AQW 20606/22-27 Written question to the Minister of Finance
To ask the Minister of Finance to detail the amount of funding received to support the work of her Department's Innovation Lab in each of the last five years.
Asked by Kate Nicholl MLA on 15 January 2025
- Answered
- Written
- Tabled
- 15 January 2025
- Answer due by
- 30 January 2025
- Answered
- 24 January 20259 days after tabling
- Department
- Department of Finance
- Priority question
- No
Answer
The Innovation Lab was mainly funded by the Department of Finance, which was supplemented by additional income generated from work for other departments.
The budget and income received for the Innovation Lab for the period 2020/21 to 2023/24 is detailed below. Please note information for 2019/20 is not available as the budget for the Innovation Lab was not separated out from other Departmental functions at this time.
| Innovation Lab | 2020/21 £000 | 2021/22 £000 | 2022/23 £000 | 2023/24 £000 |
| Final Outturn | 572 | 639 | 800 | 849 |
| Income | -105 | -105 | -124 | -94 |
| Total Funding | 467 | 534 | 676 | 755 |
Following an organisational review, the Innovation Lab merged with Business Consultancy Services (BCS) in April 2024 to form Innovation and Consultancy Services (ICS). Therefore, there is no separately identifiable 2024/25 funding allocated for the Innovation Lab.