
should focus on prevention as a means of making savings. However,
witnesses to the inquiry stated that this had not been achieved
and that progress had halted in other areas due to Stormont’s
absence in five of the last seven years. The Government has set
aside £235m of ringfenced funding for transformation, but the
money’s release is contingent on the Executive establishing a
Public Service Transformation Board.
Sir Robert added, “Alongside the right funding, another key plank
to achieving sustainable finances in Northern Ireland is finally
seeing through the public services transformation agenda. The
Bengoa report, for example, predicted the future collapse of
health services in Northern Ireland 8 years ago, and the changes
it recommended cannot wait any longer. Strategic decisions to
improve essential services – like health – need to be made in
Stormont and we are urging politicians to make fleshing out the
detail of this programme an urgent priority. In it lies the key
to unlock the door to Northern Ireland’s prosperity and more
sustainable finances.”
