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LOCAL GOVERNMENT (BOUNDARIES) BILL

EXPLANATORY AND FINANCIAL MEMORANDUM

INTRODUCTION

  1. This Explanatory and Financial Memorandum has been prepared by the Department of the Environment ("the Department") in order to assist the reader of the Bill and to help inform debate on it. It does not form part of the Bill and has not been endorsed by the Assembly.

  2. The Memorandum needs to be read in conjunction with the Bill. It is not, and is not meant to be, a comprehensive description of the Bill. So where a clause or part of a clause or schedule does not seem to require any explanation or comment, none is given.

    3. BACKGROUND AND POLICY OBJECTIVES

  3. The Bill will give effect to the Executive’s decision of 13 March 2008 to reduce the number of local government districts in Northern Ireland to eleven.

    4. CONSULTATION

  4. As part of the Review of Public Administration (RPA) in Northern Ireland, consultation was carried out (from March – September 2005) on nine possible configurations for local government in Northern Ireland based on seven, eleven or fifteen councils.

  5. On 5 July 2007 the Executive agreed the terms of reference and timescale for a review of the local government aspects of the RPA. A Sub Committee of the Executive, chaired by the Minister of the Environment, was charged with carrying out the review. The Minister published the Emerging Findings of the review on 19 October 2007 following endorsement by the Executive. Stakeholder engagement on the Emerging Findings included five stakeholder events across Northern Ireland. No further consultation is, therefore, considered necessary.

    6. OPTIONS CONSIDERED

  6. The Terms of Reference for the Executive Sub Committee’s review stated that in relation to the number of councils, it should consider the three options which had been consulted on in the RPA Further Consultation Document of March 2005 (i.e. the seven, eleven or fifteen- possible configurations for each of the 7, 11 or 15-districts models of local government). Within those three options, the Sub Committee also considered the three possible configurations for the seven, eleven and fifteen-district models set out in the RPA Further Consultation Document.

    7. OVERVIEW

  7. The proposed Bill will:

COMMENTARY ON CLAUSES

A commentary on the clauses follows (comments are not given where the wording is self-explanatory).

Clause 1 – Local government districts and wards

Clause 1 makes provision for the establishment of 11 new local government districts in Northern Ireland by reference to the current 26 local government districts and for the districts to be divided into wards. These new districts will be the starting point for the review of local government boundaries.

Clause 2 – Local Government Boundaries Commissioner

Clause 2 amends subsections (1) and (2) of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972 ("the 1972 Act") to provide that a Local Government Boundaries Commissioner shall be appointed in 2008 and, following this initial review of the new local government boundaries, a Commissioner shall be appointed 8-12 years from the date when the previous Commissioner submits his final report. It also sets out the functions of the Local Government Boundaries Commissioner.

Clause 2 amends paragraph 18 of Schedule 4 to the 1972 Act to provide that the district of Belfast should be divided into 60 wards with each of the other ten districts being divided into 40 wards. It also gives the Commissioner flexibility to increase or decrease the number of wards per district by up to 5, if he considers it desirable, taking account of the size, population and physical diversity of the district and the representation of the rural and urban electorate within the district.

Clause 5 - Commencement

Clause 5 provides that, for the purposes of:

the Act shall come into operation one week after it receives Royal Assent.

The Act shall be brought into operation for other purposes on a day or days to be appointed by commencement order.

FINANCIAL EFFECTS OF THE BILL

  1. The costs of a review of local government boundaries by a local government boundaries commissioner will be met by a direct charge on the Consolidated Fund. The previous Local Government Boundaries Commissioner was appointed in 2006 to a full-time non-pensionable post, with a salary of £84,150 per annum.
  2. The current review is also expected to be a full-time post and should take about 12 months to complete. The level of remuneration would be the average salary for NICS Payband 2 scale.
  3. Further resource implications are difficult to estimate because we cannot anticipate the support staffing (i.e. the number of assistant commissioners and secretariat) that a Commissioner might require.

    4. HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES

  4. The provisions of the Bill are compatible with the Convention on Human Rights.

    5. EQUALITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT

  5. A screening exercise for equality impacts did not indicate any likely differential impacts on any of the section 75 groups. A full Equality Impact Assessment is therefore not considered necessary.

    6. SUMMARY OF THE REGULATORY IMPACT ASSESSMENT

  6. The Bill will not have an impact on costs to business, charities or the voluntary sector. A regulatory impact assessment is therefore not considered necessary.

    7. LEGISLATIVE COMPETENCE

  7. The Minister of the Environment hads made the following statement under section 9 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998:

"In my view the Local Government (Boundaries) Bill would be within the legislative competence of the Northern Ireland Assembly."