To ask the Minister for Communities to detail (i) a breakdown of the funding for Severe Weather Emergency Protocol; and (ii) the amount of the funding that is spent by the Housing Executive, on their operational costs.

This issue is an operational matter for the Northern Ireland Housing Executive. I have sought the requested information from the Chief Executive, who has advised me as follows:

“Funding for the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) is managed within the Strategic Prevention annual budget that forms part of the Homeless programme. The expenditure for the last five financial years is detailed in the table below:

When implementing SWEP, the Housing Executive will utilise a range of options that seek to provide additional emergency capacity. These options include engaging with a range of partners seeking additional emergency units that are delivered at no cost to existing contractual arrangements and other options which require additional payments. The table above details those additional payments. There are no additional operational costs to the Housing Executive for SWEP as all staff requirements are considered part of business as usual.”