Legal background
In the continuing absence of a Northern Ireland Executive, and the consequent inability of the Northern Ireland Assembly to pass a Budget Act, this Act provides the required authorisations and appropriations based on the final Budget plans, which are based on the advice from the Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service and the Northern Ireland Civil Service Board. It is deemed for those purposes to be an Act of the Assembly. To that end, instead of the usual Assembly process, a Spring Supplementary Estimates document was laid alongside this Act and this is deemed to be equivalent to the Assembly Supply process.
	The Act provides authorisations and appropriations for departments and other public bodies in Northern Ireland and leaves spending decisions, within the overall totals voted (and the more detailed totals in the Spring Supplementary Estimates document), to these departments.