MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Extra funding (£1bn) promised to Northern Ireland needs Parliament approval

The money was negotiated by the DUP leader Arlene Foster in June as part of its confidence and supply deal with the Conservatives.

Parliament will need to approve the provision of £1bn of extra funding for Northern Ireland, according to lawyers acting for the government. The money was negotiated by the DUP in June as part of its confidence and supply deal with the Conservatives.

 But lawyers said it has yet to be made available and any additional payments must be authorized by parliament through the normal budgetary process.

“No timetable has been established” for the release of the money, they added.

The comments came in legal correspondence between the government, businesswoman Gina Miller and a trade union - the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain - who have been seeking to challenge the DUP deal payments in court.

They claimed that the £1bn funding was improper and discriminatory. The government rejects the claimants' challenge.

Ms Miller told the BBC's Stephen Nolan Show on Monday she was “stunned” that the DUP cash required parliamentary approval and that this aspect of the deal had not been widely known.

She said she assumed the DUP and the Conservatives could push the extra payment through. But she questioned whether some Conservatives who are unhappy with the DUP deal, such as the Scottish Conservatives, might take “disruptive” action.

Ms Miller said she did not see any space in the government's legislative program for a separate vote on the DUP cash and wondered whether the payment could be included in the budget in November.

DUP MP Sammy Wilson said that parliamentary approval was the “normal process” for money being allocated by the government and that there is “the promise” that the money will come.

“The government can't spend money without parliamentary approval and, since the money will be spent year-on-year, we would expect to see that in the estimates for Northern Ireland on a year-on-year basis.”

The government's lawyers have indicated any additional payments are likely to be included in the “main or supplementary estimates of the Northern Ireland Office for the financial year in which they are made”.