Legal background
- In a situation where no Budget Act has been passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly, section 59 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 provides for the authorised officer of the Northern Ireland Department of Finance to authorise the issue of sums out of the Consolidated Fund of Northern Ireland for that year, up to a maximum of 95 percent of the total amount appropriated by Act for the preceding year.
- Similarly, section 7 of the Government Resources and Accounts Act (Northern Ireland) 2001 provides for the authorised officer of the Northern Ireland Department of Finance to authorise the use of resources for that year up to a maximum of 95 percent of the total amount appropriated by Act for the preceding year. In both Acts, the "authorised officer" is the Permanent Secretary, or another officer nominated by the Permanent Secretary.
- As no Budget Act has been passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly for the year ending 31 March 2018, the Permanent Secretary of the Northern Ireland Department of Finance has exercised his powers under these two Acts to authorise the issue of sums to, and the use of resources by, Northern Ireland departments and certain other bodies to allow public services to continue to be delivered in the short term.
- In the continuing absence of a Northern Ireland Executive, and the consequent inability of the Northern Ireland Assembly to pass a Budget Act, this Act provides the required authorisations and appropriations. It would be deemed for those purposes to be an Act of the Assembly. To that end, instead of the usual Assembly process, an Estimates document was laid alongside the Bill and this is deemed to be equivalent to the Assembly supply process.
- The Act provides authorisations and appropriations for departments and other public bodies in Northern Ireland and leaves spending decisions, within the overall totals voted (and the more detailed totals in the Estimates document), to these departments.
