SCHEDULES
SCHEDULE 1The Education Authority
Political members
3
1
Where members are first appointed to the Authority, the political members shall be nominated by applying sub-paragraphs (3) to (8).
2
Where at any other time—
a
an Assembly is elected under section 31 or 32 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998,
b
a resolution which causes one or more Ministerial offices to become vacant is passed under section 30(2) of that Act, or
c
the period of exclusion imposed by a resolution under section 30(2) of that Act comes to an end,
all political members shall cease to hold office and the political members shall be nominated by applying sub-paragraphs (3) to (8).
3
At the request of the Department, the nominating officer of the political party for which the formula in sub-paragraph (7) gives the highest figure may nominate a person as a political member.
4
The nominated person may take up office as a political member by making a statement to that effect to the Department.
5
If—
a
the nominating officer does not exercise the power conferred by sub-paragraph (3) within the period of 7 days from the Department's request, or
b
the nominated person does not take up office as a political member within that period,
that power shall become exercisable by the nominating officer of the political party for which the formula in sub-paragraph (7) gives the next highest figure.
6
Sub-paragraphs (3) to (5) shall be applied as many times as may be necessary to secure that all of the offices as political member are filled.
7
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;
M the number of members of the party (if any) who hold office as a political member.
8
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.
9
A person shall cease to hold office as a political member if that person resigns by notice in writing to the Department.
10
Where a person ceases to hold office as a political member otherwise than by virtue of sub-paragraph (2), the nominating officer of the party on whose behalf that person was nominated may nominate another person to hold the office.
11
If—
a
the nominating officer does not exercise the power conferred by sub-paragraph (10) within such period as the Department may determine from the person ceasing to hold office, or
b
the nominated person does not take up the office within that period,
the vacancy shall be filled by applying sub-paragraphs (3) to (8) within the further period of 7 days.
12
Where—
a
the Assembly has resolved under section 30(2) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 that a political party does not enjoy its confidence, and
b
the party's period of exclusion has not come to an end,
the party shall be disregarded for the purposes of any application of sub-paragraphs (3) to (8).
13
In this paragraph “nominating officer”, in relation to a party, means the person registered under Part 2 of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 as the party's nominating officer or a member of the Assembly nominated by that person for the purpose.