Strengthening the Integrity of the United Kingdom

Strengthening the Integrity of the United Kingdom

● This Government will continue to build on the success of our United Kingdom.

We are committed to protecting and promoting its combined strengths and the values we share, and to ensuring the institutions of the United Kingdom benefit people in every part of our country, building on hundreds of years of partnership and shared history.

● When we work collaboratively as one United Kingdom we are safer, stronger and more prosperous and better able to tackle our shared challenges. Together, we are better able to draw on the skills of our great shared institutions like the NHS, the armed forces and civil service, to tackle the big issues – from defending our borders, to being a world leader in offering the COVID-19 vaccine to all our citizens and protecting 11.7 million jobs through our furlough schemes. Most recently it has been fantastic to see people and organisations from all over the

UK come to record their interest in our Homes For Ukraine scheme.

● As the UK Government, we are committed to ensuring that opportunity is shared across every corner of the UK. The Spending Review 2021 set the largest annual block grants, in real terms, of any spending review settlement since devolution in 1998. We are investing across the UK through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, the Community Ownership Fund, and the Levelling Up Fund, worth £2.6 billion, £150 million and £4.8 billion respectively until 2025.

● The UK Government is committed to effective collaboration with devolved governments to deliver for people across the UK. This spirit of cooperation is at the foundation of the arrangements recently agreed in the review of intergovernmental relations, it is also shown in the way we work together including our collective response to COVID-19.

● We are also clear that we will only be able to level up and create prosperity across the UK if all levels of government pull together, and we are committed to working closely with the devolved governments, local leaders and wider partners across the UK. We have launched, with the Scottish Government, a competition to establish two Green Freeports in Scotland, which will bring new jobs and increased investment to left behind communities across Scotland. We are continuing to work towards establishing the Freeports programme in Wales and

Northern Ireland as soon as possible.

Scotland

● People in Scotland have benefitted from our UK-wide £400 billion package of

COVID-19-related support which has protected over 910,000 Scottish jobs. Over the Spending Review 2021 period, the UK Government is providing an additional £4.6 billion on average per year to the Scottish Government through the Barnett formula, on top of the Scottish Government’s £36.7 billion baseline. The Scottish

Government can spend this funding as it sees fit in devolved areas.

● At the Budget in October 2021, the UK Government announced the first allocations for many of our UK-wide growth funds, including over £171 million for eight projects to improve infrastructure in Scotland as part of the Levelling Up

Fund and over £1 million to five projects through the Community Ownership

Fund to save community assets at risk of being lost, including the town hall in

New Galloway. In addition we announced 56 projects in Scotland would receive a share of over £18 million through the Community Renewal Fund. A new, £150 million British Business Bank fund in Scotland will support firms and the Scottish government is being provided with £1.9 billion for farmers and land managers and £42.2 million to support fisheries over the Spending Review.

● Scotland will also benefit from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, worth £2.6 billion across the UK over this Spending Review period, including £560 million to give people the opportunity to develop their numeracy skills through the ‘Multiply’ programme. This will give thousands of adults across the UK the opportunity to develop functional numeracy skills, and the new £1.4 billion Global Britain

Investment Fund will spread economic opportunities more evenly across the UK by supporting investment in industries including life sciences, offshore wind and manufacturing. We are bringing two Green Freeports to Scotland, with up to £52 million of UK Government seed investment. These will also play a key role in supporting the regeneration of communities, bringing jobs and prosperity.

They will also turbo-charge our commitments on net zero and support work to level up the whole of the UK.

● This is on top of the UK Government’s investment of almost £1.5 billion in

Scottish City and Growth Deals. Funding was accelerated in seven of these in

Scotland to drive forward local economic priorities in Tay Cities, Borderlands,

Moray and the Scottish Islands (announced in the 2020 Spending Review), and

Ayrshire, Argyll & Bute, and Falkirk (announced in the March 2021 Budget).

Wales

● Over the Spending Review 2021 period, the UK Government is providing an additional £2.5 billion on average per year to the Welsh Government through the

Barnett formula, on top of the Welsh Government’s £15.9 billion baseline. The

Welsh Government can spend this funding as it sees fit in devolved areas to

benefit people in Wales.

