COMMITTEE ON PROCEDURES

End of Session Report 2008 - 09

Remit and Powers

The Committee on Procedures is a Standing Committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly established in accordance with paragraph 10 of Strand One of the Belfast Agreement and under Assembly Standing Order 54. The Committee has 11 Members including a Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson and a quorum of 5.

The Committee has the power to:

• Consider and review on an ongoing basis the Standing Orders and procedures of the Assembly;
• Initiate inquiries and publish reports;
• Update the Standing Orders of the Assembly for punctuation and grammar; and
• Republish Standing Orders annually
• Call for persons and papers

Membership

The Committee first met on 16 May 2007.

The membership of the Committee since its establishment on 9 May 2007 has been as follows:

• Lord Morrow (Chairman)
• Mr Mervyn Storey (Deputy Chairman)
• Mr Francie Brolly
• Lord Browne
• Mr Mickey Brady ¹
• Mr Raymond McCartney
• Mr David McClarty
• Mr Adrian McQuillan
• Mr Sean Neeson
• Mr Declan O’Loan
• Mr Ken Robinson

¹ Mr Mickey Brady replaced Mr Willie Clarke as of 20 May 2008

End of Session Report

1. This first annual report covers the work of the Committee on Procedures from 1 September 2008 to 31 August 2009.
2. Coming into this parliamentary year, the Committee brought forward substantial work matters from the previous year, such as inquiries into Assembly Questions and Private Bills. Additionally, as part of its commitment to an ongoing review of Standing Orders, the Committee agreed a work programme that included topics such as quorum in plenary, voting where the Speaker’s decision is challenged and joint committees.

Meetings

3. The Committee met on 14 occasions during the year, 8 meetings were held in public session and 6 were in private/closed session. All meetings were held in Parliament Buildings.
4. The Committee met once every two weeks until 3 December 2008 and has met monthly since then.

Inquiries

5. The Committee completed two inquiries, Private Legislation and Assembly Questions, and began another on Legislative Consent Motions which is ongoing.

Private Legislation

6. As there were no specific procedures for dealing with private legislation in the NI Assembly, in early 2008, the Committee undertook an in-depth inquiry into possible procedures that may be adopted by the Assembly. The inquiry considered all the procedures relating to the bill such as stages, fees, objections to the bill and private bill committees. This also included a research exercise examining practices in other legislatures, calling for written submissions and the taking of evidence from a number of witnesses.
7. The Committee’s report on private legislation was published on 8 October 2008 and approved by the Assembly on 3 November 2008. New Standing Orders to deal with private legislation were agreed by the Assembly on 29 June 2009.

Assembly Questions

8. In May 2008 the Committee agreed to take forward an inquiry into Assembly Questions. This inquiry primarily focussed on;-
   1. Oral Questions, including selection of questions, the number of questions, the rota for Ministers, the time bands allocated for question time, and the length of supplementary questions and responses: and
   2. Written Questions, including the tabling of written and priority written questions and the extent to which Government departments achieve the targets for answering written questions.
9. The Committee received eleven written submissions and took oral evidence from key people including the press.
10. A survey on the attitudes and opinions of the members of the NI Assembly was commissioned. The views of members of the public and a group of AS level politics students were also sought.
11. The Committee’s report on Assembly Questions was published on 3 March 2009 and approved by the Assembly on 30 March 2009. Standing Orders were reviewed as a consequence of the report and revised Standing Orders were agreed by the Assembly on 2 June 2009.

Legislative Consent Motions

12. In February 2009 the Committee agreed to undertake an inquiry into legislative consent motions in the NI Assembly. Legislative consent relates to the convention that the UK Government would not normally legislate on devolved matters without first gaining the agreement of the devolved legislature.
13. On 29 April 2009 members of the Committee visited the Scottish Parliament to seek views on its approach to legislative consent motions.
14. A draft report on the topic will be considered by the Committee in the next session.

