The multi-year budget, open book exercise, and Northern Ireland’s level of need - some quick headlines from Department of Finance officials’ evidence at last week’s Finance Committee (15 April).
Multi-year budget - no budget has been agreed yet but “intensive work” is ongoing, with a paper going to the Executive last Thursday. Officials were unable to say when a final budget would be reached, or give a figure for the total pressures across departments this year (although Finance Minister said there was a potential overspend of £700 million on Sunday Politics yesterday). All Ministers have said they can’t deliver public services with the proposed budget as it is, and so the Finance Minister has gone back to the UK Govt asking for more funding (and on Sunday Politics he said they were listening to NI’s case).
The Finance Committee Chair said that the Executive was in breach of the law in not setting a budget, and added that there was no clear end-point for the ongoing negotiations. Officials expressed hope that a budget would be in place before the summer; they agreed that the impact of not having a budget included difficulties with planning, delays to transformation, and new initiatives not being able to start. Consideration is being given to providing guidance to departments about managing their spending during this period when there isn’t an agreed budget.
Spending outturn for 2025-26 - after the £400 million reserve claim is added in, the outturn for 2025-26 is expected to be largely on budget for resource, with a slight underspend on capital.
Open book exercise - a reminder that this (very quick) review was announced at the time of the £400 million reserve claim in February. The Treasury have completed their report and shared it with the Executive. DoF officials described it as a “high level analysis” given the short timescale, and there are areas where DoF disagrees with the Treasury (for example whether some of the cost comparisons with England are appropriate). Officials emphasised it was a Treasury report, not a joint report, and not endorsed by the Executive. Nevertheless it will be used to inform discussions as the Executive continues “to make the case for fairer funding”. Finance Committee clearly frustrated that they haven’t seen the report, and queried the whole process if few people have sight of the outcome. Terms of Reference say publication of report would depend on agreement between UK Govt and Executive. The Committee agreed to write to the Treasury requesting the report.
Northern Ireland’s level of need - Finance Minister and colleagues are still pressing for changes to the way Northern Ireland’s funding is determined. A new comparison has entered this discussion, with NI Ministers pointing to Scotland and Wales being funded above their assessed level of need (figures given for S&W were that funding exceeded need by 20.4% and 8.6% respectively, while Northern Ireland is funded at only 0.6% above its level of need). So the case is now being made that NI should have similar flexibility above its level of need, to allow for service delivery but also some additional funding for transformation and reform.
Overall, at times it felt like there were more questions than answers at this Committee session. In particular, the open book exercise isn’t proving to be particularly open!
Watch the Committee session here https://niassembly.tv/committee-for-finance-meeting-wednesday-15-april-2026/
