Oral Answers to Questions — Finance – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 2:45 pm on 14 October 2024.
3. Mr Durkan asked the Minister of Finance how many bids from the Minister of Health have been progressed by the interim public-sector transformation board. (AQO 961/22-27)
With your permission, Mr Speaker, I will group questions 1 and 3.
I established and appointed members to the interim public-sector transformation board earlier this year. A call for proposals was issued to Departments, and the interim board has been working to assess the proposals to determine which ones are transformative. It has now completed the first stage of its assessment process. Forty-seven proposals were received in total, 29 of which continue to move forward. Eleven of those have progressed to a stage two assessment, whereby, having received feedback from the interim board, Departments will submit a revised proposal by 18 October for a final assessment. The remaining 18 proposals have been included in a digital landscape review, allowing the interim board to consider them collectively and to take a more strategic, system-wide approach to digital transformation.
The Department of Health has four proposals that continue to progress. One of them has moved to the stage two assessment, and three are included in the digital landscape review. In due course, the interim board will provide advice to me on what proposals it considers to be transformational. I will then bring recommendations to the Executive for agreement.
I thank the Minister for her answer. We understand that the £235 million will be delivered in tranches of £47 million over five years. Will the Minister outline whether the flexibility and profile of that funding have been agreed with Treasury to ensure that we maximise the investment over that timescale?
I thank the Member for his question. Obviously, we are getting quite the way through the financial year. The timescale was always going to be challenging, given that we had to set up the board this year. I have raised that point in my engagement with the Chancellor and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury in order to seek some flexibility on it, should we need it. I anticipate that we will not spend the full £47 million this year. We want to get the best bang for our buck from the money that we have. We have to make sure that the money that is spent is spent on projects that are actually transformational.
I thank the Minister for her answer. Is it acceptable to her that the NIO permanent secretary sits on the public-sector transformation board, giving the UK Government a de facto say on key devolved spending priorities and, some might argue, even more of a say than it gives the Executive?
I do not accept the latter point. Obviously, the interim board is working under the Executive's direction. They agreed to my transformation programme proposal at our meeting on 9 May. The British Government's role is primarily through having representation on the interim board. As I outlined to Mr Mathison, the board's role is to determine what proposals are transformational. Ultimately, it will still be for the Executive to make the decisions on proposals that are recommended for funding. The British Government's role was set out in the financial package, in correspondence from the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and in the interim fiscal framework. Assessing proposals as transformative is part of their role on the transformation board.
Will the Minister expand on the expected outcome of the digital landscape review that she mentioned? Will projects go ahead in the same way after it is completed?
Given the number of departmental proposals that were digital in nature, the interim board saw an opportunity to consider them collectively, allowing for a more strategic, system-wide approach to digital transformation. It therefore recommended undertaking a digital landscape review to facilitate that. I agreed to the development of terms of reference for the digital landscape review in my letter of 30 August to the head of the Civil Service. The Executive Office is taking the lead in developing the terms of reference on behalf of the interim board and will be taking the work forward with the support of my Department. Obviously, we are not able to pre-empt the outcome of the review or what the interim board will advise based on its findings, and it will also need to go through a procurement process. The review is expected to be commissioned and concluded by the end of this year.
Further to my friend Mr Durkan's comments, are we envisaging Julie Harrison becoming a member of the permanent public-sector transformation board? Is that enshrining the Northern Ireland Office at the centre of our Government?
As has been set out, we appointed members to an interim board. We are working through the development of terms of reference, and everything will have to come back to the Executive for decision-making. I am clear in my mind that the public-sector transformation board, as it is constituted, relates only to the £235 million of transformation funding that was in the financial package. The terms of the financial package required the setting up of a transformation board, with membership to have representation from the British Government as well as the Executive, to enable access to that pot of funding, but I am clear that the decision-making in relation to the allocation of that funding rests solely with the Executive. I expect that that will be set out in the terms of reference.