FIRST MINISTER AND DEPUTY FIRST MINISTER (Hansard, 30 July 1998)

§ Mr. Paul Murphy
I beg to move amendment No. 16, in page 7, line 11, leave out 'The Assembly shall' and insert 'Each Assembly shall, within such period beginning with its first meeting as is specified in standing orders,'. The amendment provides that there should be a new election of First Minister and Deputy First Minister after every election, and that that election shall take place within a period specified in the Standing Orders. Clearly, that is a sensible arrangement and I commend it to the House.

§ Mr. Peter Robinson
It occurs to me that the Minister might like to clarify whether there is any mechanism for disposing of First Ministers and Deputy First Ministers. There is none in the Bill, except by their own resignation—which, apparently, has to be forced. Will the Minister consider whether it might be appropriate to have such a mechanism?

§ Mr. Murphy
I think that the term "disposal" might be a little extreme under the circumstances, but I take the hon. Gentleman's point. They can be excluded under clause 23.

§ Mr. Paul Murphy
I beg to move amendment No. 17, in page 7, line 33, after second 'office' insert 'which, together with the code of conduct to which it refers, is'.

§ Mr. Deputy Speaker
With this, it will be convenient to discuss Government amendment No. 56.

§ Mr. Murphy
These are minor amendments, proposed for convenience's sake. They have the effect of setting out the code of conduct from annexe a to strand 1 of the Belfast agreement in schedule 5 of the Bill. The provision was lifted word for word from the agreement and placed in the Bill. It will be more convenient for those who wish to look at the legislation. It should avoid any possible confusion between the code of conduct that was specifically agreed in the talks and any code of conduct that applies to Westminster Ministers. I commend the amendment to the House.

§ Mr. Peter Robinson
The amendment is linked to Government amendment No. 16. The code of conduct is part of the pledge. A breach of the pledge could lead to the First Minister and Deputy First Minister losing their places, but there is no other mechanism if they have lost the confidence of the Assembly on a political matter. They can be removed only if they breach their pledge of office or are involved in or support terrorism.

§ Mr. Paul Murphy
I beg to move amendment No. 18, in page 9, line 6, leave out 'or under'.
The amendment is entirely technical. Clause 15 deals with the allocation of ministerial posts by the d'Hondt formula. Subsection (14), as drafted, provides that, if a party is excluded and its period of exclusion has not come to an end, the party shall be disregarded for the purposes of subsections (4) to (9) as applied by or under subsection (13). On reflection, we believe that the words "or under" are redundant, and the amendment will delete them.

§ Mr. Murphy
I beg to move amendment No. 19, in page 9, line 9, at end insert 'or an officer nominated by him for the purposes of this section'. The amendment concerns the powers of political parties to nominate people to ministerial posts that fall to the party under the d'Hondt formula. It clears up what we believe is an anomaly. Clause 15 provides for the d'Hondt formula to determine how many posts each party is entitled to. The political party that gains the highest figure when the formula is run can then choose a ministerial post. Clause 15 gives the nominating officers—usually, but not necessarily, the leaders—of political parties the power to select a ministerial office and nominate a person to hold it who is a member of the party and, of course, of the Assembly.
Subsection (15) enables the nominating officer of a non-registered political party to delegate his functions under the clause, but it does not enable the nominating officer of a registered party to do the same. There seems to be no good reason for the distinction, and I would expect that most Northern Ireland parties will want to take 581 advantage of the registration scheme when it is finally introduced. The amendment removes the anomaly by giving the nominating officers of registered political parties the same power to delegate their functions.