Question to the Scotland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what assessment he has made of the Barnett formula consequentials of the financial support the Government plans to make available to Northern Ireland as a result of discussions with the Democratic Unionist Party.

The UK Government has followed procedures set out in the Statement of Funding Policy, which in no way prevent the UK Government taking discretionary action to provide funding outside of the Barnett system.

The Barnett formula determines changes to block grant funding allocated to the devolved administrations by the UK government in relation to departmental spending within Departmental Expenditure Limits. As there has been no change in UK government Department Expenditure Limits, it follows that no Barnett Consequentials are generated.