AQW 3401/17-22

Mr Andrew Muir
Alliance Party
North Down

Tabled Date: 09/03/2020
Answered On Date: 06/05/2020
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the First Minister and deputy First Minister to detail any plans to introduce multi-annual Communities in Transition funding.

Answer:

The Communities in Transition Project is one of 38 actions within the wider Executive Action Plan on Tackling Paramilitarism, Criminality and Organised Crime and, as such, decisions on funding across the wider Programme are taken by the Tackling Paramilitarism Programme Board, chaired by the Head of the Civil Service.

To date, contracts awarded through the procurement approach undertaken in respect of the Communities in Transition Project are multi annual. This is based on delivery through until March 2021, in line with the wider Programme, with the potential to further extend should additional funding become available.

Ending the harm caused by paramilitary groups was a stated commitment in the New Decade New Approach document and will be a priority in a new multi-year Programme for Government, underpinned by a multi-year budget.

While no decision has yet been taken on funding after March 2021, officials are working with colleagues across the Executive and with delivery partners to ensure that the learning generated through implementing the existing commitments is built into delivery going forward.

More generally, the New Decade New Approach document includes a commitment for the Executive to put in place multi-year budgets (of a minimum of 3 years) from 2021/22 onwards.