Administrative and Financial Provisions Act (Northern Ireland) 2026

The Department of Finance may lend funds for investment by an investment entity in accordance with an investment strategy set by the Department.

The investment strategy must describe the policy objectives that the investments are to seek to help to deliver.

The Department may—

For the purposes of this section—

The Department for the Economy may, where it considers that to do so is likely to be in the interest of the economy of Northern Ireland (or part of Northern Ireland)—

Financial assistance under subsection (1)(c)—

The Department may prepare and issue a statement of its general approach to the exercise of the power conferred on it by subsection (1)(c).

In exercising the power conferred by subsection (1)(c) the Department must have regard to any statement under subsection (3) in force at the time.

The Department may make such arrangements for the provision and management of financial assistance under subsection (1)(c) as it considers appropriate; and may in particular arrange for another person (including a company or other body established by the Department for the purpose) to provide or manage financial assistance on its behalf.

The power conferred by subsection (1)(c) is in addition to (and does not limit or replace) any other power of the Department to provide financial assistance.

The Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1993 is amended as follows.

In Article 30(1), after “grants” insert “, loans or other payments”.

The Executive Office may arrange or facilitate the provision of a relevant service to an individual who is a victim and survivor.

A “relevant service” means a service designed—

An individual is a “victim and survivor” if the individual—

A prescribed description must include—

The following are abuse for the purposes of subsection (4)(a)—

Regulations under this section are subject to negative resolution.

The Executive Office may—

The Executive Office may provide, or arrange or facilitate the provision of, a relevant service to an individual in Northern Ireland who—

A “relevant service” means a service designed to assist the individual with integration in Northern Ireland.

An individual has a qualifying immigration status for the purposes of this section if the individual—

The Executive Office may by regulations amend subsection (3) so as to add, remove or modify a description of circumstances in which a person has qualifying immigration status for the purpose of this section.

Regulations under this section are subject to negative resolution.

The Executive Office may—

In this section—

• “asylum-seeker” and “dependant of an asylum-seeker” have the same meanings as in Part 2 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002,

• “the immigration rules” means the rules made under section 3(2) of the Immigration Act 1971.

The Executive Office may provide, or arrange or facilitate the provision of, opportunities for people to acquire the skills or experience required to hold public appointments.

The Executive Office must exercise the function conferred by subsection (1) with a view to encouraging the diversity of people holding public appointments.

The Executive Office may—

The Executive Office has power to do anything that it considers is appropriate for the purpose of furthering any of the aims (however described) in the Strategic Framework to End Violence against Women and Girls.

The power under subsection (1) includes power to—

The reference in subsection (1) to the Strategic Framework to End Violence against Women and Girls is—

In subsection (3), a reference to a document is to the document as it may be supplemented or modified from time to time.

The power under section 9 does not enable the Executive Office to do anything that it is unable to do by virtue of a limiting provision.

A “limiting provision” is a statutory provision that prohibits or prevents the Executive Office from doing something or limits its powers in that respect.

The absence from a statutory provision of provision conferring any power does not of itself make that provision a limiting provision.

The power under section 9 may not be exercised in a way that unreasonably duplicates anything that may or must be done in pursuance of a function, under any statutory provision (whenever passed or made), of another Northern Ireland department.

Subsection (4) does not prevent the exercise of the power under section 9 in a way that duplicates anything of the kind mentioned in that subsection if the other Northern Ireland department consents to that exercise of the power.

The power under section 9 does not enable the Executive Office to do anything for the purpose of enabling it to raise money by levying or imposing any form of tax or charge, by borrowing or otherwise.

Subsection (6) does not prevent the Executive Office from imposing reasonable charges for anything done by it under section 9.

The power under section 9 does not authorise a disclosure of information in breach of any restriction on the disclosure of the information (however imposed).

In determining for the purposes of subsection (8) whether a disclosure would breach the data protection legislation, the powers conferred by section 9 are to be taken into account.

The Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 is amended as follows.

For Article 66(2)(b), substitute—

“(b)

provide financial support (at such rate or for such amount and subject to such conditions as it may determine)—

(i)

to students on a course of initial training of teachers,

(ii)

to teachers on a course of education which is being undertaken for the purpose of further training.”.

The Department of Education, or the Education Authority with the permission of the Department of Education, may—

Grants or financial support may be provided subject to conditions (which may include conditions about repayment with or without interest or other return).

