# The Departments (Northern Ireland) Order 1999, Article 2: Interpretation


(1) The 1954 c. 33 (N.I.)Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954 shall apply to Article 1 and the following provisions of this Order as it applies to a Measure of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
(2) In this Order—
“department” means a Northern Ireland department;
“Minister”, in relation to a department, means—
(a) in the case of the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister, the First Minister and the deputy First Minister acting jointly;
(b) in the case of any other department, the Minister in charge of that department;
“statutory provision” has the meaning assigned to it by section 1(f) of the 1954 c. 33 (N.I.).Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954.
(3) References in this Order to a senior officer of a department are references to a person who is employed in that department and is—
(a) a member of the Northern Ireland senior civil service; or
(b) a member of the Northern Ireland civil service designated by the department as a senior officer for the purposes of this Order.
(4) If, and to the extent that, a determination under section 19 of the 1998 c. 47.Northern Ireland Act 1998 so provides, the functions exercisable under this Order by a senior officer of a department shall also be exercisable by a junior Minister; but nothing in this Order authorises a junior Minister to exercise functions otherwise than in accordance with the terms of such a determination.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/1999/0110803965/article/2 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/draft-departments-northern-ireland-order-1999/article-2
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.