# Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) Act 2006, Paragraph 2


(1) Paragraph 3 (provisions relating to relevant Minister) is amended as follows.
(2) After sub-paragraph (3) insert—
“(3A) But a member of the Assembly who is a member of a political party may not be nominated unless the nominating officer of the party consents to his nomination within a period specified in standing orders.”
(3) In sub-paragraph (9), at the end insert
“; or
(d) where consent to his nomination was required under sub-paragraph (3A), he is dismissed by the nominating officer who consented (or that officer's successor) and the Presiding Officer is notified of his dismissal.”
(4) After sub-paragraph (10) insert—
“(10A) If, as a result of the relevant Minister (“the former Minister”) ceasing to hold office and the relevant Ministerial office being filled by virtue of sub-paragraph (10),—
(a) the total number of Ministerial offices held by members of a political party increases; or
(b) the total number of Ministerial offices held by members of a political party decreases,
all other Northern Ireland Ministers shall cease to hold office and those Ministerial offices shall be filled by applying section 18(2) to (6) within a period specified in standing orders.
(10B) But sub-paragraph (10A) shall not apply if—
(a) the former Minister ceased to hold office by virtue of being dismissed by a nominating officer under sub-paragraph (9)(d); and
(b) before the relevant Ministerial office was filled, either of the conditions in sub-paragraph (10C) was satisfied in relation to each member of the Assembly who was a member of the political party of the nominating officer.
(10C) The conditions are that—
(a) the First Minister and the deputy First Minister sought to nominate the member under sub-paragraph (3) for the relevant Ministerial office but consent to his nomination was not given in accordance with sub-paragraph (3A); or
(b) the member was nominated under sub-paragraph (3) for the relevant Ministerial office and the nomination took effect within the period specified in standing orders by virtue of sub-paragraph (5)(a), but the member did not take up the office within that period.”
(5) After sub-paragraph (13) insert—
“(14) In this paragraph “nominating officer” has the same meaning as in section 18.”

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/53/schedule/6/paragraph/2 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/northern-ireland-st-andrews-agreement-act-2006/schedule-6/paragraph-2
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.