Commentary on provisions of Act Section 1: Remuneration of Northern Ireland Assembly members
This Section allows the Secretary of State to make a determination on MLAs’ pay, allowances, and gratuities. This determination may apply during the current period without Ministers and, unless replaced, it would also apply during any future period in which the deadline for appointing Ministers after an election or the resignation of the First Minister or deputy First Minister passes without those appointments having been made. Subsection (3) restricts the power to make a determination to the current period (from the passage of the Act until all the Ministerial offices are next filled), but allows any determination to apply again in any subsequent such period. Once Ministers are in office, the power to make a determination would return to being exercised solely by the Independent Financial Review Panel under the Assembly Members (Independent Financial Review and Standards) Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 (the "2011 Act").
	Subsection (8) clarifies the position of determinations made by the Secretary of State and by the panel. Any determination made under this Act may amend a panel determination, and in turn the panel may revoke the Secretary of State’s determination - for example to establish its own set of provisions for periods without Ministers. Subsection (7) ensures that MLAs’ pensions are not affected by any change to their salaries under the Secretary of State’s determination.
	Subsections (4) and (5) echo section 14 of the 2011 Act, requiring any determination to be made in writing and to be provided to the Assembly Commission, who must publish it. Subsection (6) applies section 12 of the 2011 Act to any determination made by the Secretary of State in respect of salaries and allowances payable under section 47 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998. In particular it enables the Secretary of State to determine that members and office holders should be paid different amounts and requires her to ensure that a member who is also a member of the European Parliament does not also receive a salary as a member of the Assembly.