Warning over undergraduate places if Stormont budget not agreed

Stormont departments may have to start making cuts from the end of July if a budget has not been agreed, a senior civil servant has warned.

Ian Snowden, the top official at the Department for the Economy, said it would mean universities having to cut 1,700 undergraduate places in September.

The executive has failed to reach a final agreement on the draft budget which was published in January.

Departments are operating under contingency measures which include the assumption they will have around 95% of last year’s budget to spend.

Snowden said that would begin to bite in about six weeks.

He told assembly members: “If there’s no budget agreed by the 31st of July then those numbers effectively become the budget that we need to work to.”

He said that in his department that would mean 6% cuts for organisations they fund such as universities.

He added that if a budget was agreed then additional funding will go to universities, though the amount was uncertain.

“But as things stand at the minute if we get to the end of July and no budget is agreed then those are the numbers everybody will be working to which is 1,700 less undergraduate places.”