Ministerial Familiarity with Legislation
Any Minister presenting the Assembly with legislation for approval should sufficiently read and familiarise themselves with that legislation and ensure an adequate evidence base is publicly available to demonstrate that the benefits justify any attendant costs.
- The NIAO Second Progress Report (October 2024) assessed this recommendation as "Unlikely to be Fully Implemented", noting that the Department of Finance considered it Implemented, but NIAO disagreed, finding no specific action had been taken to address the original concern about ministerial familiarity with legislation prior to Assembly approval (NIAO Second Progress Report, October 2024).
How was this evidence gathered?
Response
Accepted
Response
Accepted[Note: The NI Executive responded to recommendations 5-7, 25, 37, 39-43 together as a group under the 'Ministers and Special Advisers' theme.] NI Executive Response (October 2021): These recommendations can be accepted in full, with the exception of the consideration of an independent mechanism to assess special advisers' compliance with the Code of Conduct. They have been addressed through work to date, including: revisions to the Ministerial Code of Conduct, Code of Conduct for Special Advisers and NICS Code of Ethics, and the introduction of new Guidance for Ministers; the publication of new enforcement arrangements for ministerial standards of behaviour; agreement on the development of a multi-year outcomes-focussed Programme for Government, aligned with the Budget, including stakeholder engagement and consultation; departmental induction and briefing for Ministers on the return of the Executive, and Executive away-days; the strengthening of Private Offices including the higher grading of the Private Secretary and Assistant Private Secretary roles; identification of the team where matters of policy in respect of Special Advisers are to be dealt with. Further work is required to: deliver induction programmes for Ministers and for special advisers; arrange for publication of relevant interests of civil servants.
Progress Timeline
NIAO Second Progress Report (October 2024): Unlikely to be Fully Implemented. DoF considers this recommendation Implemented, but NIAO disagrees. No specific action has been taken to address the original issue of ensuring Ministers sufficiently read and familiarise themselves with legislation they present. DoF has stated it is 'unclear what further actions can be taken to demonstrate that the Inquiry's recommendation has been fully addressed'. The basis for NIAO's 2022 assessment that the planned action was unlikely to fully address the recommendation remains unchanged.
Published Evidence
Published assessments of progress from inspectorates, select committees, official progress reports, and other sources. Source type badge indicates whether each assessment is independent or government self-reported.
NIAO identified this as one of 3 outstanding recommendations. Ministers are still not consistently ensuring an adequate evidence base is publicly available for legislation.
View detailed findings
Recommendation 39 required ministers presenting legislation to the Assembly to sufficiently read and familiarise themselves with it and ensure an adequate evidence base is publicly available. NIAO identified this as outstanding. The Guidance for Ministers addresses this in principle but compliance cannot be verified.