By Eniola Amadu
A request by the Stormont Executive to help with the cost of paying hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation to police officers affected by a major data breach in 2023 has been rejected by the Treasury.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, James Murray validated this in a letter to Stormont’s Finance Minister John O’Dowd as seen by BBC News NI.
The Northern Ireland Executive has revealed it cannot cater for the £200m recovery plan to boost officer numbers as requested by the Police Federation for Northern Ireland (PFNI).
The PSNI had earlier demanded for a “direct intervention” due to lack of funds for help by Stormont.
First Minister Michelle O’Neil stated last month that the executive sought to set aside funds for expenses after the data breach which includes a potential settlement of approximately £120m.
Despite this, the request has been turned down by Murray stating in his letter to O’Dowd earlier this month that the executive was “able to foresee these pressures” but “chose not to set aside funding for them”.
It added that “ The Northern Ireland Executive must absorb these pressures as they do not meet the reserve claim criteria.”
A reserve claim refers to a request for funds from the Treasury’s reserve, which is set aside to address spending pressures that are unforeseen, unavoidable, or unaffordable within existing budgets.
Stormont’s leader of the opposition and chair of the finance committee, Matthew O’Toole revealed that it was “troubling” for officers to await their compensation.
According to him, he said “It isn’t enough to simply blame London all the time – they have had multiple chances to sort this out and now we have this potential liability to eat further into the justice budget”.
He further noted that “The justice and finance ministers and the whole executive have real questions to answer.”
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has already admitted liability for the August 2023 data breach, and settlement negotiations have been ongoing for a year.
The breach led to the accidental disclosure of personal details belonging to all 9,400 officers and staff.
Although the specific compensation details have not been made public, a letter to Finance Minister Conor O’Dowd confirmed that the Northern Ireland Executive had sought Treasury assistance to cover costs amounting to £119 million.
This marks the second time the Treasury has rejected the request, following an earlier refusal in November for one-off funding to support the payment.
