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. It would be deemed for those purposes to be an Act of the Assembly. To that end, instead of the usual Assembly process, a Main Estimates document was laid alongside this Act and 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 Main Estimates document), to these departments.