Review of Standing Orders

15. In accordance with its agreed work programme the Committee has reviewed a number of Standing Orders during the year:-
    • SO9(2) – Quorum in Plenary . As then worded, there was a possibility that the loss of a quorum could lead to the loss of the remainder of the day’s business in the Assembly. An amendment to the Standing Order to correct this was agreed by the Assembly on 23 March 2009.
    • SO18 – Ministerial Statements. Prior to amendment, Standing Orders did not provide for written Ministerial statements. As part of its consideration, the Committee also reviewed the arrangements for oral statements and made a number of changes, such as, increasing the notification period and providing that MLAs should have a written copy of the statement at least 30 minutes before it is delivered. A report to assist Assembly members was published on 3 February 2009 and amendments to Standing Orders were agreed by the Assembly on 23 March 2009.
    • SO27 – Voting when the Speaker’s decision is challenged. It was considered that Standing Orders did not reflect practice and the Committee brought forward amendments relating to divisions, voting, the appointment of tellers and closing of doors. The amendments were agreed by the Assembly on 23 March 2009.
    • SO64 – Joint Committees. On 14 May 2008 the Committee published its report into Committee Systems and Structures and the report recommended that the Assembly should endorse the creation of joint committees. The Committee took this recommendation forward and its review resulted in revised Standing Orders which allowed a number of options when two or more committees are considering a matter of joint concern, including the setting up of an ad hoc joint committee. The amended Standing Orders were agreed by the Assembly on 19 January 2009 and were used by the Committee for Finance and Personnel and the Committee for Regional Development in producing ‘Mitigating the Recession: Options for the Northern Ireland Executive’.
    • SO81 – Interpretation . While reviewing other Standing Orders, the Committee noted problems arising from the definitions of common terms, such as, working days and sitting days. These were reviewed and the amended Standing Order was agreed by the Assembly on 29 June 2009.
    • Summer Reprint . At its meeting on 2 June 2009 the Committee agreed a number of minor and technical changes to be incorporated into a complete reprint of Standing Orders during the 2009 Summer Recess.

Motions in Plenary

16. Apart from minor and technical changes, amendments to Standing Orders must be agreed by a cross-community vote in the Assembly. Consequently, the majority of the output from the Committee must be agreed by the Assembly before implementation.
17. The Committee had 39 motions debated and agreed in the Assembly.

Expenditure

18. Details of the Committee’s expenditure are attached at Annex A.

The Way Forward

19. The Committee has agreed a challenging work programme for the coming session and looks forward to dealing with it. The programme will include:-
    • Completion of the inquiry into Legislative Consent Motions and developing, if agreed, new Standing Orders,
    • New Standing orders relating to the devolution of Policing and Justice,
    • Amendments to S067 and SO74,
    • Clarifying the position of committees and the issue of sub judice.

Lord Morrow explains the new Standing Orders for private bills

ANNEX A

Committee on Procedures – Expenditure for the period 1 September 2008 – 31 August 2009

Budget Area	Details	Expenditure
Committee Travel – committee members and staff travel and subsistence in relation to visits and meetings outside Parliament Buildings.	Visit to Scottish Parliament regarding Legislative Consent Motions on 29 th April 2009	£973.76
Printing of Standing Orders	Amendments to Standing Orders and cost of folders	£10,539.33
Printing of committee reports.	The committee produced 3 Reports: Inquiry into Private Legislation. Inquiry into Assembly Questions. Report on Written Ministerial Statements.	£3,131.73
Consultancy support – the cost of specialist advisers appointed by the committee and commissioned research.	Winkworth Sherwood for drafting services for work carried out in the previous session but not invoiced until 08-09 session. Specialist adviser to the committee for drafting amendments to Standing Orders.	£4249 £37,640
General expenses.	Cost of refreshments for committee meetings, working lunches, seminars, room hire and witness expense.	£625.65
Total		£57,159.47