Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what Barnett consequentials were made available to the Northern Ireland Executive in the last three years for which figures are available.

Spending Review 2021 set the largest annual block grants, in real terms, of any spending review settlement since the devolution Acts. This provided £15 billion per year for the Northern Ireland Executive.

The Block Grant Transparency document details the Barnett consequentials that have been provided to the Northern Ireland Executive in the last three years, as well as other changes to the block grant including surrenders¹. The Northern Ireland Executive received the following Barnett consequentials: £2.3 billion in 2021-22, £1.8 billion in 2022-23 and £2 billion in 2023-24.

The Northern Ireland Executive can utilise Budget Exchange at Supplementary Estimates each financial year to move planned or unexpected underspends between years. The Northern Ireland Executive accessed £40m of Budget Exchange in 2020-21, £134m in 2021-22, and £130m in 2022-23. This mechanism means that typically no, or very little, general resource or capital funding is returned to the Treasury at the end of the year. There was an increase in capital underspends during the COVID years and underspends in ringfenced resource spending are more common given the terms of those funding streams.

The Northern Ireland Executive are well funded to deliver all their devolved responsibilities, receiving at least 20% more funding per person than equivalent UK Government spending in other parts of the UK.

1. Block Grant Transparency: July 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
2. https://www.finance-ni.gov.uk/publications/estimates-publications