“Governing body” and “higher education institution in Northern Ireland” have the same meanings as in Article 30 of the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1993.

The Northern Ireland Housing Executive and a registered housing association may enter into arrangements by which the Executive investigates and reports to the association as to—

Those things are—

Arrangements under subsection (1) may include provision for or in connection with the meeting by the housing association of any expenditure incurred by the Executive—

In carrying out an investigation under arrangements under subsection (1), the Executive may make such enquiries as it considers appropriate for the purposes of the investigation.

A housing association may disclose to the Executive any information that the association considers relevant for the purposes of the carrying out of an investigation under arrangements under subsection (1).

A report under subsection (1) may include any information regarding the investigation that the Executive considers appropriate.

Nothing in subsection (5) or (6) authorises a disclosure of information in breach of any restriction on the disclosure of the information (however imposed).

In determining for the purposes of subsection (7) whether a disclosure would breach the data protection legislation, the powers conferred by subsections (5) and (6) are to be taken into account.

In this section—

• “housing accommodation” has the same meaning as in the Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 1981 (see Article 2 of that Order),

• “housing association” and “registered” have the same meanings as in Part 2 of the Housing (Northern Ireland) Order 1992 (see Article 3 of that Order),

• “right-to-buy discount” has the meaning given by section 8(2) of the Housing (Amendment) Act (Northern Ireland) 2020.

The Local Government Finance Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 is amended as follows.

In section 31—

The Local Government (Payments to Councillors) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2019 (S.R. 2019 No. 174) are amended as follows.

In regulation 4, for paragraphs (1) and (2) substitute—

“(1)

Each member of a council is to be paid by the council a basic allowance (that is, an allowance of a standard amount payable to all members of councils for the carrying out of the duties of a councillor).”.

Schedule 2 to the Historical Institutional Abuse (Northern Ireland) Act 2019 is amended as follows.

In paragraph 3(2), for “for a term of” substitute “to be for a period not exceeding”.

The Tourism (Northern Ireland) Order 1992 is amended as follows.

In Article 4—

In Article 20—

Part 4 of the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 is amended as follows.

After section 67A, insert—

“Advice and other assistance from Northern Ireland department

67B

(1)

This section applies where the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland is the appropriate licensing authority.

(2)

The licensing authority may provide advice or other assistance to any person who requests it in connection with—

(a)

an application which the person proposes to make to the licensing authority for a marine licence, or

(b)

any other matter in respect of which the licensing authority exercises functions under this Part.

(3)

The licensing authority may charge fees in respect of the reasonable costs incurred by it in connection with the provision of advice or other assistance under subsection (2).”.

In section 72A—

In section 107A—

In section 107B—

In section 108(2A), after “Welsh Ministers” insert “or the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland”.

The Transport (Northern Ireland) Order 1977 is amended as follows.

In Article 5(2), for “sub-section (1)” substitute “paragraph (1)”.

After Article 5(2), insert—

“(3)

The Department may by regulations provide for a fee to be payable for the issue of—

(a)

a travel concession pass, or

(b)

a duplicate of a travel concession pass in replacement of a lost, stolen, damaged or destroyed one.

(4)

In paragraph (3), “travel concession pass” means, in relation to a concessionary fare under an agreement under paragraph (1), a document in any form issued by or on behalf of the Department that a passenger is required to present in order to receive the concessionary fare under the agreement.

(5)

The regulations may set a fee at an amount that exceeds the cost of issuing the pass concerned.

(6)

But in setting fees the Department must aim to ensure that the income from them in a given financial year does not exceed the costs arising from the issue of passes under the agreement in that financial year.

(7)

The Department may not make regulations under paragraph (3) unless a draft of the regulations has been laid before, and approved by a resolution of, the Assembly.”.

The Financial Provisions (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 is amended as follows.

In Article 6(2), for “2” substitute “4”.

section 12 of the Petroleum (Production) Act (Northern Ireland) 1964,

section 51 of the Mineral Development Act (Northern Ireland) 1969.

The following sections come into operation on the day after Royal Assent—

The other provisions of this Act come into operation on such day or days as the Department of Finance may by order appoint.

An order under subsection (2) may make any transitory or transitional provision, or savings, that the Department of Finance considers necessary or expedient.