Northern Ireland Act 1998

29 Statutory committees. U.K.

(1) Standing orders shall make provision—

(a) for establishing committees of members of the Assembly (“statutory committees”)

[F1 (i) to advise and assist the First Minister and the deputy First Minister in the formulation of policy with respect to matters within their responsibilities as Ministers jointly in charge of the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister, and

(ii)  ]to advise and assist each Northern Ireland Minister in the formulation of policy with respect to matters within his responsibilities as a Minister;

(b) for enabling a committee to be so established either in relation to a single Northern Ireland Minister or in relation to more than one; and

(c) conferring on the committees the powers described in paragraph 9 of Strand One of the Belfast Agreement.

(2) Standing orders shall provide that—

(a) the nominating officer of the political party for which the formula in subsection (3) gives the highest figure may select a statutory committee and nominate as its chairman or deputy chairman a person who is a member of the party and of the Assembly;

(b) if the nominating officer does not exercise the power conferred by paragraph (a) within a period specified in standing orders, or the nominated person does not take up the selected office within that period, that power shall be exercisable instead by the nominating officer of the political party for which the formula in subsection (3) gives the next highest figure; and

(c) paragraphs (a) and (b) shall be applied as many times as may be necessary to secure that a chairman and deputy chairman are nominated for each of the statutory committees.

(3) The formula is—

where—

S = the number of seats in the Assembly which were held by members of the party on the day on which the Assembly first met following its election;

C = the number of chairmen and deputy chairmen of statutory committees (if any) who are members of the party.

(4) Standing orders shall provide that, where the figures given by the formula for two or more political parties are equal, each of those figures shall be recalculated with S being equal to the number of first preference votes cast for the party at the last general election of members of the Assembly.

(5) Standing orders shall provide that—

(a) a Minister or junior Minister may not be the chairman or deputy chairman of a statutory committee; and

(b) in making a selection under the provision made by virtue of subsection (2)(a), a nominating officer shall prefer a committee in which he does not have a party interest to one in which he does.

[F2 (5A) A member of the Assembly who is—

(a) a Minister of the Government of Ireland, or

(b) chairman or deputy chairman of—

(i) a committee of the Dáil ÿireann (House of Representatives of Ireland),

(ii) a committee of the Seanad ÿireann (Senate of Ireland), or

(iii) a joint committee of the Oireachtas (National Parliament of Ireland),

may not be the chairman or deputy chairman of a statutory committee.]

(6) For the purposes of subsection (5) a nominating officer has a party interest in a committee if

[F3 (a) it is established to advise and assist the First Minister and the deputy First Minister and either of those Ministers is a member of his party; or

(b) it is established to advise and assist a Northern Ireland Minister and that Minister is a member of his party.]

(7) Standing orders shall provide that a chairman or deputy chairman shall cease to hold office if—

(a) he resigns by notice in writing to the Presiding Officer;

(b) he ceases to be a member of the Assembly; or

(c) he is dismissed by the nominating officer who nominated him (or that officer’s successor) and the Presiding Officer is notified of his dismissal.

(8) Standing orders shall provide that, where an office of chairman or deputy chairman is vacant, the nominating officer of the party on whose behalf the previous incumbent was nominated may nominate a person to hold the office who is a member of the party and of the Assembly.

(9) Standing orders shall provide that if—

(a) the nominating officer does not exercise the power conferred by subsection (8) within a period specified in standing orders; or

(b) the nominated person does not take up the selected office within that period,

the vacancy shall be filled by applying the provision made by virtue of subsections (2) to (5).

(10) In this section “nominating officer” has the same meaning as in section 18.

Textual Amendments

F1 Words in s. 29(1)(a) inserted (8.5.2007) by Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) Act 2006 (c. 53), ss. 10(2), 27(4)(5) (as amended by Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) Act 2007 (c. 4), s. 1(1)) (with s. 1(3)); S.I. 2007/1397, art. 2

F2 S. 29(5A) inserted (30.11.2000) by 2000 c. 42, s. 3(1)

F3 S. 29(6)(a)(b) substituted for words (8.5.2007) by Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) Act 2006 (c. 53), ss. 10(3), 27(4)(5) (as amended by Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) Act 2007 (c. 4), s. 1(1)) (with s. 1(3)); S.I. 2007/1397, art. 2

Modifications etc. (not altering text)

C2 S. 29 modified (8.5.2007) by Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) Act 2006 (c. 53), ss. 2(2) (as amended by Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) Act 2007 (c. 4), s. 1(1)), 27(4)(5) {Sch. 2 para. 5} (with s. 1(3)); S.I. 2007/1397, art. 2

C3 S. 29(8) applied (12.2.2000) by 2000 c. 1, s. 3(7)(c); S.I. 2000/396, art. 2