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Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) Bill

Clause 5 provides for preventing individual Ministers from acting unilaterally on significant or controversial matters that are clearly outside the scope of the agreed programme. Amendments Nos. 33 and 34 would remove the requirement for a Minister or junior Minister to act in accordance with the provisions of the ministerial code. Amendment No. 35 would add a new paragraph to the pledge of office, providing for Ministers to comply with the ministerial code. I prefer the clause, because it is stronger. It provides for a statutory duty, rather than simply a pledge, to comply with the code. I am therefore not minded to support the amendments. However, the hon. Member for Foyle (Mark Durkan) made important points. He said that we could end up with legal action later that could perhaps overrule a Minister’s decision. I am worried that the clause could result in the Executive being bogged down in legal action. I hope that the Minister will deal with that in his response. If he wants to gain our support, I ask him to convince us that the problems that the hon. Member for Foyle mentioned will not arise.