Debate contribution: Repeal of Standing Order 70 and Consequential Amendments

Debate contribution by Ms Kellie Armstrong on 29 June 2026.

MLA

Ms Kellie Armstrong

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

29 June 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Committee Business

Heading

Repeal of Standing Order 70 and Consequential Amendments

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5645227

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker. I am pleased to bring to the Assembly, at the request of the Committee on Standards and Privileges, a motion to repeal Standing Order 70, rename the Committee on Standards and Privileges and make the necessary consequential amendments to Standing Orders. Standing Order 70 deals with how matters of privilege can be raised by Members and dealt with by the Speaker. The need to review Standing Order 70 was initially identified following a review of the code of conduct by a previous Committee on Standards and Privileges, and the current Committee has completed that work. Following detailed consideration of a range of policy options, that Committee decided that the most appropriate course of action was to repeal Standing Order 70. I am not going to say more about the background to the rationale for that decision as I know that Cathy Mason MLA, Chairperson of the Committee on Standards and Privileges, intends to cover that in detail in her contribution. A joint letter from both Committees was provided to MLAs in advance of the debate — I believe that it went out on 24 June — setting out information on the position regarding parliamentary privilege in the Northern Ireland Assembly. The decision reached by the Committee on Standards and Privileges is to recommend the repeal of Standing Order 70 and the making of necessary consequential amendments to Standing Orders. Upon receipt of the request from the Committee on Standards and Privileges, and having considered the information provided on the comprehensive policy review, the Committee on Procedures agreed to seek legal advice on the procedural aspects of making the proposed changes to Standing Orders. Following receipt of that advice, and whilst consulting with the Speaker and the Business Committee on one of the consequential amendments, the Committee agreed to bring forward the motion that is before the Assembly, seeking agreement to make the changes. With the repeal of Standing Order 70, a number of consequential amendments need to be made to Standing Orders, and I will now run through them. Standing Order 22 covers public petitions, and the amendment to paragraph (2) of that Standing Order removes the reference to considering matters:

"in breach of the privileges of the Assembly"

and replaces it with a reference to matters that could create a substantial risk of serious prejudice to active legal proceedings. When considering that consequential amendment, the Committee on Procedures discussed the policy intent and sought the views of the Speaker and the Business Committee. Noting that the amendment maintains consistency between Standing Order 22(2) and Standing Order 73, which covers sub judice and means that the Business Committee would consider the scheduling of a petition with the benefit of the knowledge that the Speaker had exercised his discretion pursuant to Standing Order 73 to permit the petition, the Committee agreed that it was content with that approach. The amendments to Standing Order 57 remove the reference to "and Privileges" in the Committee name in the heading and in paragraph (1), and replaces paragraph (1)(a), which references matters of privilege, with:

"to consider any complaint of unauthorised disclosure of information by a member referred to it by the Assembly or a committee".

That amendment provides for the investigating of unauthorised disclosure of information — in other words, leaks — as an alleged breach of the code rather than as an alleged breach of privilege, and implements the preferred approach for dealing with those matters as set out in the Committee on Standards and Privileges report of the review of the code of conduct undertaken in the 2011-16 mandate. The amendments to Standing Orders 69A(3), 69A(4), 69B(1) and 69C(2) remove the words "and Privileges" from the name of the Committee on Standards and Privileges. That Committee, if the motion is passed, will be called the Committee on Standards, which is a more appropriate title following the repeal of Standing Order 70. The amendment to Standing Order 69A(5) replaces paragraph (a), which makes reference to "and Privileges", with:

"made by the Committee on Standards, that relates to the conduct of members".

Standing Order 69A covers the Northern Ireland Assembly Commissioner for Standards, and paragraph (5)(a) sets out what the Commissioner must investigate on referral by the Committee on Standards and Privileges. The amendment removes references to "Privileges" but continues to provide for investigation by the Commissioner referrals by the Committee that relate to the conduct of Members. The proposed changes to Standing Orders, requested by the Committee on Standards and Privileges — soon to be renamed the Committee on Standards, if the motion is passed — address outstanding issues from the review of the code of conduct and the anomaly that is Standing Order 70. The Committee on Procedures is, therefore, pleased to bring them to the Assembly for approval. In my capacity as Chairperson of the Committee on Procedures, I place on record my thanks to the members of the Committee on Procedures and the Committee on Standards and Privileges, the Committee Clerks and everyone else who helps us with those Committees for the work that they undertook to enable the proposed changes to Standing Orders to be brought to the Assembly. I look forward to the contributions of Members.

875 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 16:06 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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