Debate contribution: Education (Holiday Meal Payments) Bill: Extension of Committee Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Nick Mathison on 12 May 2026.

MLA

Mr Nick Mathison

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

12 May 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Committee Business

Heading

Education (Holiday Meal Payments) Bill: Extension of Committee Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5528315

Read the official Assembly record

Text

The Committee for Education finds itself in the slightly unusual position of currently carrying out Committee Stage for two private Members' Bills that are sponsored by its own members. That may be a first, but I am happy to be corrected. I commend my Committee colleagues for the work that they have done so far to progress the Bills to their current stage in the legislative process.

Danny Baker MLA is sponsoring the Education (Holiday Meal Payments) Bill, which is a short, four-clause Bill. Its intent is to complement the term-time free school meals provision by extending it by way of a financial payment to eligible children and young people during holiday periods. To date, the Committee has taken introductory briefings from the Bill sponsor and has received correspondence from departmental officials. It has received procedural advice from Committee Clerks and Bill Clerks and has plotted what it considers to be a reasonable time frame to allow for good Committee Stage scrutiny of the Bill. As is the case with any private Member's Bill, the sponsor is keen to progress it as quickly as possible. Particularly for that Bill, however, the issue of commencement has been important to the discussions. The sponsor has been very clear in his contributions to the Committee that he wants to ensure that, if it can be avoided, no holiday period is missed out under the Bill. He has therefore been very clear that he wants to work with the Committee and stakeholders to bring deliberations through to readiness for the amending stages in the House as soon as possible. The Committee has engaged with its regular stakeholder lists but also with some specialist stakeholders that focus on the area of anti-poverty interventions. As usual, the Committee has commissioned research and legal support for the process. As with any Bill making its way through the House in the final year of a mandate, we are mindful of the pressures on Assembly time. On that basis, the Committee has agreed to run a parallel process for its survey and the taking of its oral evidence in order to try to compact the process as much as possible. The Committee decided on its timeline for the Bill's Committee Stage, with due care and attention being paid to the competing priorities of the Committee's work and the crucial components of good scrutiny. Having considered all those relevant factors, the Committee agreed to seek to extend the Bill's Committee Stage until 18 September 2026. The Bill's unique subject matter has given rise to a lot of discussion at Committee Stage on the principles of the Bill, and, rather than rehearse Second Stage, we will be keen to draw our focus on to the clauses and what the effect of each will be. Undoubtedly, that will be a challenge that the Committee will have to navigate. However, issues already being highlighted for discussion include: the scope for interdepartmental or sharing of the financing of the provisions of the Bill; the recurrent funding impacts of the Bill; and other provisions that could operate to deliver similar policy outcomes, such as breakfast clubs or social supermarkets in local communities. All those issues have been flagged, as well as potential challenges around the logistics of payment methods and access to bank accounts. Client groups such as asylum seekers have been mentioned as an area that may need attention. The Committee appreciates that the Bill is likely to be of wide interest to educational stakeholders and community and voluntary organisations. In addition, the Department has highlighted technical feedback around the drafting of the Bill that it wants to provide in the coming weeks. We hope to have that evidence from the Department soon. The Committee is clear that it intends to carry out effective and appropriate scrutiny at Committee Stage and is doing that through the normal components: a call for evidence; oral evidence sessions; Committee deliberation on evidence received; further engagement as required with departmental officials and the Bill sponsor and their team; development and consideration of potential Committee amendments; informal and formal clause-by-clause scrutiny and approval of the Bill; and consideration and approval of the final report to the Assembly. The Committee believes that the timescale set out in the motion strikes the right balance between covering those stages in the detail required and allowing the work on the Bill to be completed in time to give it an opportunity to proceed during this mandate. The Committee appreciates the Bill sponsor's strong desire to see it pass through Committee Stage with as little delay as possible. We wanted to engage this short extension to ensure that due process was followed and good scrutiny ensued. On balance, I am content that the Committee Stage extension to 18 September 2026 is reasonable, proportionate and constitutes adequate time for consideration of all relevant factors in the Bill's legislative proposals.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:35 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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