Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Finance – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 2:45 pm on 16 September 2024.
Caoimhe Archibald
Sinn Féin
2:45,
16 September 2024
The future of the Shared Prosperity Fund beyond March 2025 is of immediate concern and is something that I have been pressing the British Government for progress on. I wrote to Angela Rayner MP as soon as she was appointed Secretary of State, highlighting the lack of information on a successor programme and the impact that this uncertainty is having on our community and voluntary sector. I asked that she deliver on the Labour Party manifesto commitment for greater devolved decision-making. I have also written to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury to raise my concerns on this issue.
Tomorrow, I will be meeting Minister Alex Norris, who is responsible for future funding in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. I will use this opportunity to once again press for urgent clarity on future funding, asking that sufficient funding is provided and that there is a meaningful decision-making role for the Executive.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
