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Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) Bill

Rather like James Bond’s martini, I am shaken but not stirred by the amendment. I am shaken because my hon. Friend the Member for Foyle (Mark Durkan) suggests that I am doing the DUP’s work—I assure him that we are not. I am not stirred in that, although he makes an eloquent case, I cannot support it. Clause 5 is there for a purpose—to ensure that we have a statutory ministerial code that places a duty on Ministers and junior Ministers to act in accordance with it, as set out in the St. Andrews agreement, which parties in the House supported on 13 October. The amendment would effectively remove the requirement for a statutory code and the duty on all Ministers to adhere to it. Furthermore, amendment No. 34 would mean that the draft ministerial code prepared by either the transitional Assembly or the Secretary of State under schedule 1(4) would not be the ministerial code on restoration on 26 March 2007. I emphasise to my hon. Friend that I believe that a ministerial code is an important constituent part of the Bill. The Secretary of State has a duty under schedule 1(4) to prepare a draft ministerial code to ensure that the Assembly has such a code in place. However, I assure my hon. Friend that the Assembly has the power to draft a ministerial code while it is the transitional Assembly. Only if the Assembly were unable to do so would my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State prepare a draft code as an important fall-back position to prevent the newly restored Assembly from being faced with immediate paralysis. It is important that we have a ministerial code. Under paragraph 4 of schedule 1, the Assembly can draft a ministerial code during its transitional period. That could deal with some of the points made by my hon. Friend the Member for Foyle in the sense that, if there is agreement on the contents of the ministerial code, there is the potential for it to be drafted by the Assembly during the transitional period.