Assembly and Executive Review Committee Review of the Number of Members of the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly and on the Reduction in the Number of Northern Ireland Departments Part 1 - Number of Members of the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly Together with the Minutes of Proceedings of the Committee relating to the Report, the Minutes of Evidence, Written Submissions, Northern Ireland Assembly Research and Information Papers and Other Papers Ordered by the Assembly and Executive Review Committee to be printed on 12 June 2012 Report: NIA 52/11-15 (Assembly and Executive Review Committee) REPORT EMBARGOED UNTIL COMMENCEMENT OF THE DEBATE IN PLENARY Mandate 2011/15 Second Report Committee Powers and Membership Committee Powers and Membership Powers The Assembly and Executive Review Committee is a Standing Committee established in accordance with Section 29A and 29B of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and Standing Order 59 which provide for the Committee to: ■ consider the operation of Sections 16A to 16C of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and, in particular, whether to recommend that the Secretary of State should make an order amending that Act and any other enactment so far as may be necessary to secure that they have effect, as from the date of the election of the 2011 Assembly, as if the executive selection amendments had not been made; ■ make a report to the Secretary of State, the Assembly and the Executive Committee, by no later than 1 May 2015, on the operation of Parts III and IV of the Northern Ireland Act 1998; and ■ consider such other matters relating to the functioning of the Assembly or the Executive as may be referred to it by the Assembly. Membership The Committee has eleven members including a Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson with a quorum of five. The membership of the Committee is as follows: Stephen Moutray (Chairperson) Pat Sheehan (Deputy Chairperson) Roy Beggs Gregory Campbell Stewart Dickson Pat Doherty1 Paul Givan Simon Hamilton John McCallister2 3 Raymond McCartney Conall McDevitt Sandra Overend 1 With effect from 12 September 2011 Mr Pat Doherty replaced Mr Paul Maskey 2 With effect from 26 September 2011 Mrs Sandra Overend replaced Mr Mike Nesbitt 3 With effect from 23 April 2011 Mr John McCallister replaced Mrs Sandra Overend i Report on the findings of its Review of the Size of the Northern Ireland Assembly and Number of Government Departments ii Table of Contents Table of Contents Report on Part I – Number of Members of the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly Executive Summary 1 Introduction 3 The Committee’s Approach to the Review 6 Committee Consideration: Issue 1 9 Issue 2 16 Issue 3 21 Issue 4 26 Conclusions 30 Appendices: Appendix 1 Minutes of Proceedings 43 Appendix 2 Minutes of Evidence 75 Appendix 3 Stakeholder List, Stakeholder ‘Call for Evidence’ Paper 139 Appendix 4 Summary Analysis Table 153 Stakeholder Submissions: 197 Political Parties of the Assembly Alliance Party 198 Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) 201 The Green Party in Northern Ireland (GPNI) 213 Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP)1 Sinn Féin (SF) 217 Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) 219 Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) 222 McNarry, David MLA (Independent) 225 1 SDLP only made a verbal submission to the Review, through its Party representative on the Committee at the Committee meeting of 24th April 2012. iii Report on the findings of its Review of the Size of the Northern Ireland Assembly and Number of Government Departments Other Stakeholder Submissions 228 Appendix 5 Correspondence relating to the Review 323 Appendix 6 Assembly Research Papers 351 iv Executive Summary Executive Summary 1. The Assembly and Executive Review Committee is a Standing Committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly which was established to: ■ make a report to the Secretary of State, the Assembly and the Executive Committee, by no later than 1 May 2015, on the operation of Parts III and IV of the Northern Ireland Act 1998; and ■ consider such other matters relating to the functioning of the Assembly or the Executive as may be referred to it by the Assembly. 2. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland intends to bring forward a Northern Ireland Bill in the Third Session of Parliament. The Bill will provide an opportunity to make changes to the Northern Ireland institutions where there is broad support among the Assembly Parties and where Westminster primary legislation would be required, such as future amendments to the Northern Ireland Act 1998. 