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Consideration of thresholds for in-year monitoring - response

Letter from the Convener to the Chairperson of the Northern Ireland Assembly Audit Committee of 9 December 2021

Dear Daniel

Thank you for your letter of 29 November in which you ask for further information to assist your Committee in considering thresholds for in-year monitoring of the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission’s budget. As Convener to the Session 6 Finance and Public Administration Committee, I am happy to respond.

Under the Written Agreement between the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) and the Finance and Public Administration Committee, the SPCB has committed “to keep both the Committee and the Scottish Government informed of any substantive changes to the Scottish Parliament’s budget in recognition of the fact that these would affect the Scottish Government’s expenditure plans and the Parliament’s consideration of them”. Your letter seeks further clarification of what “substantive changes” means in practice and whether there is an expectation that the Committee would be notified of changes exceeding a certain amount.

In practice, there are a number of in-year adjustments to the SPCB’s budget in most financial years and all are handled through either an Autumn or Spring budget revision, which are Regulations laid by the Scottish Government, then considered by the Committee and agreed by the wider Parliament. The Scottish Government has an established process and timetable for seeking revisions from other bodies, such as the SPCB, to be included in the Regulations. Through this process, both the Scottish Government and the Committee are notified of all changes to the SPCB budget. If the change is substantial, the Committee may invite the SPCB to provide further details and/or to give evidence at the meeting at which the Regulations are considered. All adjustments to the SPCB’s budget are also reviewed by Audit Scotland as part of the annual accounts audit process.

In practice, in-year revisions to the SPCB budget tend to fall in the following categories:

• Officeholders (DEL): the transfer of funds from the Scottish Government to the SPCB to fund additional powers and new responsibilities of officeholders. For example, this year, the Spring Budget Revision is expected to be used to transfer funding for the set-up and year one running costs of a new Biometrics Commissioner.
• Annually Managed Expenditure (AME) adjustments: for the SPCB, these primarily relate to the Members’ Pension Fund, where the AME requirement covers the non-cash pension liabilities in the accounts outturn statement. This is reviewed in-year as actuarial assumptions can have a significant movement and are based on the opening values from the previous year’s accounts.
• Accounting adjustments (DEL): the SPCB has previously used an in-year revision under this category for £800,000 depreciation due to building revaluation and relifing of certain assets.
• Additional costs (DEL) – in common across the Scottish public sector, the SPCB in 2019-20, used an in-year revision under this heading where the Government changed pension contribution rates and provided funding in-year to meet these.
• Returns to the Scottish Consolidated Fund (SCF) (DEL): the SPCB has previously returned funds to the SCF through an in-year revision, for example, in 2013-14, when it received a rates rebate in excess of £3m.

I hope this information is helpful in informing the Audit Committee’s consideration of in-year monitoring of the NIA Commission. Should it be useful to receive further details, the clerks to the Committee and officials more closely involved in the SPCB’s work, would be more than happy to help.

Yours sincerely

Kenneth Gibson MSP
Convener
Finance and Public Administration Committee