T3. Mr Harvey asked the Minister of Finance to outline the financial support that he has provided to the Department for Infrastructure to tackle climate change, given that he will be aware that all Departments are engaged in work on climate change. (AQT 1793/17-22)

The Department for Infrastructure is one of a range of Departments. As part of the pre-planning exercises, before we knew the outcome of the spending review, we presented to Executive colleagues a range of priorities with which we believed the Executive should engage. Health was one, obviously. Others were green growth and recovery, sustainable economic growth and tackling inequalities. We invited Departments, including the Department of Infrastructure, to make bids against the priorities. By doing that, we will get a sense of the contribution that Departments want to make over the next three years, but we have to match that against the resources that we have for those Departments over that period.

I thank the Minister for his answer. He will be aware that there is growing demand for electric vehicles and, especially, charging points. Does he have plans to commit additional budget to that area in the coming year?

The Department for Infrastructure has been looking at how to do that. I heard the Minister for Infrastructure, when she was answering questions yesterday about the British-Irish Council transport meeting that she was at, saying that we have also offered to look at building regulations to see whether to include charging points in new buildings.

Some of it is about financial contributions, but we can do other things to make sure that the electric charging infrastructure is sufficient to encourage people to make the move from fossil fuel powered vehicles to electric vehicles. We need to make sure that the incentives are there and that some of the issues that concern people, such as access to charging, are dealt with. Through things such as building regulations, as well as through some financial contribution, the Department of Finance can contribute to that.