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 Budget statement announced in Parliament by the Secretary of State on 24 November 2022 adjusted for the distribution of some centrally held funding and technical transfers between departments for items such as central HR functions. 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 will be laid following introduction of this Act and this would be deemed to be equivalent to the Assembly Supply process.