● At the Budget in October 2021, the UK Government made announcements on many of our UK-wide growth funds which will benefit Wales, including: the UK

Shared Prosperity Fund, worth £2.6 billion, which will invest in skills, people, businesses, and communities. The UK Government is also providing £900 million for farmers and land managers and £6.2 million to support fisheries, over the

Spending Review.

● £121 million will be allocated to ten projects in Wales via round one of the

Levelling Up Fund, including to revitalise the World Heritage Site around the

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, an important dualling of the A4119 in South Wales, and to redevelop the Theatr Brycheiniog Arts Centre in Brecon. Over £464,000 will be allocated to three projects in Llandwrog, Pen-y-Waun, and Tredegar from the first round of the Community Ownership Fund. The UK Government has also announced over £46 million for 165 successful Community Renewal Fund

Projects across Wales, which will help people into work, boost productivity and contribute towards delivery of net zero.

● The UK Government is investing £791 million into four city and growth deals that cover the whole of Wales. These deals are delivering results, from completed projects such as the new Swansea Digital Arena, to new jobs including as part of the Compound Semiconductor Cluster in Newport. At the Budget in October 2021 the UK Government also announced that it is accelerating funding for the Cardiff

City Region Deal, bringing forward £105 million for the remaining nine years of the Deal from 2022-23 onwards.

Northern Ireland

● Over the Spending Review 2021 period, the UK Government is providing an additional £1.6 billion on average per year to the Northern Ireland Executive through the Barnett formula, on top of the Northern Ireland Executive’s £13.4 billion baseline. The Northern Ireland Executive can spend this funding as it sees fit in devolved areas to benefit people in Northern Ireland.

● Other recent Spending Review measures announced for Northern Ireland include: £70 million in funding to help small and medium sized enterprises (SME); nearly £50 million to be invested in Northern Ireland to boost the post-pandemic recovery and enhance the Northern Ireland economy including £49 million from the Levelling Up Fund for 11 projects across Northern Ireland; and £1 billion in funding for farmers and £9.3 million for fisheries in Northern Ireland.

● Through the first round of the Community Ownership Fund, £300,000 was announced for the Glens Digital Hub in Cushendall based in the village’s vacant police station as part of the Grow The Glens initiative. A further £12.3 million was allocated to Northern Ireland for 31 projects under the UK Community Renewal

Fund, providing funding for projects such as the Mid South West Region Business Innovation Programme and the Mourne Mountains Community Renewal Through Nature project.

● The UK Government is providing substantial investment into Northern Ireland with over £3.5 billion being provided through the New Deal for Northern Ireland (£400 million), City Deals (£617 million), PEACE PLUS (circa £730 million including match funding contributions from the Northern Ireland Executive) and the New Decade, New Approach financial package (£2 billion). In addition, we have launched a number of different funding schemes to drive forward the economy and offer new opportunities for further investment in people, communities and infrastructure.

● The UK Government’s priority is to see a strong functioning Northern Ireland

Executive delivering a better, more prosperous, shared future for all the people of

Northern Ireland. As we have seen following the elections in Northern Ireland, the problems caused by the Protocol continue to stand in the way of an Executive being formed. In the interests of all communities of Northern

Ireland, the Protocol needs to change. We urge our partners in the EU to work with us, with new imagination and flexibility, to deliver that. We will continue to talk with the EU but we will not let that stand in the way of protecting peace and stability in Northern Ireland. As any responsible government would, we will take the steps necessary to protect all dimensions of the Belfast (Good Friday)

Agreement and meet our obligations under the New Decade New Approach Deal to protect Northern Ireland’s place in the UK internal market.

● The UK Government has also announced its intention to make further regulations to ensure that women and girls have access to safe, high-quality abortion care in

Northern Ireland. We will also introduce legislation in this session to address the legacy of the past and provide better outcomes for victims, survivors and their families and giving veterans the protections they deserve and legislation to deliver the package of identity and language measures as negotiated by the

Northern Ireland parties under the New Decade, New Approach Deal. More details on these two bills can be found later in this document.