What is Legislative Consent?
On occasion, the UK Parliament will consider a Bill that affects a devolution matter in Northern Ireland. When this happens, the consent of the Assembly is sought through a process called legislative consent. The legislative consent process involves the Northern Ireland Executive, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the UK Parliament.
How legislative consent is sought from the Assembly is set down in Standing Order 42A.
The process begins when a relevant memorandum is laid in the Assembly’s Business Office. A relevant memorandum is:
- A consent memorandum setting out the case for the Assembly to grant legislative consent;
- A memorandum explain why legislative consent is not sought; or
- an indicative memorandum indicating why the Minister has not laid a consent memorandum or a memorandum explaining why a consent motion is not sought.
The relevant memorandum is usually laid by the Northern Ireland Minister whom the devolution matter concerns. However, a Member of the Assembly may also lay a memorandum in certain circumstances.
There may be more than one memorandum laid for a single UK Bill.
Once laid at the Assembly, the relevant memorandum is then referred to the appropriate Assembly committee for consideration. On receipt of a consent memorandum, the committee will then have 15 working days from the date of referral, or longer as may be agreed by the Assembly, to consider and report its opinion to the Assembly. The form that committee scrutiny takes, and the nature of its report, is a matter for the committee itself. While there is no obligation, committees endeavour to report in order to inform Assembly Members and debate on a consent motion in plenary.
If a decision of the Assembly is being sought, the next stage in the process is the tabling, in the Business Office, of a consent motion for debate. The Business Committee will schedule the consent motion onto an Order Paper for debate in plenary. The debate should not normally take place until at least five working days after the Committee has reported, or 20 working days after the date the consent memorandum was referred to the Committee, or longer as may be agreed by the Assembly. At the conclusion of the debate, the question is put on the motion. If the Assembly votes in favour of the motion, it is granting consent to Westminster to legislate on the devolution matters identified in the motion. If the Assembly votes against the motion, consent for Westminster to legislate on the devolution matters is withheld.
Finally, the Clerk of the Assembly, writes to the Clerk of the House of Commons and the Clerk of the Parliaments, conveying the decision of the Assembly to grant or withhold legislative consent.
