Debate contribution: Legislation Programme 2025-26

Debate contribution by Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly on 13 October 2025.

MLA

Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

13 October 2025

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Legislation Programme 2025-26

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5176166

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank Members for their contributions to the debate. I do not intend to speak for very long, but I will touch on some common points that were made across a number of contributions. I welcome the fact that we heard from so many Members. I know that the nature of our legislative process in Northern Ireland is challenging. We are a coalition Government of four parties that have been forced together into that arrangement. Therefore, we adopt a particular approach to the legislation programme, which is to respect each Minister as they put forward their proposals for inclusion at an early stage. We do not police that from the centre, nor do we ask Ministers to put forward detailed policy proposals for those pieces of legislation, because we know that they must come to the Executive for discussion and decision. Therefore, it is on that basis that the debate is happening today. If, indeed, we were a Government like most other Governments, I would be standing here proposing how my Government would put in place the manifesto that we stood on in an election, as would any other Minister in this place. We cannot do that, however, because that is not the system that we have. It is incredibly important to be very clear about that. We have not rejected a proposal from any Minister. Indeed, I believe that there is ambition within these proposals as well. A number of common themes emerged across the Chamber. Members wanted to see ambition in a legislation programme and wanted the Committees to be engaged. I welcome the fact that so many Committee Chairs spoke about the particular issues that will be coming up in their Committees over the next 12 months — those core concepts of early engagement, transparency and scrutiny. If we are being honest, as a number of Members mentioned, we have to admit that we have some quite frankly appalling pieces of legislation or legislation that contains some quite frankly appalling clauses. I am a small government person. I do not believe that there should be unlimited amounts of legislation, nor that legislation is always necessary in order to effect change or to realise what we want to achieve. It is important to say that. As my colleague from North Belfast Phillip Brett pointed out, ultimately, the quantity of legislation does not in any way demonstrate its quality or benefits, or the productivity of this place. Passing legislation is, of course, an important function of the Assembly, and it is really important that there is proper scrutiny. Good legislation takes time; that is the reality. In my view, everyone in this place should look very carefully at the A5 judgement and at what happens when legislation is rushed or when substantial amendments are accepted from the Floor of the House without proper consultation and consideration.

I will.

I thank the Member for his contribution. He should also recognise the importance of having that legislation in place in advance of the next term. We need to ensure that affordability for parents is at the heart of that Bill. It is important to get those things done before the beginning of the next school term in order to allow parents, hopefully, to make those savings. That is an issue that has put a lot of pressure on many hard-working and hard-pressed families. Of course, there will be examples of where we need to push things through as quickly as possible, but good legislation takes time, scrutiny and all of us working together to make sure that it is the very best that it can be. It also takes us all to recognise that, if things are not working as originally envisaged, they should be changed. We should be looking at some of our legislation and addressing some of the issues outlined in the courts, not least the recent decision on the A5. I am not going to go into all the many contributions in detail, but I will touch on a number of them. We are getting close to the spooky season. In 'Harry Potter', there is Moaning Myrtle, but we have our very own moaning Matthew every single day.

He stands in the Chamber and he moans and moans and moans. Does the Member know how many pieces of legislation the first Executive, who were led by the Ulster Unionist Party and the SDLP, brought forward in year 1?

I will give way —.

They brought forward nine pieces of legislation, of which seven received Royal Assent. In the second year, it was 18. In the third year, just shortly before the collapse, of course, it was in single digits again. He and other SDLP Members decry this legislative programme, but I say to him gently that it has more ambition than previous programmes did. It has more pieces of legislation in it. There is a range of legislation, some of which, understandably and logically, will bring us into line with the UK, just as was the case with the legislative programme that was brought forward by his party when it jointly led the Executive.

I thank the Member for his contribution. I have outlined the process. It would not be practical or realistic to ask Ministers to bring forward detailed policy proposals for a yea or a nay from the First Minister and me before they would make their way into the programme. That is a well-established practice. I will not be signing up to legislation until I see its content. That is a core principle of mine, and one that we should all adhere to. The task that we have is to work with our Executive colleagues and look at the proposals that are brought forward. We will work with them to see whether we can reach consensus. That is the duty that we have. If we cannot get consensus on big, important issues, such as employment legislation, they will not proceed. That is realistic. That is the system that we have. We must work together to get those things into a state that people can support. I am clear about that. I thank all the Members for their contributions. I listened to them all, and have taken on board many of the key issues that were raised. A number of pieces of legislation were referred to. I have had the benefit of seeing the policy content of some, but not of others. I look forward to engaging with Committees throughout the year. My commitment to the Chamber is that we in the Executive Office will be working with ministerial colleagues on a regular basis to assess the progress of the Bills that we have set out. If there are challenges or problems in bringing them forward, we will work with Ministers to see whether we can unblock them and get them moving. We want to fulfil what we have set out today. We want to reach consensus on a range of Bills. If we can reach that consensus, they will certainly get Executive agreement, and we will bring them forward for Committee scrutiny, which we in the Executive Committee so very much welcome.

1,197 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:28 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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