There has been recent cause for optimism, however, with the policing budget finally rising and the allocation of ring-fenced funding for the PSNI Workforce Recovery Plan and data breach compensation costs. A new needs-based factor of 124 per cent is also now included in the Barnett formula which calculates changes to the block grant for Northern Ireland. We are frustrated, however, that the recent ‘open–book exercise’ conducted 38 by HM Treasury into Northern Ireland departmental spending has not been published, meaning the findings and proposals which have been leaked to the media cannot be properly assessed, including its reported calculation that police spending per head in Northern Ireland is 166 per cent of that in England. The absence of any formal publication and analysis prevents proper scrutiny of the methodology underlying that figure. (Conclusion, Paragraph 24)