Motion or amendment: New Standing Order
Motion or amendment by Ms Kellie Armstrong on .
- MLA
- Ms Kellie Armstrong
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 9 October 2024
- Type
- Motion or amendment
- Business
- Motion · Committee Motion
- Heading
- New Standing Order
- Assembly identifier
- Document 413533
Read the official Assembly record Open Data source
Text
New Standing Order
After Standing Order 27 insert: -
27A Voting by proxy
(1) A member (M) may arrange for M’s vote to be exercised by a proxy (P) where— (a) M meets the conditions set out in paragraph 2, (b) the Speaker has published a proxy voting scheme (the Scheme) in accordance with paragraph 3, (c) P is not the Speaker or a deputy Speaker, and (d) M and P have complied with the terms of the Scheme.
(2) The conditions are— (a) M could, if an employee, exercise a right to maternity leave, paternity leave, adoption leave, shared parental leave or parental bereavement leave, (b) M is affected by complications arising from pregnancy, including miscarriage, stillbirth and baby loss, or (c) M has fostering responsibilities of a kind prescribed in the Scheme.
(3) The Scheme must include— (a) the process by which M may designate P, (b) the period for which a proxy vote may be exercised, (c) how M may vary or withdraw that proxy, and (d) subject to paragraph 4, details of how a proxy vote may be exercised.
(4) A proxy vote— (a) may be exercised only in a plenary session of the Assembly, (b) is to be disregarded for the purposes of Standing Order 9 (Quorum), (c) must be recorded as such in the Official Report and the Journal of the Proceedings of the Assembly, (d) may not be exercised in a vote on any of the following— i. a Bill to which section 7A of the 1998 Act applies, ii. the democratic consent process at Schedule 6A of the 1998 Act, iii. any motion which requires the support of a number of members of the Assembly which equals or exceeds two thirds of the total number of seats in the Assembly, and iv. any motion which requires the support of a number of members of the Assembly which equals or exceeds two thirds of the total number of members voting on the motion.
(5) In this standing order— ‘employee’ has the meaning given by Article 3 of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 ‘the 1998 Act’ means the Northern Ireland Act 1998.
360 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.03 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.66).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- Subject area: Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues.
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.03 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.01 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.66 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.03 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 0.55 |
| Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups | 0.36 |
| No identity-related subject | 0.07 |
| Constitutional question, Brexit, the Windsor Framework and sovereignty | 0.01 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.01 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 08:57 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
Disagree with this assessment?
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