Policy paper

First Report on the Use of the Petition of Concern Mechanism in the Northern Ireland Assembly

This command paper sets out the use of the Petition of Concern Mechanism in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

• From: Northern Ireland Office and The Rt Hon Brandon Lewis CBE
• Published: 16 July 2020

This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government

Documents

First Report on the Use of the Petition of Concern Mechanism in the Northern Ireland Assembly

Ref: ISBN 978-1-5286-2049-9 , CP 252

PDF, 896 KB, 8 pages

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Details

The Petition of Concern (PoC) is a mechanism whereby 30 MLAs can petition the Assembly requiring a matter to be passed on a cross-community rather than a simple majority basis. Under the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, it is one of the ‘safeguards’ in Strand One as a mechanism “to ensure key decisions [in the Assembly] are taken on cross-community basis”.

Published 16 July 2020