Written Ministerial Statement

Published at 9:30 am on Thursday 11 April 2024.

Dr Archibald (The Minister of Finance): I wish to update the Members on the Executive’s agreement to further allocations in 2023-24.

I wrote to Executive colleagues on 21 March to advise that the February Outturn and Forecast Outturn returns provided by Departments on 08 March, forecast a Resource DEL underspend of some £4.2 million. While some departments advised that they wish to retain their easements as they had plans in place to spend these, a forecast underspend of £3.5 million remained.

With any unspent Resource DEL funding being lost to the Executive in 2023-24, due to the additional funding provided from the Reserve as part of the Financial Package, I sought proposals from departments which could use some or all of this funding before the financial year end.

The Executive has the ability to carry forward Capital DEL underspends under the Budget Exchange Scheme. However, it is important that underspends do not exceed the £29.7 million which can be carried forward. I therefore also asked Executive colleagues to make me aware in their responses of any capital underspends and if they could make use of any further capital funding.

Reduced Requirements

In response to my letter departments identified an additional £2.7 million of Resource DEL easements, in addition to the £3.5 million already confirmed through Forecast Outturn return. This brought the total available for reallocation to £6.2 million.

Departments also confirmed a total of £7.8 million of Capital DEL easements available for reallocation.

These reduced requirements are shown in Table A which accompanies this statement.

Further Allocations

The Department for Communities and the Department for Infrastructure put forward proposals which the Executive has agreed to fund. These allocations are shown in Table B which accompanies this statement.

The Department for Communities will receive £3.090 million of Resource funding for the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) to support the delivery of investment in terms of: Backlogs, Response maintenance, Cyclical works, Voids, Thermal Works and Net Zero Improvements.

The Department for Infrastructure will receive £3.090 million of Resource funding for Translink to offset the 2023-24 operational deficit it incurred in delivering the agreed Public Service Obligation.

The Department for Infrastructure will receive £3.933 million of Capital funding to fund TRAM – Structural Maintenance (£0.25 million); Translink – zero emission business for Ulsterbus and Metro (£0.683 million), and NI Water – core capital works programme (£3 million)

INDEX OF TABLES

2023-24 Further Allocations:

Annex A           Reduced Requirements

Annex B           Allocations

ANNEX A

TABLE A: REDUCED REQUIREMENTS (£ millions)

Department	Description	Resource  DEL	Capital DEL
DfC	Welfare Mitigation Measures	0.1
	Housing Benefit	0.9
	Ukraine Relocation Scheme	0.5
	NI Protocol	0.0
	Victims Payments Board – PRONI	0.0
Total DfC		1.5
DfE	Interreg VA – Match Funding	0.0
	Belfast Regional City Deal – NIE Funding	0.0
	Peace IV Match Funding	0.0
Total DfE		0.0
DoF	Land and Property Services		1.5
	Accommodation Services	0.5	1.5
Total DoF		0.5	3.0
DfI	Central Admin CFER	0.0
	Roads CFER	0.0
	Interreg VA – EU Match Funding		0.9
	Peace Plus Match Funding	0.1
Total DfI		0.1	0.9
DoJ	Capital		3.6
Total DoJ			3.6
TEO	Staff Costs	0.8
	Victims Payments	3.5
	Historical Institutional Abuse	0.6
	Truth Recovery	0.2
	Ukraine Refugees	0.4
Total TEO		5.4
FSA		0.2
CENTRE	Changes to centrally held funding	-1.6	0.3
Total		6.2	7.8

 

Totals may not add due to rounding.