AQW 380/17-22

Ms Claire Sugden
Independent
East Londonderry

Tabled Date: 16/01/2020
Answered On Date: 29/01/2020
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Finance to detail any unspent monies, both (i) capital; and (ii) resource, sent back to the Treasury by each Department, broken down by the last three financial years.

Answer:

I can confirm that no departmental underspends in the last three years in non ring-fenced Resource DEL or Capital DEL have been returned. All departmental underspends in these areas have been accessed in the following year through the Budget Exchange Scheme.

Ring-fenced Resource DEL funding can only be used for the non-cash costs of depreciation and certain types of impairment. As this funding cannot be used for other purposes the amount unused at the year-end has not been accessed through the Budget Exchange Scheme. The amounts in each of the last 3 years are shown in the table below.

A significant amount of Financial Transactions Capital funding has been returned. This represents unused funding as opposed to departmental underspends. The amounts in each of the last 3 years are shown in the table below.

£million	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19
Ring-fenced Resource DEL	96.5	100.7	83.0
Financial Transactions Capital	34.5	109.4	171.9

Going forward, I am keen to ensure a significant uptake in the use of Financial Transactions Capital. My officials are liaising with the Strategic Investment Board to examine the issues and I have asked that they also engage with other departments to identify additional ways in which this funding can be used.