Part of Justice (Northern Ireland) Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 6:30 pm on 5 February 2002.
Mr Seamus Mallon
Social Democratic and Labour Party, Newry and Armagh
6:30,
5 February 2002
I thank the hon. Lady for her contribution. She is right about the decisions of the Assembly. The decisions that are to be made with cross-community support are specified as those on the election of the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister, budgetary arrangements and the human rights content of the agreement. There may be another.
My crucial point is that the functions of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister are joint. What comes as a more terrible shock is that they are not only joint, but joint and equal. That takes some people by surprise, but that is what is in the legislation, which was written not by the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, but by Parliament. That is the reality, and if we are to get to grips with the essence of the Bill and other legislation, we must realise that they hold a joint equal office, reflecting the joint equal decision-making process and what was known in the negotiations as parallel consent.
The hon. Lady asked about other organisations. I immediately think of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and several others that may be able to make an input. The Probation Board for Northern Ireland may be another. All those organisations need to be explored, and I agree with the hon. Lady that there is an open-ended quality about the Amendment that encourages me not to press it to a vote at this stage.
A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
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Many hundreds of amendments are proposed by members to major bills as they pass through committee stage, report stage and third reading in both Houses of Parliament.
In the end only a handful of amendments will be incorporated into any bill.
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Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
