Backbench Business Committee
16 June 2026
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Backbench Business Committee House of Commons
00:04 - 00:52
Speaker 1
Welcome to the meeting of the Backbench Business Committee where we will be considering three types of application. One mainly from select committees for bids for estimate day debates for Monday the 29th and Tuesday the 30th of June. And then debates requests for debates in the chamber or Westminster Hall in normal backbench business time. As colleagues who are here can see we've got a very long agenda and a brief with the threat of votes coming. So if you can keep your remarks pertinent and to the point that will help the committee and possibly help your case as well.
First up is a request for an estimate day debate by Tanya Atsa on the spending of the Northern Ireland Office. Tanya please present.
00:52 - 02:31
Speaker 2
Thank you chair and thank you members of the committee. I think it's very important that Northern Ireland Office spending is looked at with an estimate day debate. The financial situation in Northern Ireland is very precarious and has serious implications not just for Northern Ireland but also for the Northern Ireland Office and the Treasury which we believe will be of concern to members from across the house. Two and a half months into the new financial year the Northern Ireland executive has been unable to agree a budget with departments now reliant on contingency funding leaving the nearly two million people of Northern Ireland uncertain about the future of their public services. The vast majority of Northern Ireland's funding envelope comes from the funding provided by the UK government through the block grant and additional non-Barnett allocations.
Concerns have been raised by executive ministers regarding the adequacy of the funding settlement provided by the UK government which could be explored during the debate as well as what steps the Northern Ireland Office is actually taking to support the executive in urgently agreeing to a budget. So the UK government recently provided the executive with a 400 million loan to cover departmental overspends. The first repayment is covered in the main estimates. The UK government previously wrote off 559 million of executive debt in 2024. So there are now concerns that overspending is becoming normalized.
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