Simon Hamilton
Strangford · Democratic Unionist Party · Northern Ireland
“I have emphasised to the Member and the House before, that, whilst I accept that those are not good enough — that is why we have been developing the plan — there are alternative technologies in place that can present opportunities for those who just cannot get acceptable speeds.”
“I thank the Member for his intervention. There are some initiatives that I believe will help and act as a driver to improve broadband access. One such intervention is the broadband universal service obligation (USO), which is being taken forward by Her Majesty's Government.”
“I thank the Member for his question. However, he is conflating two issues. I wrote to his party leader, and indeed to all Assembly party leaders, before making the announcement that I did last week about wanting to publish the details of the businesses in receipt of the non-domestic RHI scheme. It was my intention to do that tomorrow.”
“<BR /> <BR />The Chancellor, in his autumn statement, made some more funding available for telecommunications, and my Department is studying that and seeking to avail itself of that to the fullest possible extent.”
“In addition, my Department is managing a contract for the delivery of the superfast rollout programme, which, by 31 December, will provide access to superfast broadband with speeds of at least 24 megabits per second to a further 38,000 premises, both business and residential, across Northern Ireland, including in the Newry and Armagh cons…”
“I signalled the intention to do this a few weeks ago. The Member and the House will know that inspections of all installations would have taken place over the 20-year lifetime of the RHI scheme.”
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“Some argue that the regional rate should be higher: I disagree. The economic pressures of recent years have been unprecedented, but I firmly believe that the Executive have taken a sensible and measured approach. <BR /> <BR />Allow me to move on to the more technical matters covered in the order. Its main purpose is to give effect to the decisions that were made in the 2015-16 Budget. Article 1 sets out the title of the order and gives the operational date as the day after it is affirmed by the Assembly. Article 2 provides that the order will apply for the 2015-16 rating year through to 31 March 2016. Article 3 specifies 31·86p in the pound as the commercial regional poundage and 0·4042p in the pound as the domestic regional rate poundage. <BR /> <BR />Members may note that the non-domestic poundage has decreased from last year.”
“That real-terms freeze is critical at a time when the system is changing as a result of local government reform and non-domestic rates revaluation, both of which come into effect on 1 April this year. <BR /> <BR />The Executive wish to continue the commitment of ensuring that household and commercial budgets are protected, given the continuing economic difficulties being faced across the board. Alongside the extension of small business rate relief, industrial derating, the empty shops rates concession, a district rate convergence scheme that is worth up to £30 million and the retention of relief for rural ATMs — all of which were brought forward this year by my Department — the order represents the best that we can do to balance the interests of ratepayers and the demands of public expenditure.”
“The economic outlook is improving, but there are still many challenges ahead. My Executive colleagues and I want to do whatever we can to make sure that the conditions for economic recovery and growth are in place in Northern Ireland. <BR /> <BR />The real-terms freeze is adjusted for the effect of inflation. We continue to use the Treasury gross domestic product (GDP) deflator, as it is known, as determined in the 2015-16 Budget. The legislation before us for approval is the simple outworking of that important Budget decision. It will fix two regional rates in the pound for 2015-16: one for households and one for business ratepayers. The new rates in the pound represent a small increase of 1·4% in the regional rate for the 2015-16 rating year for households and businesses.”
“<BR /> <BR />In the specific breakdown of rates bills, the regional rate represents just over half the typical bill, with the other half made up of the district rates that were set independently by the new councils. Since 2010, the Executive have frozen the regional rate in real terms to provide certainty and stability for businesses and households to plan and manage their finances. <BR /> <BR />I am proud of the fact that household bills in Northern Ireland are the lowest in the United Kingdom. In 2014-15, the average household bill in Northern Ireland was £825. That is almost half that in Wales and £622 less than in England. Since 2011-12, the non-domestic regional rate in Northern Ireland has increased by 9·3% in comparison with the uniform business rate in England, which has increased by 13·9% over the same period.”
