Select committee: Northern Ireland Affairs Committee
Conclusion 1
1st Report - Funding and delivery of public services: follow up
Published 7 Apr 2025
Addressed to Northern Ireland Executive; Northern Ireland Office
Northern Ireland Affairs Committee Funding and delivery of public services: follow up All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Northern Ireland’s public services remain in crisis. Its health service is under immense pressure, with long waiting lists, a struggling primary care sector and an acute mental health situation, in part due to Northern Ireland’s recent history. There are severe demands on the education sector, too, with SEN pupils suffering and schools operating with large deficits. Policing and justice continue to operate under budgetary constraints, while dealing, among other things, directly with the legacy of Northern Ireland’s recent past. Other sectors are not immune to funding and service delivery problems, and all this continues to stifle Northern Ireland’s ability to invest in skills, infrastructure and grow its economy. The problems are clear. In the rest of this report, we consider some potential solutions. (Conclusion, Paragraph 21) The needs-based assessment
From: Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, 1st Report - Funding and delivery of public services: follow up (HC 477), 7 April 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 19 June 2025 (deadline 7 June 2025).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government's response "notes" the Committee's recommendations on needs-based funding, multi-year budgeting and tax devolution, and sets out funding and Fiscal Framework developments, stating that "more time is needed" on the long-term framework.
- On needs-based funding, the government says the Executive will "continue to receive over 24% more per person" than equivalent UK Government spending in the rest of the UK, "above their independently assessed level of need". Its response does not address the request to backdate assessed need.
- On the Fiscal Framework, the UK Government and the Executive "have also agreed to immediately begin negotiations" on a full framework, covering Housing Executive borrowing and the Holtham Review. The government says "more time is needed" for any long-term agreement to be robust.
- On multi-year funding, the Chancellor "has confirmed multi-year funding for the Spending Review period until at least 2028–29". The government says it "would expect" the Executive to return to multi-year budgets.
- The government says £129m of the £235m Transformation Fund has been allocated to six projects, and it will "seek to identify more projects" and continue to monitor and evaluate allocated funding with the Public Sector Transformation Board.