Department for the Economy Board minutes 2025 - 23 October 2025

Minutes of the September meeting were agreed without amendment.

Action point – Strategic Outcome Statements – to be reconsidered by the Working Group to frame as a description of what things will be like in 2030, with clear linkages to the underpinning metrics. Action complete, revised statements have been produced and will be circulated to Board members.

Ian Snowden presented.

• RHI Closure Bill has been introduced to the Assembly. It has had 1^st and 2^nd readings.
• RHI Tariff Regulations – the Economy Committee has raised some queries and as a consequence the implementation date for the new tariffs has been pushed back by two weeks.
• Security of electricity supply: as explained at last month’s meeting, due to the impact of Storm Darragh and problems at Coolkeeragh Power Station we have been relying more heavily on Kilroot to maintain system stability.  Annual run hour limits at Kilroot were increased by Executive at the end of September. Since last month, Coolkeeragh Power Station remains unavailable and a separate fault at Ballylumford requires shut down to facilitate a repair – will need to approach the Executive to agree an additional run hour limit increase.
• Launched Skills Action Plan 16 October.  Has been well received by the business sector.
• Figures show we now have 39% more apprenticeships in N.I. than 5 years ago.
• Executive decided N.I. will participate in FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2035. UK is the only bid at the moment. Cost of participating significantly greater than economic benefit.
• Invest NI conducted a review to confirm that it does not support the manufacture arms or their components for supply to Israel. It found that they have not provided financial assistance for such production.  However, criticism continues to be made that firms in NI are part of the supply chain for arms sold to Israel. Invest NI can’t fully track components once they enter complex supply chains. The Minister has asked Invest NI to develop an ethical investment framework. There have been pro-Palestine protests at Invest NI events and job fairs attended by DfE Careers Service staff.

Ian Snowden presented an initial analysis of DfE results in the 2025 People Survey.

• Employee Engagement Index at its highest ever level.
• Survey results tracked since 2017 for all questions common to each survey. Overall trends moving in the right direction.
• Drivers of low scores were discussed.
• The way forward includes changing the high number of neutral responses to positive.
• Action is being taken to address the results of the Survey.

Sharon Hetherington presented.

Budgets

• In year Resource DEL position looking ok.
• In year Capital DEL – some £10m pressure. We intend to make a bid.
• Looking forward, we expect a difficult, complex process with the draft Budget. Flat cash baseline the best outcome.
• DoF are commissioning a Monitoring Round.
• May be insubstantial Barnett consequentials as a result of the Autumn Budget.

2024-25 Group Annual Report and Accounts

• We have had 1^st sight of the auditors’ draft opinion.
• There are 3 elements to an expected Disclaimer Opinion: Insufficiently documented prior year adjustments that continue to impact on the opening balances (issue rolled forward from last year’s audit); lack of sufficient reliable audit evidence from NRC (a new reason for disclaimer this year, although it was mentioned in last year’s audit report); and lack of assurance on the student loans valuation (rolled forward from last year’s audit).
• The move to a new model for valuation of the student loan book from April 2026 may help address that issue. We are still in a user acceptance phase for the new model.
• In addition to the disclaimer, the accounts would have been qualified in relation to the regularity of PGA funding (rolled forward from last year) To be confirmed, the Audit Office is likely to also qualify the Department’s accounts on accruals not being accurate. This is a new issue identified in this year’s audit.  The Board agreed that it was an issue that management needed to understand and address

Report on Quality in DfE Funded Education & Training Provision April 24 – October 25

• There are a lot of positives in the report. We will be reviewing the function. We have a draft Terms of Reference which is soon to be agreed. There will be an evaluation of programmes.
• It was agreed that there is an opportunity to streamline and consolidate the report and going forward a Board paper could include quantitative results.

City Deals

• Circa 50% of DfE funding has been committed and approved.
• Some areas have had less capacity and capability to deliver.
• The Mournes Gateway Project will not now proceed. There will be an alternative by next summer.
• There are a few new risks. 

Project Stratum/Gigabit

• Project Stratum has been successfully implemented.
• NI leads the UK nations in terms of gigabit capable coverage with 94% of premises connected.
• Project Gigabit contract expected to be awarded in November.

ARAC Minutes of 19/8/25

• Meeting dominated with discussion around the 24/25 Accounts

Integr8 Update

• Routine update to note.

Q2 Update to Corporate Risk Register as at 30/9/25

• One risk has been escalated to the Corporate level.
• The residual risk rating of the Budget risk has increased.
• Economic Policy Group are considering how their risks are articulated.
• The Board approved the Q2 updates.

Shane Murphy presented.

• There are ongoing staff shortages with pinch points in every Group. Vacancies sit at 22%.
• DfE is a broad Department with a broad range of priorities.
• We are considering which areas need pausing, sequencing or perhaps left until another mandate with a view to presenting choices to Minister for prioritisiation. Provisional possibilities are with Permanent Secretary for consideration.

• Permanent Secretary is considering asking to be released from Operation Pegasus responsibilities due to work pressures on the security of supply issue.