Select committee: Northern Ireland Affairs Committee
Recommendation 1
Third Report - The funding and delivery of public services in Northern Ireland
Published 26 Mar 2024
Paragraph 21
Addressed to Northern Ireland Executive; Northern Ireland Office
Northern Ireland Affairs Committee The funding and delivery of public services in Northern Ireland All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We are concerned about staff recruitment and retention in the health service, with thousands of empty posts and a reliance on costly agency staff. The equivalent of 26.3% of the Northern Ireland population are on waiting lists, with some going on to develop further health complications while they wait. While the Government’s announcement of £584 million towards the settling of pay claims for 2023/24 across the public sector - including in health - is welcome, questions remain as to the ability of the Northern Ireland Executive to fund future years’ settlements beyond this funding. We therefore invite both the Government and Northern Ireland Executive in response to this report to set out their assessment of this future funding. We also recommend the introduction of a statutory duty on the Department of Health to publish an assessment of its health and social care workforce projections.
From: Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, Third Report - The funding and delivery of public services in Northern Ireland (HC 46), paragraph 21, 26 March 2024
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 14 November 2024 (deadline 26 May 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government welcomes the Committee's report and says it is committed to working with the Executive and Assembly on public services, while treating many recommended actions, such as SEN, policing allocations and workforce reporting, as devolved matters for the Executive.
- On funding, it points to a record £18.2 billion settlement for 2025/26 and says it is committed to progressing from the interim to a "full fiscal framework"; it adds that "funding alone will not address the challenges" and that there is an "onus on the Executive" to deliver transformation.
- On SEN, policing allocation and the statutory duty on health workforce projections, it says these are devolved matters; on the PSNI it "trusts the Executive will give consideration" to using its funding to support the PSNI.
- On UKSPF, it says the fund "will be extended for 2025–26 at a reduced level of £900 million", with nation-level and local allocations to be published on gov.uk "in due course".
- On the £559 million debts, repayment is paused subject to a Budget Sustainability Plan; if the Executive balances its 2024/25 budget and raises an additional £113m from 2025/26, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury will confirm the debts "do not need to be repaid".