Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, whether Northern Ireland Executive approval is required for the Department for Communities to establish the building safety fund to remove dangerous cladding from high-rise buildings in Northern Ireland.

In the absence of Northern Ireland Executive ministers, the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc.) Act 2022 provides Northern Ireland civil servants with the clarity they require to take the limited but necessary decisions to maintain delivery of public services and operate in the public interest. Specifically in clause 3, subsections (1) and (3) remove the need for Ministers or an Executive Committee to be in place to enable the exercise of departmental functions by senior officers in Northern Ireland departments if they deem it in the public interest.

The accompanying guidance to the Act, published on 19 December 2022, helps NI departments determine whether exercising a function is in the public interest and lists the principles that they should take into account when making such a determination. The Government cannot and should not anticipate the decisions that civil servants will need to take under this Act. Consequently, the Government does not intend to comment on which decisions require Executive approval.