Northern Ireland (Welfare Reform) Bill — New Clause 1 — Report on Impacts — 23 Nov 2015 at 22:00

The majority of MPs voted against requiring a report on the impact of orders made under the Northern Ireland (Welfare Reform) Act after a year of its operation.

MPs were considering the Northern Ireland (Welfare Reform) Bill^[1]

The proposed new clause rejected in this vote was titled Duty to report and stated:

• (1) In respect of an Order in Council under section 1(1) or any order or regulations under section 1(2) the Secretary of State will, within twelve months, publish a report of its operation which must include—
• (a) comparative data and information on numbers of claimants and, where relevant, dependants and the relative value of benefits, allowances, payments or credits so as to reflect any difference in provision before and after the operation of the order or regulation;
• (b) assessment of any impact in respect of section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998; and
• (c) reflection of observations from independent welfare advice service providers.
• (2) In publishing any report under subsection (1), the Secretary of State must—
• (a) lay the report before the House of Commons;
• (b) send the report to the Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly; and
• (c) be available to appear before a committee of the Northern Ireland Assembly to address, or answer on, the report.”

An explanatory statement accompanying the rejected new clause stated:

• This amendment confers a responsibility on the Secretary of State to report on the first twelve months of operations and impacts on any orders made under this Act. It would ensure the Secretary of State had to lay the report before the House of Commons, send the report to the Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly and appear before a Northern Ireland Assembly committee.

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• [1] Parliament's webpage on the Northern Ireland (Welfare Reform) Bill

Debate in Parliament | Source |