“As Members will be aware, the order is brought forward annually and stems from the Executive Budget agreed in January. <BR /> <BR />The regional rate helps to supplement Northern Ireland’s share of national taxation allocated through the Barnett formula for public expenditure. It provides a supplement of between 5% and 6%, helping to fund departmental expenditure on hospitals, roads, schools and other essential public services and investment. To underline the significance of the rating system, well over £1 billion is now collected in rates — regional and district, domestic and non-domestic. Taken together, the domestic and commercial regional rate is forecast, as part of the Budget, to raise in the region of £650 million in the forthcoming financial year.”
“It will not be the case in every instance, but I hope that many of those who were bending the Member's ear last week will see an improvement when the new rates bills are issued in the next number of days, not just because of the small business rate relief scheme but because the revaluation reflects more accurately their rates liability and the rates valuation compared with the rental value.”
“I will make two points in the limited time that is available to me. First, the small business rate relief scheme, which is targeted specifically at small business properties, has been extended for a further year from 2015-16, giving £20 million support to small businesses across Northern Ireland. Secondly, non-domestic properties were revalued, both to adapt better and to distribute the rates burden, which has not increased, more fairly across businesses, using analysis of more current rents than for previous rates.”
“I have done all that I can, and I hope, in spite of everything else, that in the next number of weeks we are at least able to table the paper and see where people really stand on it when the cookie crumbles.”
“There is a convention that allows me to bring it for discussion but not for agreement. We could do that and have a discussion, but it will not go anywhere. I had hoped that the agreement reached at Stormont House would allow us to put the item on the agenda for a decision, and I will proceed on that basis in the next number of weeks, if we are still able to do that. I hope that, by doing that, the solution will be put on the table and Executive members can vote it up or down. The solution is probably far from perfect in the eyes of those whom it is targeted at, but it is at least a solution. I know from talking to many members of the PSNI and former NIO staff that they just want some form of resolution, because the situation has gone on for so long.”
“<BR /> <BR />I had hoped that the changes to the process for bringing business on to the Executive agenda that were agreed at Stormont House would allow the issue to be brought forward to the Executive in the not-too-distant future and allow those who, I thought, supported the claims being made by the members of staff whom the Member talks about to put their money where their mouth is and back the solution that I had put forward. However, given today's events, I am not even sure where those procedures will now be at.”
“I developed with officials a scheme that I thought capable of resolving the issue, not to everybody's satisfaction, I am sure, but it is a scheme that would go some way to resolving the issue and addressing the moral argument put forward. That paper has been with the Executive since roughly this time last year. It has not been tabled, because Sinn Féin has not agreed to table it. I believe that I have done everything that I can to produce a solution. I think that it is a viable solution, and I am sure that, if I were to reveal it to the House, people would ask about this and about that, but it is, I think, the best stab at a solution that is available in the circumstances.”
“I responded on that issue to Mr Elliott's colleague Mr Hussey at my previous Question Time a few weeks ago, and the situation has not changed since then. For the Member's benefit, I will reiterate the point that I made to Mr Hussey. <BR /> <BR />As the Member and the House will be aware, there is no equal pay issue here. That was settled by the court in the judgement made roughly a couple of years ago that there was no equal pay issue in that case. However, I and others were convinced of the moral case for the staff who were not able to avail themselves of the Northern Ireland Civil Service equal pay scheme.”
“That consequence could be the withdrawal of the available funding, which would have serious implications for the Executive's block grant and whether we could live within it or not. I do not suspect — I am guessing at this stage — that that would happen, but, irrespective of whether it did or not, there is an implication for how we repay the loan next year, because, as the Member and the House will recall, flexibility has been given to the Executive over how and from where we repay it. That was part of the agreement that was reached at Stormont House, and, if the Stormont House Agreement is out the window, so is that flexibility, and it will have very serious implications for our Budget, if not for this year, certainly for next year and definitely for years beyond that.”
“It is one of the factors, in my head, where there will definitely be a consequence.”
