Legal background
Section 1 - Regional rates
- Article 6 of the Rates (Northern Ireland) Order 1977 requires a regional rate to be set for each rating year by the Department of Finance. Pursuant to Article 7 of that Order, it must be set by an order made by the department and subject to affirmative resolution in the Assembly. This was not possible in the absence of a sitting Assembly so the rate was therefore set by this Act. The rate was set for 2017-18 by the Northern Ireland (Ministerial Appointments and Regional Rates) Act 2017. As in that Act, the setting of the regional rate by this Act was without prejudice to the department’s powers to vary it by order in the usual way (see section 1(4)).
Section 2 and Schedule - Renewable heat incentive scheme
- The Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012 (the "Principal Regulations") established a Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme for non-domestic use, made under the powers conferred by section 113 of the Energy Act 2011. The Scheme is sponsored by the Department for the Economy (DfE) and the Principal Regulations also confer functions on DfE with regard to the general administration of the Scheme. The aim was to promote the use of renewable heat and it does that by providing for periodic payments to be made to accredited installations.
- The Principal Regulations have been amended on several occasions to address concerns about the operation of the scheme. The Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015 introduced a tiered tariff and an annual cap of 400,000kWhth for certain installations accredited after 18 November 2015. Installations accredited before that date were able to receive untiered and uncapped payments, a situation which created unacceptable pressures on public expenditure. Accordingly, the Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2017 (the "2017 Regulations") introduced the same tiered tariff and annual cap set out in the 2015 Regulations to installations accredited before 18 November 2015. The relevant provisions of the 2017 Regulations revoked and replaced the provisions in the Principal Regulations authorising payments to installations accredited before 18 November 2015. This meant that, when the 2017 Regulations ceased to have effect, there would no longer have been a legal basis for payments in respect of those installations.
- The 2017 Regulations expire on 31 March 2018. In the absence of a sitting Assembly and Executive, they could not be extended other than by primary legislation at Westminster. As such, corresponding provision for 2018-19 (with an inflationary uplift) is set out in this Act to enable the continued protection of public finances while there is further work undertaken to develop and implement long-term cost control measures. State aid approval for such provision had been granted.
