Legal background
By virtue of sections 47 and 48 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 (the "1998 Act"), the pay, allowances and pensions for MLAs and persons who have ceased to be MLAs are devolved matters and provision for them is made, pursuant to the Assembly Members (Independent Financial Review and Standards) Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 (the "2011 Act"), by the Independent Financial Review Panel ("the panel") established by that Act. The panel is required to make a determination once in respect of each Assembly and normally does so immediately prior to the election of that Assembly.
	Members of the panel are appointed by the Assembly Commission. In July 2016 the terms of appointment of the then panel members came to an end, and since then no new members of the panel have been appointed. There are, therefore, at present, no members of the panel, and as such it cannot sit nor make any determinations. The determination that currently applies is therefore the determination issued by the panel in March 2016, immediately before the May 2016 Assembly election and there is no panel in place now to make any further determination. The Act empowers the Secretary of State to make determinations to set MLA pay and allowances.