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Written Question
Household Support Fund: Northern Ireland
Wednesday 13th March 2024

Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Spring Budget 2024, HC 560, published on 6 March 2024, how much Barnett Consequential funding Northern Ireland will receive from the announcement on the Household Support Fund.

Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

As a result of decisions at Spring Budget, the Northern Ireland Executive are now receiving around £100 million in additional funding in 2024-25 through the Barnett formula. The next Block Grant Transparency publication will include a breakdown of the Barnett consequentials for the Northern Ireland Executive from Spring Budget 2024. It is for the Northern Ireland Executive to allocate their resources in devolved areas as they see fit.


Written Question
Integrated Schools: Northern Ireland
Tuesday 12th March 2024

Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reversing the decision to reprofile Fresh Start Funding.

Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

The UK Government is providing the Northern Ireland Executive with a comprehensive £3.3 billion spending settlement.

Within this package, the Government is providing the Northern Ireland Executive with £708 million RDEL to support public services over five years from 2024-25 to 2028-29. This is comprised of £85 million new funding and un-ringfencing £623 million of existing Northern Ireland funding streams.

Within the £708 million, £235 million is ringfenced for transformation and its release is subject to the establishment of a Public Service Transformation Board. The remaining £473 million is un-ringfenced. This means the Executive can choose how to use the funding for its priorities, including continuing projects.


Written Question
Integrated Schools: Northern Ireland
Wednesday 24th January 2024

Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when funds will be available from Fresh Start Funding for financial year 2023-24; and what funds are available to the Northern Ireland Department of Finance from that scheme in 2023-24.

Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

At Main Estimates 2023-24, the Northern Ireland Executive was provided with £64.4 million of capital funding under the Fresh Start Agreement. Any additional Fresh Start Agreement funding in 2023-24 for the Northern Ireland Executive would be confirmed through the Supplementary Estimates process that is ongoing.

Funding for individual projects is administered by the Northern Ireland Executive’s Department of Education.


Written Question
Millennium Integrated Primary School: Construction
Wednesday 24th January 2024

Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether Fresh Start Funding has been awarded for construction of the Millennium Integrated Primary School new build project.

Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

At Main Estimates 2023-24, the Northern Ireland Executive was provided with £64.4 million of capital funding under the Fresh Start Agreement. Any additional Fresh Start Agreement funding in 2023-24 for the Northern Ireland Executive would be confirmed through the Supplementary Estimates process that is ongoing.

Funding for individual projects is administered by the Northern Ireland Executive’s Department of Education.


Written Question
Public Expenditure: Northern Ireland
Thursday 30th November 2023

Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the Barnett consequentials are for Northern Ireland following the announcements for additional funding for (a) housing associations through the Affordable Homes Guarantee Scheme and (b) the third round of the Local Authority Housing Fund in the Autumn Statement 2023.

Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

As a result of announcements made at Autumn Statement 2023, the Northern Ireland Executive will receive £185 million through the Barnett formula over 2023-24 and 2024-25.

The Barnett formula determines changes to overall devolved administration block grants and Barnett-based funding is not ringfenced in line with specific programmes.


Written Question
Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund: Northern Ireland
Wednesday 18th October 2023

Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the allocation to Northern Ireland will be from Wave 3 of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund.

Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

At Spending Review 2021, funding was allocated for the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund to the former Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Barnett formula was applied.

At spending reviews, the Barnett formula is applied to changes in each UK government department’s DEL budget with the Barnett consequentials that arise then added to the devolved administrations’ baseline block grants. Because the Barnett formula is not applied to changes in funding for all the individual programmes within a UK government department’s DEL budget, the Barnett consequentials associated with these individual programmes, such as the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund, cannot be identified.

At Autumn Statement 2022, the Chancellor announced £6 billion of funding to go towards energy efficiency policies in the next Spending Review period.

All decisions on devolved administration funding beyond the current Spending Review period will be taken at future Spending Reviews.


Written Question
Public Expenditure: Northern Ireland
Wednesday 18th October 2023

Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the impact of changes to the HS2 scheme on Barnett funding for Northern Ireland.

Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

Funding for the HS2 programme has been provided to the Department for Transport’s (DfT). The Barnett formula has applied changes to the DfT’s budget to date due to funding for the HS2 programme, and the Northern Ireland Executive has received Barnett consequentials as a result.

At spending reviews, the Barnett formula is applied to changes in each UK Government department’s DEL budget with the Barnett consequentials that arise then added to the devolved administrations’ baseline block grants. As the Barnett formula is not applied to changes in funding for all the individual programmes within a UK Government department’s DEL budget, the Barnett consequentials associated with these individual programmes, such as HS2, cannot be identified.

The Barnett formula will continue to apply to future changes to the DfT budget from funding for the HS2 programme.


Written Question
Ulster Bank: Interest Rate Hedging Products
Wednesday 18th October 2023

Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing independent oversight of the review by NatWest into allegations of mis-selling of fixed rate hedging products by Ulster Bank.

Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government has always been clear that any mis-selling of financial products is completely unacceptable and wrong. However, the allegations of mis-selling of fixed rate hedging or similar products by Ulster Bank are first and foremost a matter for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and it would not be appropriate for the Government to comment at this time.


Written Question
Ulster Bank: Loans
Thursday 21st September 2023

Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of reviewing the use of (a) interest rate hedging and (b) swap-like products in connection with fixed rate loans products by Ulster Bank in Northern Ireland.

Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

In June the High Court granted permission for a legal review of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA’s) handling of the compensation for victims of the mis-selling of Interest Rate Hedging Products (IRHPs). A final hearing is expected to take place in 2024. In the meantime, I hope you can appreciate that it would not be appropriate for the Government to comment on an ongoing legal case.


Written Question
Housing: Energy
Wednesday 7th June 2023

Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential incentive to decarbonise homes of extension of the Value Added Tax (Installation of Energy-Saving Materials) Order 2022 to Northern Ireland.

Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

At Spring Statement 2022, it was announced that the installation of qualifying energy saving materials in residential accommodation in Great Britain would benefit from a temporary VAT zero rate until 31 March 2027, after which they will revert to the reduced rate of VAT at five per cent. At that time, the relief could not be introduced in Northern Ireland under the terms of the Northern Ireland Protocol. Following the agreement of the Windsor Framework, however, these changes were extended to Northern Ireland on 1 May 2023.

This support will aid households in improving the energy efficiency of their homes and will help to reduce carbon emissions. Further information on the impact of this VAT relief in Northern Ireland specifically can be found in this Explanatory Memorandum and this Tax Information and Impact Notice on the extension of the relief to Northern Ireland.

At Spring Budget 2023, the Government published a call for evidence seeking views on further potential areas for reform to this VAT relief. The call for evidence closed on 31 May 2023. We are carefully analysing the responses received, and will publish a summary of responses and next steps in due course.