The Assembly and Legislation

Video transcript

This is a written transcript of the 'The Assembly and Legislation' video that helps describe the legislative process in Northern Ireland and where the Assembly fits in.

The items in square brackets [] provide additional contextual information to aid the understanding of the video's content.

[The video begins with overhead drone footage showing Parliament Buildings from above. It is a bright, sunny day.]

[The narrator and interviewer is Jim Fitzpatrick, respected political journalist.]

Mr Fitzpatrick: Parliament Buildings at Stormont, the home of Northern Ireland's Legislative Assembly: making law (legislation), the primary function of elected Members, its MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly).

Bills are introduced in the Assembly and become law after undergoing a process of debate and scrutiny.  There's a team of officials on hand to guide Members. Frank Geddis is one of those officials who oversees the process.

[We now move to the Senate Chamber inside Parliament Buildings where Mr Fitzpatrick is chatting with Assembly Clerk, Frank Geddis.]

Mr Geddis: Well, there are a number of ways that Bills can come to the House. The first and most common is an Executive Bill, which is brought to the House by a Minister and it's developed through the Department and agreed by the Executive for introduction.

The second most common would be a Member's Bill, where individual Members of the Assembly develop and introduce a Bill in their own right.

A Minister introducing legislation has all the resources of their Department to help them, but individual Members who want to bring forward legislation can rely on help from officials at the Assembly.

Yes, so there's a supported process here at the Assembly where we help Members develop ideas around legislation and what they might want to bring forward. That includes access to things such as research policy advice.

It includes legal advice, advice on procedure and clerking and how the Bill would be brought forward.

Whether a Bill is introduced by a Minister or an individual Member, it must go through a robust scrutiny process where the potential law is examined in detail.

This is where Committees play a role before the Bill and potential amendments are debated in the Chamber. The Committee Stage is central in terms of hearing from all the stakeholders that could be impacted by a Bill. And the Committee will deliberate and then come to the House at the amending stages with their views about a Bill, and they will have tested that in detail and be able to improve the debate and allow for a really full debate on how the law should be shaped.

Whereas Members will come and have different perspectives on what may improve a Bill in their mind.

And as officials, our role is to ensure that all Members have the opportunity to table those amendments, to support them in developing them, and also to support Committees in the scrutiny process so that when amendments are brought to the House, they can be debated fully and all Members have an equal opportunity to input and make decisions about the law.

[While Mr Geddis was describing the legislative process in the Assembly, we see footage of Ministers introducing legislation in the Assembly Chamber, Members debating the legislation and an Assembly Committee scrutinising legislation during a meeting. We also see Jim and Frank looking around the Senate Chamber and admiring the 'House will divide' painting by artist Noel Murphy which hangs on one of the walls in the Senate Chamber.]

[We now see drone footage high above Parliament Buildings. It is initially close up on Parliament Buildings before pulling away to reveal more of Belfast below. Mr Fitzpatrick continues to narrate.]

Mr Fitzpatrick: Once a Bill is passed into law, that's when its consequences begin to be felt beyond the Assembly in wider society, sometimes in surprising ways and unexpected places.

[We now see Mr Fitzpatrick walking along one of the trails on Divis Mountain, in the heart of the Belfast Hills.]

Mr Fitzpatrick: I've come here to Divis Mountain to see the positive impact Assembly legislation is having on the environment. I'm meeting Melina Quinn, who works for the National Trust and the path we're walking was built and paid for with money raised by a law passed by the Assembly a decade ago: the Carrier Bag Levy. All those pennies on our shopping bags add up to millions to fund environmental projects like this.

[We see Mr Fitzpatrick and Ms Quinn hiking up one of the trails. It is a dry but windy day.]

Ms Quinn (National Trust): The fund has been fantastic in helping us unlock opportunities like restoring this trail. So we're on the summit of Divis here and through the Environment Fund back in 2021, we were able to bring contractors in who were very experienced in upland path management, and they restored this trail.

The Trust has also been able to use the fund to restore paths in the Mourne Mountains with both the Mournes and Divis Black Mountain remaining free to access for everyone. And it's also secured funding to pay for important research.

So the Environment Fund allowed us to bring on board Queen's University and the consultancy called RPS. So over a 12-month period, we have been understanding the depth and the condition of the peat.

We're also keen to understand the hydrology, how the water flows through Divis and the Black Mountain. So that work allowed us to install stream gauges, so we're actually measuring the flow.

So long term, when we start to restore the peat, hopefully that will slow the flow of water to those rivers and ultimately help reduce flooding downstream and into Belfast.

While Ms Quinn was describing the important work and research that has been enabled by the funding from the Carrier Bag Levy, we see shots of the trails on Divis Mountain and areas where water is lying. We also see the view of Belfast from the mountain, with the recognisable Harland and Wolff cranes in the distance.

[We now see a shot of the Assembly Speaker addressing Members in the Assembly Chamber, back in Parliament Buildings.]

Mr Fitzpatrick: In the last Assembly term, a range of legislation was introduced: from law designed to enhance the rights of tenants in the private rental sector.

[We see a shot of a row of houses]

Mr Fitzpatrick: There were also moves on organ donation,

[we see a webpage on the BBC NI website showing the story of Daithi MacGabhann celebrating the passing of organ donation legislation on the front steps of Parliament Buildings. The headline of the article says 'Organ donation: Change to NI law passes final hurdle].

Mr Fitzpatrick: ...measures to improve the ability to prosecute perpetrators of domestic abuse and protect witnesses,

[we see a shot of the entrance to the PSNI headquarters]

Mr Fitzpatrick: ...new laws on the provision of adoption services

[we see a webpage on the BBC NI website showing a story with the headline 'Out-of-date adoption laws in Northern Ireland set to change'].

Mr Fitzpatrick: ...and legislation to secure the provision of free period products.

[We see a shot of the front door of a pharmacy. We also see a picture of campaigners on the steps in the Great Hall of Parliament Buildings. They are celebrating the passing of the free period products legislation and holding placards that say 'Menstruation Matters'. Among the group are MLAs Deirdre Hargey and Justin McNulty, Pat Catney and Cara Hunter among others]

Mr Fitzpatrick: Just some of the examples of law created at the Assembly with impact across Northern Ireland.

[The final scene shows the Northern Ireland Assembly logo in white on a blue background with the slogan, 'Making laws, delivering democracy for all'.]