The civil service in Northern Ireland is under “major strain” due to the magnitude of European Union regulations it must scrutinise in relation to the Windsor Framework, as highlighted by a prominent British research institution. It is pointed out that whilst devolved UK governments like Stormont now manage as much workload as the UK government, they lack the necessary resources to effectively handle the multitude of guidelines and laws, according to the UK in a Changing Europe.
The research body expanded on this by stating, “This encompasses not only managing new border procedures, but also staying current with EU legislations that are relevant and potentially applicable to Northern Ireland, which appear in hundreds each quarter.” It has been acknowledged that the Northern Ireland Assembly will now get early access to any changes in relevant EU laws by the UK government. However, Stormont will need to independently analyse these changes.
They further noted, “Managing Britain’s post-Brexit responsibilities will likely impose substantial strain on a civil workforce who number around 22,300 – a statistic slightly greater than that at the time of the referendum.” The civil service in Northern Ireland has delegated staff over to Brexit-related work, though it comes at the expense of other tasks. Their ability to hire additional staff has been limited since 2017, due to the absence of an Executive up until early 2020, and from 2022 till February of the same year.
By contrast, when looking at the staffing levels, it is observed that the Scottish civil service saw a surge of 66% or 10,500 officials post-Brexit, although this growth was driven by the devolution of new social security and tax powers to Edinburgh unrelated to Brexit. The workforce in Wales meanwhile, has increased by 13%.
In addition, the research body raised questions around environmental regulation, stating that due to budget reduction, the Office for Environmental Protection (which oversees England and NI) may now have to restrict itself to a “limited number of major investigations each year”, a problem that is worsened by a dwindling financial support from Stormont.
The think tank belives that the manner in which Stormont will manage its obligations to Windsor have yet to be ascertained. The functionality of the Stormont Brake – a privilege that allows MLAs to oppose the imposition of EU regulations on Northern Ireland – is also unclear.
This may create recurring disagreements within Northern Ireland regarding whether to align with the rest of the United Kingdom or with the Republic by declining this alignment. The analysts caution that only London has the power to exercise the brake and not Stormont, leading to potential disputes.
A deviation by London from rigid UK/EU law adherence could fuel another round of mistrust between EU and UK. Should London refuse a brake request by the unionists, it may appear to significantly fail the promises made by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to rectify the “democratic deficit” of Windsor, thus adding fuel to the instability of Stormont, as per the think tank’s report.