Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have benefitted from £28 billion of UK government funding to the devolved administrations, figures released today by the Treasury show.
The annual publication of the Block Grant Transparency shows that since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic the Scottish Government has received an additional £14.5 billion, the Welsh Government an additional £8.6 billion and the Northern Ireland Executive an additional £5.0 billion.
This funding has enabled the devolved administrations to provide support to individuals, businesses and public services across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland through the Barnett formula in response to Covid-19 and will continue to support the recovery through 2021-22.
This comes as part of the unprecedented package of support for the whole of the UK throughout the pandemic, with £352 billion spent right across the UK on Covid-19 measures such as the furlough scheme, self-employment support, help for businesses and the procurement of vaccines.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Steve Barclay said:
The UK government is fully committed to supporting the entirety of the UK throughout the pandemic – with an additional £28 billion for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland since the start of the pandemic.
Over the past year we’ve protected jobs and businesses across the UK with furlough and other support schemes, our vaccine rollout is now helping us unlock the economy, and our Plan for Jobs is levelling up opportunity and helping people back into work.
The UK Government say it’s Plan for Jobs is helping to support, create and protect jobs across the UK. The Kickstart scheme is already helping thousands of 16 to 24 year-olds into work, the Restart scheme will help around a million people who’ve been out of work for more than a year, and 13,500 new Work Coaches have been recruited to give tailored support to people out of work.
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