Mr Patsy McGlone (Mid Ulster): To ask the Minister of Justice to detail any assessment that has been made of the impact contingency spending arrangements, in the absence of an agreed Executive Budget, will have on (i) staffing levels; (ii) recruitment, and (iii) the filling of vacancies, within (a) her Department; and (b) its arm’s-length bodies.
Minister of Justice: (a) A Final Budget has not yet been agreed by the Executive and therefore the Department of Finance (DoF) Permanent Secretary provided each departmental Accounting Officer with a Contingency Planning Envelope (CPE) for their department on 30 April 2026. This covers both Resource and Capital DEL funding.
My Accounting Officer’s assessment is that there is a reasonable expectation that the Department of Justice (DoJ) will receive no less than the funding outlined in the proposed Draft Budget. This is not to prejudge any eventual Executive decision on a Final Budget.
Therefore, until such time as a Final Budget is agreed, DoJ business areas have been advised to continue planning on the basis of their Indicative Draft Budget allocations, rather than a lower CPE amount.
Extremely difficult decisions on prioritisation and service provision will still be required to manage my Department’s remaining pressures. This will inevitably involve consideration of issues such as staff numbers.
The impact on (i) staffing levels; (ii) recruitment; and (iii) the filling of vacancies is being felt across my Department as we continue taking action to bear down on costs (mainly via vacancy management and restricting discretionary spend) to ensure that we keep costs to a minimum and endeavour to live within the proposed draft budget allocated to Justice.
Recent recruitment activity has largely maintained existing workforce capacity by actively seeking to control headcount, whilst operating in an environment of increasing demand for services.
Vacancy management procedures across my Department have been strengthened to ensure that all vacancies are critically assessed, are affordable and sustainable within available resources, and contribute to the effective management of workforce numbers.
(b)My Department’s arm’s length bodies (ALBs) have also been advised to continue planning on the basis of their Indicative Draft Budget allocations, rather than a lower CPE amount. They have been advised to continue to focus on vacancy management and reducing discretionary spend, as well as giving due consideration to affordability before any new work streams or services are commenced.
As the ALBs are operationally independent it would be for each ALB to determine the impact on (i) staffing levels; (ii) recruitment; and (iii) the filling of vacancies.
ENDS
