Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what are the consequentials under the Barnett Formula for each of the devolved administrations resulting from approval of the Lower Thames Crossing.

The Block Grant Transparency publication breaks down all changes in the devolved governments’ block grant funding from the 2015 Spending Review up to and including Main Estimates 2023-24. Where funding for the Lower Thames Crossing has been allocated at a fiscal event or Estimates, the publication will confirm the total Barnett consequentials received by the devolved governments. The most recent report was published in July 2023 [1]. An updated report will be published in due course.

At spending reviews, the Barnett formula is applied to the overall change in a department’s settlement using the department’s comparability factor. This means Barnett consequentials generated at spending reviews in relation to the Lower Thames Crossing specifically cannot be determined.

For any future spending on the Lower Thames Crossing, Barnett consequentials will be confirmed when UK Government departmental budgets change.

[1] You can access this report via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/block-grant-transparency-july-2023