Stormont: Has half the legislation planned for Northern Ireland this year failed to appear?

• In May, the First Minister and deputy First Minister outlined plans for 18 separate Bills (or 19, depending on how you look at the Budget) to appear before the Assembly.
• Only seven of those Bills made it to the first part of the legislative process and no more are set to appear in 2024.
• That means 11 of the 18 planned Bills – 61.1% – will fail to reach the Assembly this year.

In a statement in the Assembly made on 2 December, Leader of the Opposition and SDLP MLA Matthew O’Toole claimed:

“[T]he Executive will not deliver on the legislation programme that they put before the Assembly earlier this year… Of the 18 [Bills] that we were promised earlier this year, by my count, half – barely 50% – will reach the Assembly.”

This is accurate, based on evidence. In fact, fewer than half of the planned Bills will make it to the House.

The First Minister and deputy First Minister laid out a schedule for 18 Bills to make it to the Assembly this calendar year (or 19, depending on how you frame the Budget, which occurs in two parts).

However, only seven of those Bills will make a formal appearance in the Assembly in 2024 – meaning 11 will fail to do so. If the Budget is considered as two separate Bills, then eight of 19 scheduled Bills have appeared.

For more information, including a summary of the legislative process and details on exactly which Bills were promised, read on.

• Planned programme

The current Northern Ireland Assembly was elected on 5 May 2022 but, due to a DUP boycott of the political institutions, an Executive was not formed until 3 February 2024.

On 23rd May 2024, a Written Ministerial Statement from the First and deputy First Minister detailed 18 Bills to be introduced in the calendar year of 2024. The First Minister and deputy First Minister said:

“While the Legislation Programme for 2024 is a more substantial one than normal for a single year, we wish to emphasise in presenting it to the Assembly that it includes only those measures which have been assessed as having reached a stage in their policy development to permit the introduction of legislation before the end of this year.”

One of the proposed Bills – the Budget – comes in two parts which, depending on how you look at it, brings the total number of proposed Bills to 19. For the purposes of this fact check, we’ve considered The Budget as a single Bill.

Following the First Minister and deputy First Minister’s statement, a motion was laid on 11 June 2024 to debate the Legislation Programme.

• Process

A Bill is a proposal for a new law.

All Bills in Northern Ireland must go through a long sequence to become legislation. The First Stage occurs when a Bill’s title is read out to the Assembly, and the Bill is printed for circulation, but there is no debate or vote.

MLAs debate the principles of the Bill in its Second Stage in the Assembly. After that, the relevant Committee examines the Bill (for example by taking expert advice or proposing amendments). 

The Assembly then debates and votes on the Bill at Consideration Stage, while any new amendments may be looked at in Further Consideration. 

After this, the Bill is assessed by the Speaker in Final Stage, then the Attorney-General and Advocate-General. Finally, if there are no issues, a Bill is given Royal Assent, which means it becomes law and becomes an Act.

Accelerated passage happens when legislation is needed urgently and the normal legislative process is shortened.

Figure 1 – source: Stages of a Bill, from the Northern Ireland Assembly.

To introduce a Bill, in the context of this claim, it is enough for it to reach the First Stage. 

So, how many Bills were introduced in 2024?

• This year

The Northern Ireland Executive planned to introduce 18 Bills in 2024 (or 19, depending on how you consider the Budget).

On 2 December 2024, when Mr O’Toole’s claim was made, only seven had been introduced (or eight, including two relating to the Budget). Of those, four now have Royal Assent – all of which were accelerated passage Bills, which means they bypassed the Committee Stage due to their urgency. The current status of Executive Bills (primary legislation) and non-Executive Bills can be found on the NI Assembly website. 

11 of the 18 (or 19) planned Bills were not introduced at all.

The Order Papers, setting out the Assembly’s schedule, have now been published for the remainder of 2024. None of the remaining 11 Bills are included.

This means that only 7 out of 18 Bills (38.9% – or 8 out of 19 Bills, meaning 42.1%) in the Executive’s Legislation Programme were introduced in 2024.

On 9 December, First Minister Michelle O’Neill discussed this matter in response to a question from the Leader of the Opposition.

“…[It] is our expectation that, subject to the consent of the Assembly, all the Bills included in the Executive’s initial legislative programme for 2024-25, which was announced back on 23 May, will be introduced during the 2024-25 session of the Assembly. Some slippage is, however, likely in the introduction of certain Bills within the timescales that were originally estimated. Further Bills will be introduced in the first quarter of 2025, but we share the Assembly’s disappointment that there has not been greater progress to date. However, it is important that the underlying policy issues be resolved and finalised so that a Bill can be presented to the Assembly in as complete a form as possible.”

• Detail

All the Bills outlined in the First Minister and deputy First Minister’s statement on the 2024 legislative programme, and their current statuses at the time of publishing this fact check, are in the following table:

Figure 2: Executive Committee’s Planned Bills for 2024, and their current legislative status