“The welshing, today, on the Agreement that all five Executive parties — including that which the Member leads — agreed to before Christmas and have been implementing post-Christmas, has a lot of implications flowing from it, not least budgetary implications and financial consequences. I will be studying that very carefully for the remainder of today and probably into tomorrow and will want, as I said in response to Mr Allister earlier, to take that up with my Treasury counterparts. <BR /> <BR />I do not foresee any implications for this financial year, but I can certainly see consequences for the next financial year and beyond.”
“Many of those people are NIPSA members, volunteering to come forward to see whether they might want to leave the public sector. This is not something that is being forced on anybody. If there is protesting, disagreement or anger to be put in any direction, it should be put in the direction of 10 Downing Street. That is where 95% of the Budget for Northern Ireland comes from. We have to make the best of what we have. We have a good Budget that is focused on key public services and economic growth. If the unions have anger and want to direct it somewhere, direct it where it should go.”
“<BR /> <BR />I can understand that there is concern within trade unions, just as there is concern across society at large, that we are facing a very difficult Budget situation next year, but whenever I hear — as I do frequently on the radio and television — unions talking about job losses in the public sector, let us bear in mind that, as I said in response to questions earlier, no one is being forced to leave the public sector in Northern Ireland. The voluntary exit scheme is exactly that: a voluntary exit scheme. <BR /> <BR />I can inform the house that, as of midday today, 3,774 expressions of interest have been made for the voluntary exit scheme, and that is just within the Northern Ireland Civil Service. Roughly 15% of the Civil Service have expressed an initial interest in the scheme.”
“It is, in many respects, counterproductive. Not only do I not think that strike action is justified, it would appear that, if the ballot for NIPSA, the largest public sector union in Northern Ireland, is anything to go by — where the vote was 52% in favour of strike, and 47% against strike action — that not all of the members of the trade union movement are convinced of the need to go on strike. It is not a hugely convincing win for strike action, particularly when you consider that it was voted for by only about 10% of all of NIPSA's members.”
“<BR /> <BR />I am not entirely sure what the impact will be, but one thing I am absolutely certain of is that the people who will suffer in Northern Ireland will be those who use our public services and rely on them every day.”
“Whilst I cannot predict the actual impact, the one thing I can predict with a degree of confidence is that services will suffer and that it is the public who will feel the ill effects of a strike of our public sector. It will be felt in hospitals, with delayed or cancelled appointments, or surgery, and it could well be felt in schools, if they have to close. <BR /> <BR />Sometimes, we forget that there will be a knock-on impact on the private sector as a result of strike action, particularly around school closures. Parents who work part-time and are reliant on putting their kids into school in the morning may have to take the day off. There will be revenue and income lost to households that rely on that work and rely on the schools to be there, and be open, every day of the week.”
“It is difficult to estimate at this stage in the week what the complete impact of the strike will be. As the House will expect, we will continue to monitor, over the next number of days, what the likely impact on public services, particularly key public services, will be as a result of the strike that is proposed for Friday.”
“I am very proud of the fact that, even in those very difficult years, in the face of a very difficult Budget over the last number of years, we have maintained our record of having the lowest household bills in the whole of the United Kingdom.”
“To do so in that way and support a range of infrastructure projects in social housing, urban regeneration, energy efficiency and energy production will ensure that we get around the very strict Treasury rules about borrowing for conventional capital projects like roads and hospital expansions. <BR /> <BR />I am very happy to do that, and I will continue to do that. I will avail myself of any opportunity to bring in finance that is suitable for Northern Ireland. I encourage the Member and all sides of the House that, when we talk about revenue raising in the traditional sense, let us not forget that someone has to pay. There are people in Northern Ireland, whether in businesses or in the community, in households, who are still suffering and still finding it hard to make ends meet.”
“The first question was about revenue raising and, indeed, the second question started off about raising revenue. Going to the European Investment Bank for support is not revenue raising. In fact, anything that we would raise would have to be repaid by the Executive. <BR /> <BR />I am not surprised that, not for the first time perhaps, Sinn Féin are slow learners. I went to the European Investment Bank about a year ago and started a conversation that has ultimately led to agreement by the Executive to create an investment fund for Northern Ireland. The objective of that fund, which I referenced in response to Mr Irwin a few moments ago, is to pump-prime that with roughly £100 million of our own financing and to draw down close to £1 billion from the European Investment Bank.”
