Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what steps he is taking to help the Department of Education in Northern Ireland to maintain the (a) Engage and (b) Healthy Happy Minds programme.

Education is a devolved matter in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Department of Education has the responsibility for matters relating to the provision of the Engage and Healthy Happy Minds programmes in Northern Ireland.

In the absence of functioning devolved institutions, Northern Ireland Office officials are working with their counterparts in the Northern Ireland Department of Finance to set the Northern Ireland budget for the 2023-24 financial year.

The right people to make these decisions are locally elected politicians in a fully functioning Northern Ireland Executive and Northern Ireland Assembly. In the absence of these, it will be for the relevant Northern Ireland department, in this case the Department of Education, to manage its funding, including provision for the Engage and Health Happy Minds programmes.