Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what proportion of the investment outlined in Annex A of the New Decade, New Approach Agreement (a) has been and (b) remains to be allocated to the health service.

The UK Government is providing £2 billion of funding to support implementation of the New Decade, New Approach deal.

To date, £553 million has been allocated by the Government. Of this, a substantial proportion will benefit Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland.

£115m has been provided so far to resolve the nurses’ pay dispute and deliver pay parity (£30m in 2019-20 and £85m in 2020-21). A further £44m has been allocated this year through NDNA to support public service transformation, with much of this directed towards the health service. £350m was provided in the current financial year to help place the Executive’s finances on a sustainable footing, enabling the Executive to deliver public services such as healthcare.

Alongside this, the UK Government has also provided £60m, with £15m allocated to the Executive in 20/21, to deliver the new Northern Ireland Graduate Entry Medical School in Derry/Londonderry, which has begun recruiting its first intake of students.

On top of this, a further £2.8bn of additional funding has been provided to the Executive to support the work to tackle Covid-19 this year, including to enable the health service to respond to the crisis.

In addition to the financial package, the New Decade, New Approach Deal is accompanied by stringent conditions to deliver a greater level of accountability for public spending, and ensure the new Executive is building sustainable public services. A key element of this will be the establishment of an Independent Fiscal Council (IFC). The UK Government will continue to work with the Northern Ireland Executive to agree terms of reference for the IFC that reflect our joint ambitions for this new institution and get it up and running as soon as possible.