Commentary on provisions of Act Section 5 – Act to take effect as if it were a Budget Act of the Assembly etc
Section 5 provides for this Act to have the same effect as if it were an Act of the Northern Ireland Assembly. It also modifies references in other pieces of legislation to the Northern Ireland Estimates which would normally form part of the Assembly’s supply process, including the consideration of the estimates by the Assembly’s committees and the approval of the estimates document by a vote in the Assembly. For those purposes an Estimates document laid before Parliament, which accompanied the introduction of the Act, is deemed equivalent to those Assembly processes. Section 5(3) would require the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the Northern Ireland Public Service Ombudsman to prepare their accounts in accordance with the Estimates laid before Parliament.