The Housing Executive (Indemnities for Members and Officers) Order (Northern Ireland) 2011

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

This Order provides for circumstances in which the Northern Ireland Housing Executive may provide an indemnity for any of its members or officers.

Article 3 provides that an indemnity may be provided by means of the Housing Executive securing the provision of an insurance policy.

Article 4 sets out the cases in which indemnities (including those provided by insurance) may be provided. This article restricts the power to actions etc. authorised by the Housing Executive and to cases in which the member or employee is carrying on any function at the request of, with the approval of, or for the purposes of, the Executive. However, it does extend to cases in which when exercising the function in question the member or officer does so in a capacity other than that of a member or officer of the Executive. This would permit an indemnity, for example, to cover a case where the member or officer acts as a director of a company at the request of the Executive, and thus is acting in the capacity of a director.

Article 5 prevents the provision of an indemnity (or securing of insurance) in relation to criminal acts, any other intentional wrongdoing, fraud, recklessness, or in relation to the bringing of (but not the defence of) any action in defamation.

Article 6 gives a limited power to provide an indemnity (including any indemnity provided by insurance) where the action or inaction complained of is outside the powers of the Executive itself or outside the powers of the member or officer who acts. It also covers cases in which a member or an officer makes a statement that certain steps have been taken or requirements fulfilled but it later becomes clear that this is not the case. This power is limited to cases in which the person indemnified reasonably believed that the matter in question was not outside those powers, or, where a document has been issued containing an untrue statement as to the Executive’s powers, or as to the steps taken or requirements fulfilled, reasonably believed that the statement was true when it was issued or authorised.

Article 7 gives the Executive freedom to negotiate such terms for any indemnity or policy of insurance as it thinks appropriate but requires that those terms include provision for re–payment of sums expended by the authority or the insurer in cases in which a member or officer has been convicted of a criminal offence (if the indemnity or insurance policy would otherwise cover the proceedings leading to that conviction). Any sums recoverable may be recovered as a civil debt.