Northern Ireland Budget Act 2017

Commentary on provisions of Act

Section 1 authorises the issue out of the Consolidated Fund of Northern Ireland the sum of £16,166,048,000 for the purposes set out in Schedule 1. This authorisation supersedes those amounts previously authorised by the Permanent Secretary of the Northern Ireland Department of Finance under section 59 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998. This is not new money, as it is an authorisation for issue from the Consolidated Fund of Northern Ireland as would normally be done by the Assembly. The sums referred to are those already appropriated by Parliament through the Supply and Appropriation (Main Estimates) Act 2017, together with revenue generated locally within Northern Ireland under the Assembly’s devolved powers.

Section 2 authorises the temporary borrowing by the Northern Ireland Department of Finance of approximately half the sum covered by Section 1. This is a normal safeguard against the possibility of a temporary deficiency arising in the Consolidated Fund of Northern Ireland and any such borrowing is to be repaid by 31 March 2018.

Section 3 authorises the use of resources amounting to £18,007,637,000 in the year ending 31 March 2018 by the bodies listed in section 3(2) for the purposes specified in column 1 of Schedule 2; the amount authorised is set out in column 2 of that Schedule. This authorisation supersedes those amounts previously authorised by the Permanent Secretary of the Northern Ireland Department of Finance under Section 7 of the Government Resources and Accounts Act (Northern Ireland) 2001. As with section 1 above this is an authorisation to use resources which would normally be provided by the Northern Ireland Assembly in relation to money already authorised by Parliament through the Supply and Appropriation (Main Estimates) Act 2017, together with revenue generated locally within Northern Ireland under the Assembly’s devolved powers.
There is a distinction between the cash sum authorised for issue in section 1, and the amount of resources authorised for use in section 3. The cash sum in section 1 includes cash used to finance capital investment, and also takes into account movement in working capital and payments based on provisions created in previous years. These do not constitute resource consumption. The resources authorised in section 3 exclude those items, but include non-cash items, mainly the depreciation of assets and creation of new provisions.

Section 4 sets limits on the accruing resources, including both operating and non-operating accruing resources, which may be used for the purposes specified in column 1 of Schedule 2 in the year ending 31 March 2018. These limits are set out in column 3 of that Schedule.

Section 5 provides for this Act to have the same effect as if it were an Act of the Northern Ireland Assembly for the year ending 31 March 2018. This includes references in other legislation to the Northern Ireland Estimates which would normally form part of the Assembly’ supply process, including the consideration of the estimates by the Assembly’s committees and the approval of the estimates document by a vote in the Assembly. For those purposes an Estimates document laid before Parliament, which accompanied the introduction of the Bill, is deemed equivalent to those Assembly processes. Section 5(3) would require the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Northern Ireland Public Service Ombudsman to prepare their accounts in accordance with the Estimates laid before Parliament.

Section 6 removes from the statute book two Budget Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly, relating to 2013-2014 and 2014-2015, which are no longer operative.

This Schedule sets out the purpose and sums of money granted to Northern Ireland departments and other bodies under this Act (under section 1).

This Schedule sets out the amount of resources authorised for use by Departments and other bodies (see section 3), and the limits to use of accruing resources (section 4).