UK Government confirms £430 million funding for Devolved Administrations to tackle Covid

£430 million of additional funding from the UK Reserve will be made available to the governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to progress their vaccine rollout and wider Covid-19 response.

While the devolved administrations are well-funded to continue their response to Covid-19, and have their own reserves and contingency funds, any additional in-year Barnett funding will not be confirmed until early 2022 through the Supplementary Estimates process. HM Treasury has therefore announced that additional funding will be made available to the devolved administrations to provide greater certainty and allow them to plan as they tackle Covid-19 during the crucial weeks ahead.

The amounts being provided to each government are:

• Scottish Government – £220 million
• Welsh Government – £135 million
• Northern Ireland Executive – £75 million

These amounts will be kept under review in the coming weeks.

These are confirmed additional amounts on top of the funding set out at the Autumn Budget 2021, relating to health pressures and the Covid-19 Additional Relief Funding. It means that the devolved administrations have the certainty they requested to spend additional funding now rather than waiting for Supplementary Estimates in the new year.

The UK Government has already provided the devolved administrations with an extra £12.6 billion through the Barnett formula this year – this includes £1.3 billion confirmed at the recent Autumn Budget, which took their total funding this year to £77.6 billion.

This is on top of UK Government spending on vaccines and tests for the whole of the UK and UK-wide support for businesses and jobs.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said:

Throughout this pandemic, the United Kingdom has stood together as one family, and we will continue to do so.

We are working with the governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to drive the vaccine rollout to all corners of the United Kingdom and ensure people and businesses all across the country are supported.

If the amount of funding provided up front to each devolved administration is more than the Barnett consequentials confirmed at Supplementary Estimates then the difference will be repaid in 2022-23, or over the Spending Review period if necessary.

If the Barnett consequentials are higher than the amount provided up front then the devolved administrations will keep the extra funding.

Further information:

• Any changes to departments’ funding are confirmed at the end of the financial year through the Supplementary Estimates process. This process usually concludes in January/February before being voted on in Parliament. At this point the UK Government also confirms any changes to the devolved administrations’ funding.

• The UK Government and devolved administration ministers and officials continue to work closely together, including regular COBR meetings chaired by the Secretary of State for Levelling Up. The additional funding being confirmed today was discussed in advance by officials and at COBR.