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Budget (Northern Ireland) Order 2006

rose to move, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Budget (Northern Ireland) Order 2006. The noble Lord said: We are considering the draft Budget order today as a result of the continuing suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly. This is a matter of regret. I would much rather that it was being considered by local politicians. As soon as they are willing to do it, we do not stand in their way. But, in the mean time, we have to govern in an open and fair way that will improve public services for the people of Northern Ireland. The order has two purposes. The first is to authorise the amounts of resources and cash for 2005-06. The total revised amount of resources for 2005-06 is £15.442 billion and the total revised amount of cash from the Northern Ireland Consolidated Fund is £10.838 billion. The second purpose of the order is to authorise a vote on account to allow funds to continue to flow to public services in the early months of the next financial year until the main estimates for 2006–07 can be prepared and considered. To do that, the order seeks Parliament’s authorisation for the use of resources amounting to £6.284 billion and for the issue of cash from the Consolidated Fund of Northern Ireland to the amount of £4.898 billion. Generally, the resource and cash amounts required on account for the 2006–07 financial year have been calculated as 45 per cent of the total voted provision for this year. The vote on account seeks sufficient resources and cash to allow services to continue until the detailed work on the main estimates is completed in the early summer. I will not attempt to summarise the high level of financial detail in the Budget order and supporting documents, as that is not the normal practice in this House. However, I will of course try to address any specific points of detail that your Lordships may wish to raise on the expenditure covered by the order. The Government’s key objective in relation to the use of expenditure continues to be the delivery of quality public services: reallocating resources from lower to higher priority areas, focusing on the reform of our public services and raising some more money locally to pay for better local services to help to achieve that. It was therefore confirmed that the rates increases proposed at the draft Budget were to come into effect from next April, subject to parliamentary approval of the relevant legislation. The extra money raised will help to meet the costs of the three new priority funding packages announced in October: for children and young people; for skills and science; and for the environment and energy. We believe that we can make a real difference now to improve the prospects and life chances of future generations. All allocations from priority funding packages will be added to relevant departmental baselines, but on a ring-fenced basis, so that we can ensure that those funded actions and programmes remain in place in the long term and deliver what we intend to be delivered. The money will not be simply lost into the department. In addition, there has also been a major and unprecedented boost in levels of investment in public sector infrastructure—in schools, hospitals, roads and transport. The reform of the water and sewerage services will provide a secure, reliable and affordable basis for financing those services, while the reform of the domestic rating system, with which I hope we will deal later today, will secure a fairer distribution of the rating burden. By the 2007–08 financial year the Government will spend in excess of £16 billion on regional public services in Northern Ireland. That spending will be invested in the skills of our workforce and in our public sector infrastructure, and will ensure that progress on reform and modernisation is accelerated. We are determined to see society and the economy in Northern Ireland transformed by ensuring that public spending is invested wisely to produce real benefits for the people of Northern Ireland in health and education; in children and young people; in promoting long-term economic growth through investment in skills and training; and in protecting the environment through the development of new sources of renewable and clean energy. Increased investment must be accompanied by radical reform of the way in which public services are planned and delivered, so that front-line services are more efficient and responsive to the needs of the citizens who use them. It is in this context therefore that the process of implementing in full the announcements made following the Review of Public Administration has already begun. We can ensure that the delivery of those services and the public sector infrastructure will meet the needs and expectations of this and future generations in Northern Ireland through a combination of investment and reform. That being so, I commend the order to the Committee. I look forward to what I hope will be an interesting and stimulating debate. As I said, I will do my best to answer detailed questions at the end of the debate. I beg to move. Moved, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Budget (Northern Ireland) Order 2006.—(Lord Rooker.)