The Petition of residents of Daventry.
Declares that the Petitioners believe that the use of the Barnett Formula in the distribution of Government funds should be replaced with an equal per capita distribution for all races in the United Kingdom; notes that the Petitioners believe it to be iniquitous that some parts of the United Kingdom are discriminated against because of race; and further notes that the Petitioners consider that it is wrong to permit such discrimination to be exempted in law.
The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to discontinue the use of the Barnett Formula in the distribution of Government funds and replace it with an equal per capita distribution for all races in the United Kingdom.
And the Petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented by Chris Heaton-Harris, Official Report, 7 July 2011; Vol. 530, c. 1756.]
[P000935]
Observations from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Treasury:
The Government thank the residents of Daventry for their petition on the use of the Barnett formula.
The Treasury is responsible for the devolved funding arrangements. The details are set out in the Statement of Funding Policy, which was updated in October 2010.
The Government note that the Petitioners request that the House of Commons urges the Government to discontinue the use of the Barnett Formula in the distribution of Government funds and replace it with an equal per capita distribution for all races in the United Kingdom.
The Barnett formula provides the devolved Administrations with a population-based share of comparable changes in spending of UK Government Departments. This ensures that each of the four countries has the same change in comparable spending per head.
The Government recognise the concerns expressed on the system of devolution funding. However, at this time, the priority must be to reduce the deficit and therefore any change to the system must await the stabilisation of the public finances.