Police Service of Northern Ireland: Finance

(asked on 27th January 2026) - View Source

Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, whether he plans to make additional funding available to the Police Service of Northern Ireland to meet the costs arising from the 2023 data breach.


Answered by
Hilary Benn Portrait
Hilary Benn
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
This question was answered on 2nd February 2026

It is for the Northern Ireland Executive to set a budget for Departments, and for the Minister for Justice to allocate funding to the Police Service of Northern Ireland. The Government is providing the Executive with a record settlement over the Spending Review period, averaging £19.3bn per year. This is the largest in the history of devolution.

On 17 December 2025, the Northern Ireland Executive committed to providing £119m to the Department of Justice to fund the costs of the data breach.

Concerns about the implications of costs associated with the data breach should be raised via the existing mechanisms in the Department of Justice and the Department of Finance.

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