# Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014, Section 6: Reduction in size of Assembly to be reserved matter


(1) The Northern Ireland Act 1998 is amended as follows.
(2) In Schedule 3 (reserved matters), after paragraph 7 insert—
“
7A The alteration of the number of members of the Assembly returned for each constituency.
This paragraph does not include—
(a) the alteration of that number to a number lower than five or higher than six, or
(b) the provision of different numbers for different constituencies.”
(3) After section 7 insert—
“Cross-community support required for Bill altering size of Assembly
7A (1) The Assembly shall not pass a relevant Bill without cross-community support.
(2) In this section—
“pass”, in relation to a Bill, means pass at the stage in the Assembly's proceedings at which the Bill falls finally to be passed or rejected;
“relevant Bill” means a Bill containing a provision which deals with a matter falling within a description specified in paragraph 7A of Schedule 3 (size of Assembly).”
(4) In section 14 (submission by Secretary of State), after subsection (3) insert—
“(3A) The Secretary of State shall not submit a Bill for Royal Assent if the Assembly has passed the Bill in contravention of section 7A (cross-community support required for Bill altering size of Assembly).”
(5) In section 53(3)(b) (agreements etc by person participating in Councils), after “section” insert “ 7A, ”.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/13/section/6 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/northern-ireland-miscellaneous-provisions-act-2014/section-6
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.