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Northern Ireland Office

Answer

Mr. Beggs: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what measures are being taken to address the overspend within the Belfast and South Eastern education and library boards' budgets; and if he will make it his policy that the budget allocations of the other education and library boards will not be cut in order to fund these overspends. [197840] Mr. Gardiner: The hon. Member will be aware that I have announced a Statutory Inquiry into the overspends in both Boards. While this moves forward, my focus remains on ensuring that both Boards are taking action to contain spending in the current financial year within the budgetary limits voted by Parliament. I have now received containment plans from both Boards setting out the actions they would need to take to keep within budget and am examining these carefully to assess the impact that the proposed actions are likely to have and the scope there might be to minimise any impact on front-line services. I will not cut the existing budgets of other Boards in any way: that would not be fair to those Boards that are already making difficult decisions to ensure that they stay within their budgets. However, it is clear that any additional support I might be able to identify to give support to Belfast and the South- Eastern Board areas will be money that will not now be available to supplement other Boards budgets.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

426 c1637W;426 c1640W; 197840

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Finance Belfast Education and Library Board South Eastern Education and Library Board

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk