Debate contribution: RHI Inquiry Recommendations: Implementation

Debate contribution by Dr Caoimhe Archibald on 5 November 2024.

MLA

Dr Caoimhe Archibald

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

5 November 2024

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

RHI Inquiry Recommendations: Implementation

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4632136

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Go raibh maith agat, a Phríomh-Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

I welcome the opportunity presented by the debate to update Members on the action taken following the RHI inquiry report and to set out some of the significant progress made to date. At the same time, I recognise that more work needs to be done. I am committed to addressing the remaining recommendations in the context of wider transformation, including continuing development and change in the Civil Service. The recommendations of the RHI inquiry informed an extensive body of change in the Civil Service, the bulk of which has been implemented in the unprecedented context of the COVID pandemic, in the absence of functioning political institutions and against significantly constrained budgetary situations. Members will recall that the inquiry report was published just the week before the COVID lockdown was announced. The pace and intensity of the work put in by Ministers and officials to pivot and respond to a global pandemic, including the allocation of some £3 billion of funding to support lives and livelihoods, puts the implementation of the inquiry's recommendations into perspective. The Audit Office makes no reference to that context in its report. The fact that an Executive subcommittee, comprising six Ministers, met three times in that context over the course of the second half of 2020 is testimony to the seriousness with which the Executive addressed the challenges of the inquiry report. To be clear, however, under its terms of reference, the subcommittee was to meet after the publication of the inquiry report in order to produce an action plan for implementation of the recommendations flowing out of the RHI inquiry report and to agree a final report to be submitted to the Executive for publication. At its third, and last, meeting on 16 December 2020, it completed its preparation of the action plan. Its final report was agreed by the Executive in October 2021. Of course, a body of work, which drew upon the evidence to the inquiry as it was heard, had already been initiated by my predecessor in the Department of Finance and by officials in the absence of the inquiry's completion. Opportunities for improvement were identified, and policies and processes were subject to review and revision. The programme of work was widespread and included the revision of the ministerial code, the NICS code of ethics and the code of conduct for special advisers. Those changes have been reflected in a new special adviser letter of appointment, a code of conduct for the appointment of special advisers and special adviser induction; the appointment of ministerial private secretaries at grade 7 and the issue of revised private office guidance; the initiation of work to establish a project delivery profession in the Civil Service; a review of the professional development of Civil Service economists through formal learning and managed rotation around posts; and a review of the use of the electronic records management system and records management practice in Departments. Following the publication of the inquiry report, further work was taken forward, including the issuing of key guidance on project management; the establishment of project, programme and portfolio offices in each Department; the formalisation of SRO appointments; the introduction of the five-case business model for business cases, reflecting good practice in other Governments; the launch of a cross-departmental raising concerns policy framework to improve the handling of concerns, secure consistency of practice, shift culture towards welcoming concerns being raised and inform the NICS board about what those arrangements show us; the initiation of a strategy for the development of the policy profession in the Civil Service, including the development of new, fundamental guidance for policy teams, which has since been used as the basis for the refreshing of the learning and development offer; the revision of the guidance on the use of consultants; and the commencement of a fundamental review of Civil Service recruitment. Eleven of the 16 recommendations assessed by the Audit Office as not yet implemented are, in many cases, substantially complete already and are only awaiting completion and verification. In respect of the remaining five, substantive change has already been achieved. The Audit Office's assessment is concerned primarily with the external verification of changes that have already taken place. I will address those recommendations now. The inquiry recommended that Ministers should read the legislation that they bring to the Assembly and that the evidence should be made available. It is incumbent upon Ministers to familiarise themselves with the legislation that they are presenting to the Assembly for approval. The relevant evidence is published at consultation and scrutinised in the Assembly. The question is not whether the Executive intend to implement that recommendation; it is about whether we can ever put in a dedicated audit process to demonstrate that a Minister knows the legislation or the policy that they are introducing. That is part of the scrutiny function of the Assembly. The inquiry recommended that external members be appointed to project boards. Having external expertise on project boards is explicitly recommended in the relevant guidance, "Dear Accounting Officer" letter 05/23. The substance of the recommendation has been implemented, and we know that external appointments are made. The Audit Office asked whether the Department of Finance should know whether that guidance is being implemented, separate from the role and responsibilities of the senior responsible officer and the accounting officer. We are exploring how best we might take that recommendation forward. The inquiry recommended that commercial awareness training be rolled out to relevant staff. A significant range of training on commercial expertise has been provided internally and externally. The specific terms of the recommendation were that decisions about who should access that training should be made at a senior management level. We can potentially address that area. The inquiry recommended that civil servants should understand and know how to use existing governance frameworks. Further work needs to be done on increasing civil servants' understanding of governance frameworks and policies, and we will seek to deliver that. The inquiry recommended that regular audits of record-keeping should be undertaken. Significant work has taken place on record management, going beyond the recommendations of the RHI inquiry. That work includes a review of information management policies to identify and address any gaps, taking account of emerging findings from the COVID inquiry; a new mandatory records management e-learning training package being rolled out to all staff; and the reconstitution of the information governance board as the senior information risk owner (SIRO) forum. The Audit Office report identifies one small element of just one of the recommendations on records management that it assesses as unlikely to be implemented. That is to commission internal audit to review the implementation of the new arrangements. It had always been the intention that internal audit should be commissioned to undertake a thematic review of information management, but no date had been set. Such a review will be of value only once the new arrangements have had a chance to be established and effected, so that we look not just at the implementation of the RHI inquiry recommendations but at further recommendations that have come through the COVID inquiry. I will move on to Civil Service reform more generally. I believe that Civil Service colleagues should be given every opportunity to do the good job that they want to do, and I agree with Paul Frew that many in our Civil Service do an excellent job and should be commended for it. Making effective change in any large organisation is challenging, but effecting change in a Civil Service that is managed in multiple distinct organisations is complex and demanding. From the outset, it has been clear that changing policies and procedures will not, by itself, change the habits of individuals, but changing the culture and behaviours across the Departments can take place only with an underpinning change in the rules. Corporate policies on HR, financial governance and information management have to make it easier to do a good job, not harder. Changes in policy then have to be combined with a demonstration of leadership by those who set the tone. Ministers and senior officials have to demonstrate and uphold the values that we want our colleagues to embrace. The experience of COVID showed us how Departments can move at pace, managing risk and ensuring proportionate governance and controls. Officials can demonstrate their initiative, innovation and commitment while serving the public through the elected representatives who form the Executive Committee.

