Assembly Members (Independent Financial Review and Standards) Act (Northern Ireland) 2011

Contents of determinations: salaries and allowances

12.—(1) This section applies to any determination made under section 2(1)(a).

(2) A determination to which this section applies may make different provision for different cases (for example, provision for higher salaries to be payable to Ministers or other office holders).

(3) A determination to which this section applies shall ensure that, if a salary is payable to a member of the Assembly (“M”) as a member of either House of Parliament or as a member of the European Parliament—

(a) if M does not hold an office within subsection (6), no salary is payable to M under section 47 of the 1998 Act;

(b) if M holds an office within subsection (6), the salary which would otherwise be payable to M under section 47 of the 1998 Act is reduced by the appropriate amount.

(4) For the purposes of subsection (3), the appropriate amount is the amount of the salary payable under section 47 of the 1998 Act to members of the Assembly generally.

(5) For the purposes of this section—

(a) a person’s membership of the Assembly begins on the day on which the person takes his or her seat in accordance with standing orders; and

(b) a person’s holding of an office within subsection (6) begins on the day on which the person takes up office.

(6) An office is within this subsection if the salary payable under section 47 of the 1998 Act to a member of the Assembly holding the office is higher than the salary payable under that section to members of the Assembly generally.

(7) For the purposes of this section, a person who is a member of the Assembly immediately before the Assembly is dissolved shall be treated—

(a) if the person continues to hold office as a Minister or junior Minister, as Presiding Officer or deputy or as a member of the Commission, as if the person were a member of the Assembly until the end of the day on which he or she ceases to hold the office; and

(b) if the person does not fall within paragraph (a) but is nominated as a candidate at the subsequent general election, as if the person were a member of the Assembly until the end of the day of the poll for that election.

(8) In this section—

“deputy”, in relation to the Presiding Officer, means any deputy Presiding Officer elected under section 39 of the 1998 Act;

“junior Minister” means a person appointed as a junior Minister under section 19 of the 1998 Act;

“Minister” has the meaning given by section 7(3) of the 1998 Act.