UK Shared Prosperity Fund: Northern Ireland Project Adjustment Requests (PAR)
Guidance on the change control process (Project Adjustment Requests) for grant recipients delivering projects within the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) for Northern Ireland.
Applies to Northern Ireland
1. Chief Financial Officers, Section 54 officers or their equivalents are required to maintain robust control over the performance of UKSPF Northern Ireland projects, in accordance with grant funding agreements or memoranda of understanding.
2. Provided costs, outputs and outcomes remain within 20% of agreed values and delivery or spend does not slip between financial years, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) will not require formal change procedures to be followed.
3. If there is any slippage beyond these tolerances, grant recipients are required to submit a Project Adjustment Request (PAR). These may arise as a result of:
- specific requests by a grant recipient,
- issues identified through reporting; or
- monitoring work which brings to light changes not reported by grant recipients.
4. Whilst funding may be reduced or reprofiled through the PAR process, an increase of the total allocation from UKSPF will not normally be permitted and delivery cannot extend beyond 31 March 2025 under any circumstance.
Minor changes
5. Where there is a cumulative variance of less than 20% from agreements, these changes should be identified and explained through quarterly reporting, and assurance must be provided about how delivery will be kept within the 20% threshold. These reports should be signed off by Chief Financial Officers, Section 54 officers or their equivalents.
Changes that cumulatively exceed 20% of original costs, outputs and outcomes, extensions to spend and any fundamental project changes
6. Grant recipients must seek approval from DLUHC if changes exceed the minimum thresholds, using a Project Adjustment Request form, which can be obtained from your contract manager in DLUHC. These forms may be submitted along with quarterly monitoring or as soon as the GR needs a decision from DLUHC in order to progress the project.
7. PARs must be signed by Chief Financial Officers, Section 54 officers or their equivalents, to confirm that they recommend the proposed adjustment and are satisfied the project continues to meet UKSPF strategic objectives and value for money, with reference to the assessment criteria.
8. The aim is to make a decision on a PAR within 20 working days of receipt. Should there be delays, for whatever reason, this will be communicated to applicants as soon as possible. If any information is missing, then the clock will stop until it has been received in full.
9. All PARs will be assessed by DLUHC UKSPF officers, who may seek advice from key areas of expertise, including DLUHC’s commercial team, analysts or Northern Ireland Area Team colleagues. We may also seek advice from other departments or the Northern Ireland Partnership Group if required. DLUHC officers will submit their findings and recommendations to the Senior Responsible Officer for UKSPF, and these may be escalated to relevant ministers if the change is of sufficient magnitude or particularly contentious in nature.