I thank the Member for his intervention. The appropriate forum is the Assembly and Executive Review Committee. As my colleagues said, we are up for considering that conversation. It is important that the institutions function as effectively as possible, and we should all be committed to delivering on that. For the future, we should look to build positively on the experience of how Departments functioned at pace and delivered more innovative initiatives throughout COVID. RHI has taught us all that we must acknowledge our scale, collaborate and cooperate to achieve and not only uphold good practice in administration and management but understand why it matters. I have confidence in the Civil Service's commitment to its improvement and development. I am encouraged by the plans that the head of the Civil Service has been developing for effective change across Departments.

As part of that change, I will bring recommendations to the Executive on how the remaining work on the RHI inquiry recommendations is to be taken forward. That work will include a consideration of how delivery will be driven forward, overseen, monitored and recorded. I want change to be driven strategically, following a service-wide analysis of what is needed. I believe that the remaining tasks can be part of a wider agenda for change and development in the Civil Service. They can contribute to more significant and substantial projects, such as the work on Budget sustainability, the projects flowing from the transformation fund or the development of the five-year people strategy. I note the continued interest among Members in the delivery of change in the Civil Service, Departments and the Executive, and I look forward to working together to secure improved government for the communities that we serve.

1,697 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:31 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

Disagree with this assessment?

Classifications can be challenged. A person reads every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.

Challenge this classification