Some budget decisions can only be made by politicians, civil service head warns

Jayne Brady, head of the Northern Ireland civil service (NICS) was giving evidence to the NI Affairs Committee on the funding and delivery of public services in the region.

In the absence of an executive, Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris set a budget last week. The budget, which sees overall funding cut by 3.3% when accounting for inflation, means that cuts of £800 million will need to be made to public spending, according to the Northern Ireland Fiscal Council.

The Stormont government is not currently functioning due to the DUP’s ongoing protest against post-Brexit trading agreements.

Ms Brady said that the civil service would encounter “difficulty” in implementing the budget under current arrangements.

“There is difficulty, of course, within the budget which was outlined, and the Secretary of State I know presented this committee last week, and that budget outline,” she said. “But also there is difficulty in the governance arrangements which are needed to deliver within that framework and to give effect to those statements.”

Ms Brady stated that, as unelected officials, there would be decisions relating to the budget that the civil service would not be able to make.

“These decisions, of course, should always be made by those who are democratically elected and have the electoral mandate to make those decisions, so there will be decisions that we cannot make.”

Chairman of the committee, Conservative MP Simon Hoare, asked Ms Brady if there was a risk of the stasis continuing in Northern Ireland at a time when “quick order change” was needed. Ms Brady stated that officials were not in a position to make political decisions.

“Officials should have no role in political decisions. Absolutely, in your role, we are there to support the political process, but not to be involved in it and our input and analysis should be to advise and should be impartial and balanced in that provision,” she said.

She added: “The decisions that have been made, we have provided analysis on data and input as to the budget implications and the cost and provided analysis to the NIO, the Secretary of State has made the decision in terms of the budget. But I have to be clear that it is within those areas, there are decisions that cannot be made by civil servants for the very reasons that you set out.”

The committee also discussed the need for a long term transformational plan for Northern Ireland economy.

Ms Brady said a long-term plan for Northern Ireland’s spending would require stable political institutions.

“I would argue that we are at an inflection point where we need to reset what has worked well and where the enduring issues still are,” she said. “And that for me initially, and this would be my advice to an incoming executive, the stabilisation plan plus looking at the transformation and in that there will be degrees of hard decisions which need to be made, in the whole, in its entirety in terms of the looking towards what the fiscal floor may mean for Northern Ireland but also how we fund those services and how we commit to delivering on those transformations.

“And they will require stable institutions, they will require long-term decision making and long term budgeting as well.”

The permanent secretary for the Finance Department, Neil Gibson, was also giving evidence to the Committee. Mr Gibson said a systemic change was required to public spending in Northern Ireland and that the NICS is aiming to have a transformation plan ready upon the return of the executive.

“The sort of transformation we’re talking about will require a series of decisions over a quite protracted period,” he said. “It’s not as if there are 2,3,4 levers that just simply need pulled and there’s nowhere to pull them, it’s a more systemic change that’s required.

“I want to give all members assurance of the work that we’re doing with all the parties to talk about what that transformation journey looks like, and I know that’s an easier word to say than to implement but how would you govern a proper transformation programme? What choices would you take?

“Any basic analysis of the data will show the trajectory of health spend, education spend is not in keeping with the trajectory of tax incomes, and that’s not Northern Ireland problem, but we have to start somewhere and our job as public servants is to make sure all of that material for how a transformation programme would work, be governed, deliver, be monitored, is our job.

“And so when we talked, we’ve picked up on some elements this morning of things like fiscal floors, but there’s a whole gamut of things, digital transformation, service delivery, transformation, proper research to transform what we do, and we’re working very diligently with the parties to have that transformation plan ready for returning executive.”