Department of Justice braced for ‘most challenging year’ amid funding challenges

Northern Ireland’s Department of Justice is facing £444 million of pressures ahead of its “most challenging year”, a Stormont committee has heard.

Of the pressures, £116 million is expected to be required for legal costs and compensation following the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s major data breach last year.

The Justice Committee, which scrutinises the work of the department, also heard the department recently received £6 million to deal with costs of the data breach so far.

The department funds the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) as well as the Prison Service, Legal Aid Agency and the Courts and Tribunals Service.

Officials from the department briefed the committee on Thursday over budgetary issues.

Senior official Deborah Brown said the department has had “one of the worst” budget settlements over recent years and described efficiencies as having been “maxed out”.

She warned that 2024/25 will be a “most challenging year” and without more funding the department could face a “very big overspend”.

“The Department of Justice budget has had one of the worst settlements over the last 10 years than any other department,” she told MLAs.

“Justice has only increased by 3%, health has increased by 70%, education has increased by 45%.

“The Department of Justice has continued to take on new initiatives and continued to deliver. Its efficiencies are all maxed out. We actually don’t have anywhere else to go on this and we are in a very critical situation.

“24/25 is the most challenging year that we have ever had.”

MLAs heard that the Department of Finance recently awarded an additional allocation of £6 million to cover the costs of the PSNI’s data breach.

But the cost of the data breach is expected to rise to a “significant amount” in the coming years.

Last August the details of almost 9,500 PSNI officers and staff were mistakenly published in response to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request.

The list included the surname and first initial of every employee, their rank or grade, where they are based and the unit in which they work.

Police later said the information is in the hands of dissident republicans.

UUP leader Doug Beattie asked officials what had been spent on so far on the data breach, and was told it included overtime costs and personal physical security measures being implemented.

Official Richard Logan said they expect the cost in future years to be a “significant amount” with compensation and legal costs.

He estimated it would cost £116 million in the next financial year.

Independent MLA Alex Easton described the projected £444 million of pressures on the department’s budget as “massive”, and questioned whether it will impact on police officer recruitment.

Ms Brown said a £141 million bid from the PSNI includes a plan to increase police officer numbers by 145.

She explained that would involve the PSNI recruiting 500 officers, and losing around 350, adding that there is a limit to how many officers they can recruit in one year.

“That would start to bring them back up from the number that they expect to reach at the end of March of 3,358 which is an all time low and nowhere near what was recommended in New Decade New Approach of the 7,500, and indeed is nowhere near the sorts of numbers talked about by the Chief Constable yesterday,” she said.

“But it will take them time to get back to that position so the bid that’s reflected for 2024/25 is the maximum that they could potentially bring in, in the one year.”

Mr Easton said he wanted to express his “deep concern” about police numbers.

In terms of the Prison Service, MLAs were told that an additional 38 prison officers are needed, with overtime currently making up the gap.

Meanwhile, Legal Aid was described as something which which has been “never properly funded”.

Ms Brown said last year from a baseline of £75 million, they secured another £20 million, but said demand is still exceeding the budget.

“The forecast demand this year is £116 million, we already started the year with a deficit,” she told MLAs.

“Moving into the 24/25 year as part of the £444 million, we have bid for £27 million. It needs 23 million just to keep pace with the demand of £116 million a year.”