Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of the potential impact of her Department's proposed welfare reforms on the Northern Ireland block grant.

For any funding implications of these welfare reforms, the arrangements set out in the Statement of Funding Policy will apply in the usual way.

Where UK Government programmes are in Annually Managed Expenditure (AME), such as welfare, the UK Government provides AME funding to the Northern Ireland Executive. Where the Northern Ireland Executive offers broadly comparable terms, the UK Government funds the costs of the programme.

If the Northern Ireland Executive offers more generous terms, the higher costs must be met by the Northern Ireland Executive.

As set out in the Pathways to Work Green Paper published on 18 March, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will continue to work closely with the Northern Ireland Executive on the proposals, in line with the general principle of parity in matters of social security between DWP and its counterpart in Northern Ireland, the Department for Communities.