3. The Committee requested the Political Parties and the Independent Members of the Assembly for their priorities for the Committee’s immediate review of the provisions of Parts III and IV of the Northern Ireland Act, within the available timescale set out by the Secretary of State for his proposed Northern Ireland Bill i.e. proposals with the Secretary of State in June 2012. Following consideration of the responses, the Committee agreed that its immediate review would be the area of the size of the Assembly and the number of Northern Ireland departments. 4. The Committee agreed the Terms of Reference for the Review, a Stakeholder ‘Call for Evidence’ Paper and a stakeholder list which included all Political Parties registered in NI. It was agreed that Part I of the Review would consider and report on the number of MLAs by early June 2012. 5. The Committee received and considered 25 Stakeholder responses to the Review, focusing on the views on the five Key Issues set out in the Committee’s ‘Call for Evidence’ Paper. The Committee also received oral evidence from Professor Rick Wilford (Queen’s University Belfast), the Northern Ireland Local Government Association (NILGA) and the Clerk/Director General of the Northern Ireland Assembly (Mr Trevor Reaney). 6. The Committee commissioned and considered a series of Assembly Research Papers in order to inform Members’ discussions and views on the issues arising from this Review. The Committee concluded that: a) It is clear that, although the Committee considered the five Key Issues as set out in the Stakeholder ‘Call for Evidence’ Paper separately, Members consider that the Issues are very much interlinked and that a holistic approach to reaching a view on the size of the Assembly in terms of the number of MLAs should be taken; b) The options considered by the Committee, as set out in Table 1 (in the ‘Conclusions’ section – paragraphs 120-137), were seen as very useful in that they provided apparent implications for several scenarios that take into account the possible number of Assembly constituencies and possible ‘multipliers’ per constituency in terms of the number of MLAs, under both coupled and decoupled models. It may indeed prove to be a useful tool to aid the establishment of the final position for the size of the NI Assembly; c) It could not reach consensus on the size of the Assembly. This Report therefore sets out in some detail in the ‘Committee Consideration’ section (paragraphs 41-119) the particular position of the Political Parties represented on the Committee on the four Key Issues under the first part of this Review. This section also includes the views of 1 Report on the findings of its Review of the Size of the Northern Ireland Assembly and Number of Government Departments other key stakeholders who responded to these Issues – including the other Political Parties of the Assembly and one Independent Member. The Report then sets out in summary a set of possible options (Table 1 in the ‘Conclusions’ section), which may prove to be a useful tool to aid the establishment of the final position for the size of the Northern Ireland Assembly; d) In relation to Plenary business, it was apparent from the evidence considered (when comparing the NI Assembly to other legislatures in the UK and Republic of Ireland) that there is some variety of practice in the scheduling of parliamentarians’ business. The Committee therefore concluded that there may be opportunities to enhance Assembly effectiveness in this regard; e) On the basis of the Chairpersons’ Liaison Group (CLG) response and the issues identified by the Committee, the Committee concluded that it would be prudent for the Assembly to make an early start to a review of the Assembly Committee System and that the CLG should have an important role in this review. 2 Introduction Introduction Background to the Review 7. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland intends to bring forward a Northern Ireland Bill in the Third Session of Parliament. The primary purpose of the Bill is to effect changes relating to political donations in Northern Ireland. However, it also provides an opportunity to make changes to the Northern Ireland institutions where there is broad support among the Political Parties and where Westminster primary legislation would be required, such as future amendments to the Northern Ireland Act 1998. This relates directly to the Assembly and Executive Review Committee’s power to: ‘Make a report to the Secretary of State, the Assembly and the Executive Committee, by no later than 1 May 2015, on the operation of Parts III and IV of the Northern Ireland Act 1998’ 8. With the Secretary of State seeking to introduce this Bill in the Third Session of Parliament, the Assembly and Executive Review Committee agreed that it would take forward an immediate review of a key area in relation to the operation of Parts III and IV of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 much earlier than planned. 9. The proposed Bill may be the only opportunity to make institutional changes, where Westminster primary legislation would be required, prior to the next Assembly election. The Secretary of State is seeking Assembly agreed proposals for change prior to the summer recess of 2012.