Debate contribution: Northern Ireland Civil Service: Reform

Debate contribution by Mr Brian Kingston on 3 February 2026.

MLA

Mr Brian Kingston

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

3 February 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Northern Ireland Civil Service: Reform

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5363090

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. The DUP is pleased to bring the motion to the Assembly. We are calling for the much-needed reform of the Northern Ireland Civil Service. How our public services are managed, funded and delivered impacts on every person, every business and every corner of Northern Ireland, so it is incredibly important. Let me be clear: the motion is not about criticising the men and women who make up our Civil Service. We recognise the dedication of the civil servants who deliver public services under increasing strain. As we witnessed in the past week in the face of widespread flooding, many on the front line deliver vital services in challenging circumstances and with limited resources. However, accepting that many work hard does not take away from our responsibility to ensure that the system itself is fit for purpose. The Northern Ireland Civil Service has 24,500 staff. The staff and the structures need to be managed and coordinated better. With millions being spent on shared services, the management of Civil Service staffing and human resources lies with the Finance Minister. Last week's Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) report, 'Leading and Resourcing the Northern Ireland Civil Service', sets out a plethora of serious concerns and the failings of the Department of Finance to take action and get a grip. The report highlights weak workforce planning, a growing over-reliance on temporary and agency staff, rising costs and a lack of strategic clarity about the skills that are needed to deliver public services effectively. When it comes to delivering effective public services, every pound matters. Money spent inefficiently or wasted completely is money that is not available for front-line services, infrastructure investment or supporting the most vulnerable. The report shows that, as of April 2025, almost 5,000 agency workers were employed across our Civil Service — more than double the number in 2019 — at an eye-watering cost in excess of £500 million over the past five years. The conclusion to be drawn is clear: the system is not delivering best value for money. In the budget context in which the Executive operate, that cannot continue. We need to plan for the better integration of the voluntary and community sector, in recognition of how it delivers high-quality public services on the front line with high levels of skill and specialism. The Audit Office report highlights persistent high levels of sickness absence that cost £48·8 million in 2024-25, with an average of 13·4 working days lost per staff year, up from 12·6 days in 2018-19. There are no targets or action plans in place to address that. Department of Finance officials have said that it is up to each Department to manage it, yet, when we ask a Department, it says that that is managed by the Department of Finance shared services HR. It is clear that, when nobody believes that they are responsible, nobody is managing it. Alongside soaring costs and reduced workforce, staff are being failed, as the many HR issues that they face are not being picked up by anyone. Alongside all that, there are nearly 5,500 vacant posts across our Civil Service, and over 3,000 staff are temporarily promoted, which points to systemic workforce planning failures. The constant roll-forward of the same thing never gets to the root cause of the issues and fails to identify the true level of vacancies or need. Without reform, those problems will persist, costs will continue to rise and outcomes will not improve. We need to see reform. The DUP believes in making Northern Ireland work, and the public deserve better. We need a Civil Service that is properly staffed and focused on outcomes not just on processes. That means having the right people with the right skills in the right roles to match those skills: that is common sense. The ethos must be one that is ingrained with delivering high-quality public services and real value for money. That also means reducing dependency on agency staff, improving long-term workforce planning and ensuring that the leadership is equipped for and passionate about driving reform rather than managing decline. The motion calls on the Minister of Finance to put forward a clear, time-bound plan to address the issues. That is particularly urgent given that the Audit Office findings follow up recommendations first made in 2020, only a minority of which have been fully delivered five years later. Endless reviews with no meaningful change will not deliver transformation in outcomes. Any plan must be purposeful, measurable and, most important, accountable. This is about making Northern Ireland work better. It is about ensuring that our infrastructure and public services are resilient, efficient and capable of meeting future challenges. It is about embracing new ideas, modern ways of working and a culture that rewards innovation, initiative, outcomes and responsibility. Above all, it is about accountability to taxpayers, service users and future generations. The Executive cannot keep recycling the same approaches and then complain when the outcomes do not improve. It is time to do things differently and better. Reform is necessary to ensure value for money and effective public service delivery. There cannot continue to be a cry of "British austerity" and going to His Majesty's Treasury to ask for more money. It must be about a combined approach that looks not just at sustainable funding. Of course, we believe that Northern Ireland has been underfunded: that has been the analysis of the Department of Finance for some years. We are suffering because of that underfunding, and our public services have suffered because of it. We want adequate funding, but we must also rise to the challenge. It is important that it is not just about how much money we have but about how we spend that money. We must spend it in the most efficient way, driving productivity across our public services and trying to eliminate waste where it occurs. That is the best use of public money. We need to drive efficiency and reform; we need to rightsize the Civil Service; and we need to get the right people with the right skills to help us to drive forward delivery in every Department. That will be critical. It is not just about how much we have; it is about how we use that money and how we drive delivery in every Department. The Finance Minister has a critical part to play in driving reform through his Department's roles in managing HR and the Northern Ireland Civil Service. We need to see progress, and we need a timeline and targets with measurable outcomes. As we work towards planning for a multi-year Budget, now is the perfect time to plan to transform how our Civil Service operates; strip out the unnecessary bureaucracy; transform the culture away from siloed working, which holds back so many services and strategies; and recognise the value of the staff and the partnerships with the voluntary and community sector and invest in those rather than in escalating agency costs. We have talented staff in roles that do not allow them to use their skills. The people strategy refers to a skills audit: that would be important in maximising the human resources that we have already. For too long, there has been a lack of progress. The time to take action is now. We call for the much-needed reform of the Northern Ireland Civil Service to maximise value for money in the delivery of high-quality, front-line public services. As I said at the start, how our public services are managed, funded and delivered impacts on every person, business and corner of Northern Ireland. Finances are tight not just in the public sector but in all of our communities. We call on the Finance Minister to take action today and to commit to transforming our Northern Ireland Civil Service. I hope that Members will support our motion.

1,316 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:30 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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