AQO 7527/11-15

Mr Stewart Dickson
Alliance Party
East Antrim

Tabled Date: 29/01/2015
Answered On Date: 10/02/2015
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Employment and Learning how he will balance his budget in 2015/16.

Answer:

The final Executive Budget leaves me with a pressure of £62m to find. The Department’s Budget Consultation paper set out proposed reductions of £33.2m , current advanced thinking is that these will be confirmed.

The remaining budget pressure, including European Social Fund match funding pressure of £1.8m, totals £30.1 m.

It is proposed that this will come from a reduction to higher education of £14 million, further education £12 million and additional Departmental efficiency savings and reductions of £4.1 million.

To mitigate these reductions as far as possible I have agreed to relax the minimum required level of reinvestment of additional student fee income on widening participation measures to 10%. This change could free up to £8 million in spending powers for the higher education providers.

In addition, the further education reduction will be partially mitigated by the use of £6 million in End Year Flexibility, subject to agreement of the Executive. However, this is effectively reducing the colleges’ level of reserves.

It is my hope to confirm the final budget position for the Department over the coming days.