Committee on Procedures

Minutes of Proceedings

29 September 2021

 

Meeting Location: Virtual Meeting

Present by Video-Conference:

Ms Carál Ní Chuilín MLA (Chairperson)

Mr Thomas Buchanan MLA (Deputy Chairperson)

Mrs Rosemary Barton MLA

Ms Nicola Brogan MLA

Ms Joanne Bunting MLA

Mr Gerry Carroll MLA

Ms Ciara Ferguson MLA

 

Apologies:

Ms Sinéad Bradley MLA

Mr William Humphrey MLA

In Attendance by Video-Conference:

Emer Boyle (Committee Clerk)

Paul Gill (Clerk Assistant) (Item 4)

Stewart Kennedy (Assistant Clerk)

Sohui Yim (Assistant Clerk)

Joanne Keenan (Clerical Officer)

 

The meeting commenced at 2.32pm in open session.

The Chairperson began by welcoming Ciara Ferguson as a new Member to the Committee and thanked Linda Dillon for her work on the Committee.

1. Apologies

As above.

2. Draft Minutes

Agreed: The Committee agreed the minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 15 September 2021.

3. Matters Arising

Members discussed how the Committee might meet going forward.

Agreed: The Committee agreed to hold hybrid meetings going forward.

4. Legislative Consent Motions – Update

The Committee noted a paper from the Clerk which outlined the steps taken to date on the Inquiry, the proposed next steps and a plan of work.

Mr Thomas Buchanan joined the meeting at 2.37pm.

The Committee noted that, after following up on a number of occasions with the Executive, a response had still not been received.

Agreed: Given the time constraints to the end of the mandate, the Committee agreed to proceed with its considerations in the absence of an Executive response.

The Committee noted correspondence from the Justice Committee regarding the inadequacy of the timeframe provided for in Standing Orders for Committees to deal with a devolution matter and report to the Assembly.

Agreed: The Committee agreed to write to the Justice Committee to inform it that this issue is being considered by the Committee as part of its ongoing Inquiry into LCMs and to ask whether it would be content to provide oral evidence to the Committee. The Committee also agreed to publish the letter from the Justice Committee on the Inquiry website.

The Committee noted that some statutory committees had experienced an increase in the number of LCMs for consideration in the last year.

Agreed: The Committee agreed to seek further evidence from those Committees to ask whether they have experienced an increase in the number and frequency in LCMs over the last year.

5. Official Opposition – Recap on arrangements previously considered.

The Committee noted a memo from the Clerk which provided an update to Members on the details of the previous considerations undertaken by the last Committee on Procedures regarding the official opposition.

6. Correspondence

There were no items of correspondence.