Official Report: Minutes of Evidence

The Chairperson (Mr Chambers): On behalf of the Committee, I welcome a familiar face in Lesley Hogg, Clerk/Chief Executive to the Assembly, and Paula McClintock, head of finance. I invite you, if you are prepared and ready, to make your presentation. Thank you.

Mrs Lesley Hogg (Northern Ireland Assembly): Thanks very much, Chair. I thank the Committee for the important work that it does in carrying out its scrutiny of the Assembly Commission's budget.

Before I turn to the detail of the budget, it might be helpful to note that the Assembly Commission is unlike any other body in the Assembly. It is a corporate body, not a Committee, with a legal requirement to provide the Assembly with the property, staff and services to support its work. The Assembly Commission also has a legal requirement to meet all costs associated with Members, by way of salaries, pensions, allowances and office and staffing costs. As such, much of the Assembly Commission's budget is predetermined. The Assembly does not have a legal personality. Therefore, it is the Assembly Commission that has the legal ability to appoint staff and create contracts for services and other functions to support the Assembly.

I have provided the Committee with a detailed paper setting out the Assembly Commission's budget requirements for the next three years for resource departmental expenditure limit (DEL) and the next four years for capital DEL. In addition to the budgets for resource DEL and capital DEL, the Assembly Commission continues to require budget provision to support the work of the Windsor Framework Democratic Scrutiny Committee. Those costs are funded directly by Treasury and are, therefore, ring-fenced and reported separately. I have included them in our submission for transparency and information purposes only.

I will now work through the categories of income and expenditure and seek to highlight the most salient points, outlining, where appropriate, key differences between the years. I will start with income. As with previous years, the only thing to highlight is that, substantially, the income that the Assembly Commission receives arises from the recovery of ministerial salaries. The recovery relates only to the additional salary payable to Ministers over and above that which they receive as a Member, along with associated employer costs. A small amount of residual income is generated from contributions received towards the cost of running the Knowledge Exchange Seminar Series.

I will now move on to Members' costs. As the Committee is aware, previously, all expenditure associated with Members was payable under the provisions of the Assembly Members (Salaries and Expenses) Determination (Northern Ireland) 2016, as amended. Salaries continue to be provided under part 1 of that determination. However, allowances are now payable under the Assembly Members (Office and Staffing Costs and Allowances) Determination (Northern Ireland) 2025. Those determinations are the basis on which Members are paid and provided with the necessary resources to carry out their functions as Members.

I will now move on to Members' salaries. It is important to note that Members' salaries have not been reviewed since 2016. In the budget, there is a slight increase each year due to the annual uplift of £500 in the 2016 determination being applied. Yesterday, the Assembly was notified that the Assembly Members (Independent Remuneration Board) Bill had received Royal Assent. A recruitment process for board members is taking place. As the Assembly Commission must have sufficient budget to meet the financial requirements of whatever decisions the board takes, if the board makes any increase to the levels of salary payable, that will be notified to the Department of Finance at the appropriate time to secure the necessary funding. There is a slight decrease in 2027-28 due to the May 2027 Assembly election, as a number of officeholder salaries are not payable during dissolution and until new officeholders are appointed. In addition, salaries payable to Members cease following the poll, up to and including the date on which Members sign the Roll of Membership.

The remainder of Members' costs is made up of constituency costs, Members' travel and Members' other costs. As I work through the figures, you will note that there are some anomalies in 2027-28 because of the election. For example, former Members can avail themselves of allowances for a three-month period to wind up their Assembly business, including for office running costs and for office salaries and associated statutory redundancy payments. Members also receive a resettlement allowance if they leave the Assembly at that time. In addition, some allowances, such as start-up and maintenance costs and allowances for security measures, are available to Members over the course of a mandate, rather than annually. Also, as might be expected, Members tend to spend more on office start-up and maintenance costs in setting up their offices and installing security measures after an election than they do in the intervening years. That has been reflected in the 2027-28 budget.

I will now move on to constituency costs. Constituency costs cover all the costs associated with running a Member's office, including day-to-day running costs, rent, rates, support staff salaries and winding-up costs. It also includes costs associated with starting up and maintaining constituency offices. Other than the anomalies that I have already mentioned in relation to the election, the increases are due to the budgeted pay awards for Members' support staff, along with annual inflationary increases for constituency office operating costs.

Members' travel costs, likewise, provide for an annual inflationary increase, offset by a small saving in 2027-28, as the allowances are paused during dissolution.

Members' other costs include provision for items such as security measures, disability costs, ill-health retirement and resettlement allowances. The spike in 2027-28 is due to the election, including through higher spending on security measures, as Members install security measures in their offices and homes; the purchase of lone-working devices for Members and their support staff following the election; and resettlement allowances for Members who either do not stand at the election or are not re-elected.

The next category is payments to parties under the financial assistance for political parties scheme 2024, or party allowance, which provides for an inflationary increase each year.

Staff salaries relate to the salary costs for Assembly Commission staff. The budget provides for annual pay awards along with a small number of new posts. Even with the new posts, the ratio of Assembly Commission staff to elected representatives remains lower than in the Scottish Parliament and considerably lower than the Senedd. Some of the new posts are to support the implementation of the Assembly Commission's new public engagement strategy and to respond to the increasing demand to support a greater range of hosted events and private tours in Parliament Buildings. The Assembly Commission is also considering how public accessibility to Parliament Buildings could be increased, potentially by facilitating weekend opening. Other posts are required to deliver an ambitious modernisation and business improvement programme, including updating and replacing a number of corporate systems and supporting strategic planning and project delivery. A further temporary post has been budgeted for one year as part of the project on strengthening scrutiny of delegated legislation, in order to provide for improved tracking and publication of information about the Assembly's scrutiny of delegated legislation. That post is pending the development of an electronic tracker. The 2025-26 salaries budget includes a vacancy factor of 5%, but, as the majority of posts have now been filled, the vacancy factor has been reduced to 0.5%.

