Northern Ireland (Executive Formation and Organ and Tissue Donation) Act 2023

1 Extension of period for making Ministerial appointments

(1) The Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2022 is amended as follows.

(2) In section 1—

(a) in the title, omit “by six weeks”;

(b) for “19 January 2023” (as inserted by the Northern Ireland (Extension of Period for Making Ministerial Appointments) Regulations 2022 (S.I. 2022/1296)) substitute “18 January 2024”.

(3) After section 1 insert—

“1A Power to propose date for a poll

(1) The Northern Ireland Act 1998 has effect as if, during the current post-election period, section 32 (extraordinary elections) were amended as follows—

(a) after subsection (3A), insert—

“(3AA) At any time before the end of the period mentioned in section 16A(3), the Secretary of State may, if the offices mentioned there have not yet been filled, propose a date for the poll for the election of the next Assembly.”;

(b) in subsection (3B), omit “16A(3) or”;

(c) in subsection (3D)(b), after “(3)” insert “, (3AA)”;

(d) in subsection (3E)(b), after “subsection” insert “(3AA) or”;

(e) in subsection (3F), in the words before paragraph (a), after “subsection” insert “(3AA) or”;

(f) in subsection (3G)—

(i) in the words before paragraph (a), after “(3)” insert “, (3AA)”;

(ii) after paragraph (a), insert—

“(aa) in the case of a date proposed under subsection (3AA), withdraw the proposal before the end of the period referred to in section 16A(3), or”;

(g) in subsection (4), in the words before paragraph (a), after “(3)” insert “, (3AA)”.

(2) In this section, “the current post-election period” has the meaning given in section 1.”

(4) Omit section 2.