Public Expenditure: Northern Ireland
The question
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether there will be a Barnett consequential for Northern Ireland following the roll out of free breakfast clubs in England.
Answered by Darren Jones
At Phase 1 of the 2025 Spending Review, over £30 million was allocated to the Department for Education to fund breakfast clubs in 2025-26. The Barnett formula was applied in the usual way to changes in the Department for Education’s Delegated Expenditure Limit (DEL) budget.
The resulting Barnett consequentials were included in the Northern Ireland Executive’s £18.2 billion settlement for 2025-26, which includes an additional £1.5 billion through the operation of the Barnett formula.
This is the largest spending review settlement in real terms since devolution and ensures that the Northern Ireland Executive continues to receive over 24% more per person than equivalent UK Government spending in the rest of the UK, including the 2024 restoration financial package.
The Block Grant Transparency publication breaks down all changes in the devolved governments’ block grant funding from the 2015 Spending Review up to and including Main Estimates 2023-24. The most recent report was published in July 2023. An update to Block Grant Transparency to include Autumn Budget 2024 changes will be published in due course:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/block-grant-transparency-july-2023
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