I will now move to administration costs. Administration costs cover a wide range of expenditure items, including Committee travel and expenses; building costs; rates; utilities; third-party costs for supporting business-critical IT systems; and recurring contractual costs for things such as broadcasting, cleaning and catering. The fluctuation in budget is mainly due to a change in the timing of roof-remediation works and the project to modernise and replace the Assembly's corporate systems, which were initially budgeted in earlier years, along with an increase in IT support costs as the Assembly Commission's IT infrastructure is modernised. The surplus budgets in prior years in respect of those projects was returned.

Construction and Procurement Delivery is overseeing the roof-remediation works on behalf of the Assembly Commission and has recommended that it be taken forward in two phases. A number of delays in the project, including legal challenges on the appropriate DOF framework, the time taken to install scaffolding and to undertake investigatory and scoping work and prepare tender documents, have meant that it has not been possible to commence the work. The budget anticipates that phase 1 will be completed in the current financial year, although information that I received yesterday suggests that some of it may continue into 2026-27. The budget anticipates that phase 2 will commence in 2026-27 and complete in 2027-28, although the exact time frame and cost will be subject to final scoping and tender.

Historically, there has been a significant underinvestment in corporate IT systems and IT infrastructure in the Assembly Commission. Major projects are, therefore, ongoing to modernise and replace corporate systems and update the IT infrastructure in order to ensure that the Assembly is appropriately supported and that the network is secure from the increasing cyberthreat.

The project on the corporate systems review was paused last year following the supplier's non-delivery of the design phase. The project will recommence in 2026-27, once a number of options are considered by the project board, with completion anticipated in 2028-29.

Depreciation and impairment charges are based on capital additions in prior years and an inflationary increase in the valuation of Parliament Buildings.

I will now turn to capital investment. The Assembly Commission has identified a range of capital projects that require investment over the next four years. They are focused mainly on IT security and modernisation and the security, accessibility and maintenance of Parliament Buildings. The IT modernisation project will also provide the Assembly Commission with a new website, content-management system and electronic records and document management systems. Building projects include the refreshment of Parliament Buildings security measures; replacement of the east and west security huts; works arising from physical condition and Disability Discrimination Act surveys; and refurbishment of the Long Gallery, Members' Lounge, education rooms, corridor flooring and bathrooms.

Before I finish, Chair, I wish to record my thanks once again to Assembly Commission staff. In what has been another extremely busy and challenging year, staff have continued to demonstrate their hard work, dedication and professionalism to support the Assembly and its Committees with all their requirements. I record my sincere thanks to all Assembly staff for the truly excellent work that they do, day in and day out, to support the Assembly. Thank you, Chair.

The Chairperson (Mr Chambers): Thank you very much, Lesley. I am sure that the Committee concurs with your remarks about Assembly staff. This place, from the canteen to wherever else, just would not function without them. We absolutely concur with your remarks regarding the staff.

We are fighting the clock a little bit, so I am not going to ask any questions. If members and the delegation are succinct, we may make up a bit of time.

Mr Mathison: I will ask one question. You did not mention the impact of the net zero agenda on the Building. There was some reporting earlier in the year on the spiralling energy costs for the Building. Is resourcing to try to address that, and to deal with energy efficiency and energy costs, in the mix in your forward planning?

Mrs Hogg: It is. We have been taking a number of measures to try to promote energy efficiency and sustainability. Over the past few years, we have replaced a lot of the light fittings and lights. We have replaced devices. We have installed automatic switch-on lights and so on. We regularly monitor our energy costs to see how we can sustain them. We monitor the temperature in the Building. In everything that we do, we look for opportunities to save energy and be sustainable as far as possible. Obviously, once you get some of the quicker wins out of the way, it becomes more difficult, but there are other projects: for example, some of the external lighting is due to be replaced, and, when it is, we will put in more energy efficient bulbs. We constantly look for opportunities to make energy efficiency savings where possible.

Mr Mathison: The biggest cost is heating the Building, I assume.

Mrs Hogg: It is.

Mr Mathison: Is there sufficient resource to address that? The reporting was about the fact that the heating costs are rising exponentially.

Mrs Hogg: Parliament Buildings is very large, and its age and construction makes it difficult to heat. It is not a modern building, so we are constrained in what we can do. However, we certainly monitor what we spend on heating and lighting annually and constantly look for ways to see whether we can reduce those costs.

Mr Blair: I thank Lesley and Paula for being here and for the detailed information that has been provided. I echo the thanks to Assembly Commission staff in all business areas for their help and support.

In the figures provided for the period of the election, there are fluctuations and increases. I take it that all that is based on previous times, which give some indicator of how much will be required and what was given. It has not changed much over the years, I expect. I realise that that is hard to predict exactly, but I take it that previous patterns form the template.

Mrs Hogg: Yes. Obviously, until the election happens, we do not know what the turnover of Members and so on will be. Therefore, we look at what has happened historically and make our best assumption on how that may work. However, until the election happens, we really have no idea what the turnover of Members and associated costs will be.

Mr Blair: OK. Thank you.

The Chairperson (Mr Chambers): Thank you very much, Lesley, for your presentation. I echo again our appreciation of everybody who works in the Building to keep it ticking over. Thank you.

Mrs Hogg: Thank you very much, Chair. The staff will very much appreciate that.

Ms Paula McClintock (Northern Ireland Assembly): Thank you, Chair.