New Ad Hoc Committee on the Assembly Members ( Remuneration Board) Bill launches 'Call for Evidence

A new Ad Hoc Committee which has been formed to scrutinise the Assembly Members (Remuneration Board) Bill met for the first time earlier today.

The Bill proposes the establishment of an independent Remuneration Board to determine MLA salaries and pensions and sets out how the Board will operate. If passed by the Assembly, it will provide successor arrangements for the previous Independent Financial Review Panel.

Speaking after today’s meeting, the Chairperson of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Assembly Members (Remuneration Board) Bill,Phillip Brett MLA said: “At today’s meeting we agreed to initiate a four week ‘Call for Evidence’ to seek views on this important new Bill.

“The provisions within the proposed legislation are quite rightly and understandably of considerable public interest. It is therefore incumbent upon this Committee to seek pertinent insight, context and knowledge from relevant stakeholders to ensure the effective and objective scrutiny of this Bill.”  

The Chairperson continued: “Throughout this Committee stage, a crucial element of my role as Chairperson will be to ensure that this Committee carries out its role and responsibilities with the utmost transparency, impartiality and integrity.

“To this end, I want to emphasise that we will engage with the Bill sponsor, the Assembly Commission, in the same rigorous and impartial manner a committee would engage with an Executive department in the scrutiny of a departmental Bill.” 

The Chairperson concluded: “It is essential that we, as a Committee, undertake robust and independent scrutiny of the provisions of the Bill and that we do all in our power to ensure an outcome that enhances and safeguards public confidence in the independence of the process.”

The Committee’s ‘Call for Evidence’ can be accessed here and will remain open until 5pm on Wednesday, 19 March.     

ENDS

• The Assembly Members (Remuneration Board) Bill is available to read here.
• The Assembly voted to agree a resolution on the 30 June 2020 to bring responsibility for allowances back to the Assembly Commission. The full debate can be viewedhere and the Official Report read here    
• Phillip Brett MLA was elected Chairperson andCathy Mason MLAwas elected Deputy Chairperson at today’smeeting, further information re: the work, remit and Membership of the Committee can be foundhere:
• The Ad Hoc Committee will meet in Room 21, Parliament Buildings at 1pm every Tuesday, with further meetings as required on Thursday afternoons, when the Assembly is in session. Further information can be found on the Business Diary here.
• Meetings will be streamed live onhttps://niassembly.tv/
• At its next meeting at 2pm on Thursday 20 February, the Committee will take oral evidence from the Assembly Commission.

For media enquires please contact:

Sinead Murphy

The Communications Office

Northern Ireland Assembly