Lord Empey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Empey on 2016-06-08.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the current borrowing limits imposed on (1) the Scottish Parliament, (2) the National Assembly for Wales, and (3) the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The Scotland Act 2014 permits the Scottish Government to borrow up to £2.2 billion for capital purposes and £0.5 billion to cover shortfalls in cash receipts. The Scotland Act 2016 provides for these to be revised in due course to £3bn and £1.75bn respectively.

The Welsh Government may borrow up to £500 million to cover shortfalls in the Welsh Consolidated Fund as set out in the Government of Wales Act 2006. The Wales Act 2014 confers aggregate capital borrowing powers of up to £500 million on the Welsh Government. In response to a specific request from the Welsh Government, the Government has also provided early access to these capital borrowing powers in order to support the delivery of the M4 relief road.

The Northern Ireland Executive has a statutory borrowing limit of £3 billion for capital purposes as set out in the Northern Ireland (Loans) Act 1975 as amended by the Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2006. The Northern Ireland Executive may borrow up to £250 million to cover shortfalls in the Northern Ireland Consolidated Fund as set out in the Northern Ireland Act 1998.