Mark Durkan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Durkan on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, whether the amendments to the Child Poverty Act 2010 in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill require a Legislative Consent Motion to be brought before the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Mrs Theresa Villiers

My Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions wrote to the Northern Ireland Executive in July 2015 on introduction of the life chances clauses in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill. As well as setting out the Government’s approach to child poverty and improving life chances, and inviting the Northern Ireland Executive to consider amendments they might wish to have introduced, he set out that he did not consider that legislative consent was required for any of the provisions as introduced.