“Some proposals came forward, but, to be perfectly frank and honest, many of them were messing around the edges and would not have had a significant impact on our Budget.”
“Again, there is an air of unreality. The House will know that, tomorrow, we will bring forward our Regional Rates Order, which is the largest source of local revenue that this Executive rely on. That is about 5% of our total Budget. It raises over £1 billion a year, which goes to central and local government. I am very pleased that the Executive have agreed to freeze in real terms the regional rate for the eighth consecutive year, which ensures that Northern Ireland continues to have the lowest level of household taxes in all of the UK. <BR /> <BR />The House had a debate around revenue raising a fortnight ago, and one of the things that I found enlightening about that debate was that no one was prepared to enlighten me about areas in which they would support the raising of substantial revenue.”
“All contracts that are based on Central Procurement Directorate’s (CPD) standard forms of contract will contain social clauses that relate to equality and health and safety. Departments can also include additional social clauses intended to deliver their departmental responsibilities and policy priorities and support the Programme for Government commitment. <BR /> <BR />The first year of reporting on the Programme for Government commitment was 2012-13. Reports provided by Departments show that, for financial years 2012-13 and 2013-14, 1,914 contracts included additional social clauses. However, not all Departments provided a report. It is disappointing that reporting is therefore incomplete. CPD will ask Departments to provide figures for 2014-15 in April.”
“It may help with those higher-risk projects, and I think that, when we have the opportunity at least to find out from Europe whether we can avail ourselves of them or not and, therefore, enhance our infrastructure, we should take those opportunities.”
“<BR /> <BR />However, some of the projects that I can think of are high risk in the sense that they are good projects but are very novel; they are trailblazers, not only in a UK sense but across Europe, so there is perhaps a degree of risk. What is being taken forward here by the European Union is precisely as the Member identified. These are the types of projects that the EU wants to back: those that are perhaps a little risky and that the market, therefore, is not fully behind or finds difficult to back. This cheaper financing from the EU would take away some of that risk and make those propositions a lot easier to bank or finance from conventional sources for whatever is left over.”
“We have to be careful in seeking investment from the plan. I am glad that we have been able to input into the UK-wide pipeline of projects, and I do not think that we should miss an opportunity to fly Northern Ireland's flag for particular projects that we have here that may be able to avail themselves of funding. <BR /> <BR />Obviously, there are some projects that we may instinctively think of as high risk. A big roads infrastructure project, for example, may not be as suitable for this type of financing because it requires a private-sector element. That does not mean that such projects are out, but they may be a bit more difficult to realise than others, particularly those in the energy sector, where, because of the heavy involvement of the private sector in our energy infrastructure, there may be better opportunities.”
“We are already working with the EIB to try to draw down substantial millions into our investment fund, but the fact that this EU-wide supported fund — the Juncker plan — is in place may help us to draw down even more. That may well be on top of other schemes, perhaps in the energy sector, and, indeed, others, where we could draw funds that would help the private sector to develop those infrastructure projects in Northern Ireland to enhance our economy.”
“There may be positive implications; I do not think that there any negative ones. There is potential for hugely positive implications for the creation of a Northern Ireland investment fund, and, when I look at the timeline of the EU's investment plan and our own Northern Ireland investment fund, it looks as if our decision in the Budget to create an investment fund and to stimulate that with some of our own capital and to draw down finance from the European Investment Bank might work in our favour. <BR /> <BR />The European Investment Bank (EIB), as the EU's own bank, is heavily involved in financing the EU investment plan. The fact that it is involved in the EU-wide fund and in our investment fund may mean that there are ample opportunities for us to work together to improve the investment fund.”
