To ask the Minister of Finance for her assessment of the impact the discontinuation of an October monitoring round will have on Department's budgets.

The number, timing and scope of in-year monitoring rounds may vary depending on circumstances in any particular year.

Recently the usual approach has been to hold three monitoring rounds per year in June, October and January. The timing of Westminster fiscal events means that there is more likely to be Barnett consequentials available for allocation in the June and January rounds. The June round may also allocate any carry forward from the previous year.

The October Monitoring round is less likely to have additional funding available from fiscal events. Since 2021-22, departments have more flexibility to manage their budgets without recourse to the Executive, therefore, a reduction to two monitoring rounds will have less impact on internal departmental decisions. In addition, there is usually only a short period between the October monitoring round concluding, and the start of the January Monitoring round, meaning there is limited time for significant budget changes.

Therefore, I do not consider that the discontinuation of October monitoring round will have a detrimental impact on departments’ budgets.

However, the intention would be to review the need for a third monitoring round in light of specific circumstances each year.

For 2024-25 the intention is to hold an October Monitoring round as this will provide an opportunity for the Executive to consider the results of the departmental equality screening/ impact assessments on decisions relating to Budget 2024-25 and determine if any budget adjustments are required.