Northern Ireland Secretary asks education department to make cuts to spending

Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has asked Stormont’s Department of Education to make significant cuts to its “current spending trajectory”. 

As departments were operating without proper budgets since the start of the financial year in April, Harris set a budget for them in a written statement to the House of Commons on Thursday.

A spokesperson from the Department of Health said it was “urgently assessing the implications” of the budget announcement.

As part of this process, we will need to examine the potential implications for next year’s budget, which was already projected to be significantly constrained,” the spokesperson added.