“My Department has submitted an initial list of infrastructure projects that has been included in the EU investment pipeline along with projects from the rest of the UK and other member states. Whilst not all the projects included in the pipeline will be suitable for financing under the EU investment plan, work is ongoing to identify those projects best placed to benefit from financing available. I have also invited EU vice-president Jyrki Katainen to Northern Ireland with the intention of promoting the investment plan. I want to ensure that the local business community is well placed to benefit from the financing opportunities arising from the investment plan for Europe, and I believe that an information event involving the EU vice-president would greatly assist in that.”
“In that respect, it is not a targeted scheme on a particular number of grades or a particular location or a particular section of the Civil Service. I am happy to follow up with the Member on the fallout or the outflow or what happened in respect of the DOE-run scheme that took place last year to respond to the shift of work from Coleraine to Swansea.”
“I am not sure; I think that the Member has conflated two issues, but I am happy to come back to her. I think that elements of what she is talking about probably concern jobs that have moved. I know that the Environment Minister moved a small number of jobs from Belfast and other parts of driver vehicle licensing to the Coleraine area. I think that a very small number moved from Belfast for that. <BR /> <BR />This voluntary exit scheme is for the whole Civil Service across Northern Ireland. It is open to civil servants wherever they are based, whether that is Belfast, Coleraine or wherever it might be. In that sense, there is no specific targeting of numbers for the Coleraine area, just as there is not a targeting of numbers for the Belfast area. That is because, as I said, the principle is to reduce the pay bill permanently.”
“An incredibly important issue in all this is that we continue to provide services at the standard and level that people expect. That will be difficult and incredibly challenging, and there will be some change for people that they would perhaps rather not undertake, but those are, unfortunately, the circumstances that we are in. <BR /> <BR />I will correct this for the Member in writing if I get it wrong in any way, but the enhancement for those on lower pay as a result of a superannuation Act that my predecessor took through the House some years ago ensured that those who were lowest paid had some degree of protection if, in the sort of situation that we are now in, there is a voluntary exit scheme or, indeed, a voluntary redundancy scheme.”
“A range of factors in skills and experience will have to be dealt with. It is a completely open scheme, with the exception of permanent secretaries, which the Member noted. Even they will be dealt with, because there are a few acting permanent secretaries at the minute, and the reorganisation of Departments will obviously deal with that situation. Officials from my Department have been on the record saying where people will exit the public sector, and at this minute in time, that will principally be from the Civil Service because that is the main scheme that is out there. That could leave issues with skills and experience in certain parts, and we will have to redeploy people from elsewhere in the system to those areas so that there can be continuity of business.”
“Given the very difficult financial circumstances that Northern Ireland faces not just next year but for several years into the future, that is the overriding and most important factor.”
“You can see how that would obviously happen through a voluntary exit scheme, but we have been conducting and acting on other strategic personnel interventions, including a freeze on new recruits. The headcount in the public sector has already been reduced by around 1,000 by just suppressing those vacancies. We have also been suppressing what are called funded vacancies, which are already in the system. There has been an embargo on substantive promotion, and I am still committed to bringing forward to the Executive a paper on further pay restraint in future years. <BR /> <BR />We hope that all those issues, plus the voluntary exit scheme, will help to achieve the 20,000 target but, more importantly, will suppress and lower on a permanent basis the pay bill.”
“A lot of misinformation has been put out, either deliberately or otherwise, about the voluntary exit scheme. For example, one piece of misinformation is that 20,000 jobs will be lost and that the figure that the Executive parties agreed at Stormont Castle was the target for getting rid of 20,000 individuals from their jobs. That was not the objective; it was about getting rid of that number of posts from the broad public sector. We have already been acting to do that in a range of different ways and through a lot of different strategic personnel interventions that will reduce our pay bill. <BR /> <BR />Whilst a voluntary exit scheme will certainly reduce the size of our public sector and help to rebalance our economy, the overriding objective is a permanent pay bill reduction.”
“Members will recall that large elements of what we are moving forward with in what is a difficult year in 2015-16 was predicated on a degree of flexibility, not least around a voluntary exit scheme. That is every bit as urgent to me as not moving forward with any other element of the Stormont House Agreement.”
