Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of funding for the delivery of public services in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Steve Baker
This Government has given £7 billion in additional funding to NI since 2014 on top of the Barnett-based block grant.
Budget allocations for Northern Ireland departments have been determined with the objective of protecting front-line services.
Funding alone will not solve the systemic issues facing public services in Northern Ireland - these must be addressed by a restored Executive.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, on how many occasions her Department applied the exemption in section 38(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (disclosure likely to endanger the physical or mental health of any individual) in wholly or partly refusing a freedom of information request in each of the last five years.
Answered by Theresa Villiers
The Department does not separately record use of exemptions under section 38(a) and 38(b), but does record use of section 38 as a whole. During the past 5 years this exemption was used three times in 2010, three times in 2013 and not used in 2011, 2012 and 2014.
Statistics on the use of Freedom of Information exemptions are published by the Ministry of Justice (Table 10 of annual reports). They are available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, on how many occasions her Department applied the exemption in section 38(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (disclosure likely to endanger the safety of any individual) in wholly or partly refusing a freedom of information request in each of the last five years.
Answered by Theresa Villiers
The Department does not separately record use of exemptions under section 38(a) and 38(b), but does record use of section 38 as a whole. During the past 5 years this exemption was used three times in 2010, three times in 2013 and not used in 2011, 2012 and 2014.
Statistics on the use of Freedom of Information exemptions are published by the Ministry of Justice (Table 10 of annual reports). They are available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics.
Asked by: Peter Grant (Scottish National Party - Glenrothes)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what instructions have been given to staff in her Department dealing with freedom of information requests on the application of Freedom of Information Act Awareness Guidance No. 19, issued by the Information Commissioner's Office, in considering whether to apply the exemptions in section 38 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Answered by Theresa Villiers
No Northern Ireland Office (NIO) specific guidance has been issued to staff on the application of Freedom of Information Act Awareness Guidance No.19, issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office, about the application of section 38 of the Act. However, NIO staff responsible for preparing FOI responses regularly refer to ICO and MOJ Guidance on the application of exemptions.