Ms Heidi-Beth Hudson (Department for the Economy): Good morning, by two minutes. Chair and members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to brief you today. We want to tell you about our proposals in the planned financial provisions Bill and the responses to the recent consultation that we ran. We are keen to hear your views and any comments that you might share with us. We previously shared written information with you.
The Department of Finance has invited Departments to consider matters that may be suitable for inclusion in the planned financial provisions Bill, which is in the 2024 legislative programme. DFE identified five proposals, which were outlined in the consultation document, namely strengthening our powers of financial assistance, which would, amongst other matters, permit the Department to use financial transactions capital; revision to fees in relation to aspects of Tourism NI's work; the power for DFE to form companies; amendment to DOF approvals in respect of training and apprenticeships; and the handling of smaller departmental accounts. The proposals were primarily developed in response to Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) comments or were to address historical deficits in legislation. What we were seeking to do was to ensure that DFE was equipped via legislation for issues that face the Department today and were within the constraints of such a Bill.
Bearing in mind the earlier financial update that you heard, it is appropriate to clarify that there are no financial impacts associated with the legislation. The legislation will, amongst other things, enhance the Department's power to provide financial assistance, but the power is discretionary and will be managed in accordance with guidance that takes account of departmental allocations and established budgetary limits.
The report on the consultation will be published in the coming weeks, but we wanted to meet you, as you requested, to give you feedback on the consultation prior to publishing it. There is more detail in the written brief that we shared with you previously.
We engaged in advance of the consultation period for some time with key partners to test the proposals and potential legislative solutions and to raise awareness of our consultation. We also met the NIAO.
You will have the document summarising responses to the consultation. With the exception of one response from an individual, the responses indicated support for the proposals and/or offered comments or questions on specific aspects of the proposals. The consultation and the engagement with NIAO do not yet indicate material areas for revision to our proposed approach, and we expect to put those, together with the view of the Committee, to the Minister in seeking a final decision on what to put forward to DOF for inclusion in the Bill. As the Bill is led by DOF, its final content and the timing of the introduction of the Bill will be a matter for it and subject to Executive approval.
We are happy to answer any questions that you have for us.