“<BR /> <BR />There has been reasonable debate in the House between me and the Member and other Members about whether we should have been borrowing that amount of money, but in all of those discussions I do not think that anybody believed that we should not proceed with a voluntary exit scheme of some kind, in some way or another, to relieve pressure on budgets in future years. I will have to clarify with Treasury very urgently the financial consequences of not proceeding with welfare reform on that element of the Stormont House Agreement, as indeed I will have to clarify the implications for our Budget of not moving forward with other aspects of the Stormont House Agreement.”
“The Member raises a good point in respect of the financial consequences of not proceeding with welfare reform. Those in this House or elsewhere who think that not moving forward with welfare reform impacts only on welfare reform are kidding themselves. I have already described the impact that it will inevitably have on corporation tax. It could well — this is something that I will have to consider, not least in tandem with conversations with Treasury counterparts over the next number of days — have an impact on the available funding that was agreed through the Stormont House Agreement for a voluntary exit scheme.”
“There is no single business case for the public sector voluntary exit scheme. Each public sector organisation will prepare individual business cases to support bids to the public sector restructuring fund. The Northern Ireland Civil Service business case for the voluntary exit scheme covers the Northern Ireland Civil Service only. That business case was developed over a period of months before being approved by the project board and senior officials in January 2015. The Executive agreed the preferred option at their meeting on 5 February 2015.”
“In some ways, it is unfortunate that the Law Commission is going out of existence in a number of weeks, because that has disrupted the work that it has been doing on our behalf on defamation. I am keen that, in the limited time available to us in this mandate, we continue to move forward with the work and consider what changes to our law, if any, we should implement here in Stormont.”
“The Member has taken a clear position that one might expect him to take, given his professional background in journalism. There are a range of arguments that he has put forward, just as there are a range of arguments that others have put forward from a contrary position that I am keen to explore rather than just slavishly adopting what has happened in England and Wales. That is the essence of devolution: it is up to us to examine, from the particular perspective of Northern Ireland, what we want. <BR /> <BR />In respect of estimates of job losses and whether that would happen — I am not entirely sure that that would be the case — that is exactly the sort of issue that I want to see teased out through the work of the Law Commission.”
“Whether we get that work completed before the end of this year — I suspect that we will not — or have to extend the lead lawyer's work by a number of weeks, I am keen to see what recommendations for reform come back. Whilst 32 responses is not a large volume, the more important piece of work is any recommendations suggesting where we in Northern Ireland might change the law on defamation.”
“My understanding is that there were 32 responses. The last update I received was that there were two pending, so whether they have come in or not I do not know. Thirty-two is not what I would consider a large volume of responses. As they come, as you might expect, more from those in the legal community and the media who have a particular interest in the issue, it has not exactly set the heather on fire for public discourse in Northern Ireland. <BR /> <BR />Not a single constituent has raised the issue with me, and I think that many of us in the House would be able to say that. It seems not to be an issue at the top of people's agenda in any way, shape or form. That does not mean that it is an issue that we should not take an interest in, which is why I asked the Law Commission to do the work that it did.”
“<BR /> <BR />Mr Nesbitt, who is in the House, was bringing forward legislation in respect of the issue. Whilst he was in favour of adopting the England and Wales position, others were stridently against moving in that direction. I thought that it was important to get an independent voice and perspective from the Law Commission, which is what has been done through the consultation that has been carried out. I want to complete the work of bringing out a final report that may or may not contain recommendations for legislation that I would then consider.”
“I am concerned that the Member is seeking to curtail my right to free speech by suggesting that there are elements of the proposed defamation reforms or what is now the law in England and Wales and elsewhere that I object to. I asked the Law Commission to step in and do its work, and at that time there was no threat to the existence of the Law Commission. The Member's party colleague, the Minister of Justice, has signalled his intention for the Law Commission to be done away with at the end of this year, and I understand why he is doing that. I referred the issue to the Law Commission because there were strong arguments on both sides about whether we should adopt what has happened in England and Wales, retain the current position in Northern Ireland or go for some middle way.”