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Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2014

Consolidated Text As Enacted Cited authorities 35 Cited in Related
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Year2014


Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2014

2014 (N.I.) c. 12

An Act to provide for the establishment and functions of the Education Authority; to confer power on the Department of Education to make grants to sectoral bodies; and for connected purposes.

[11th December 2014]

BE IT ENACTED by being passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly and assented to by Her Majesty as follows:

The Education Authority

The Education Authority

S-1 The Education Authority

1 The Education Authority

(1) There shall be a body corporate to be known as the Education Authority (referred to in this Act as "the Authority").

(2) Schedule 1 applies in relation to the Authority.

S-2 Functions of the Authority

2 Functions of the Authority

(1) The Authority has the functions transferred to it by or under this Act or conferred or imposed on it by or under this Act or any other statutory provision.

(2) The functions exercisable immediately before the transfer date by education and library boards under any statutory provision are on that date transferred to the Authority.

(3) It is the duty of the Authority (so far as its powers extend) to encourage, facilitate and promote shared education.

(4) It is the duty of the Authority (so far as its powers extend) to encourage, facilitate and promote the community use of premises of grant-aided schools.

S-3 Dissolution of education and library boards and Staff Commission

3 Dissolution of education and library boards and Staff Commission

(1) The following bodies are dissolved-

(a) education and library boards;

(b) the Staff Commission for Education and Library Boards.

(2) Schedule 2 makes provision for the transfer to the Authority of the assets, liabilities and staff of the bodies dissolved by subsection (1) and contains other supplementary provisions.

Funding of sectoral bodies

Funding of sectoral bodies

S-4 Funding of sectoral bodies

4 Funding of sectoral bodies

The Department may, subject to such conditions as it thinks fit, pay grants to any body which is recognised by the Department as representing the interests of controlled schools, or any body which is recognised by the Department as representing grant-aided schools of any other particular description.

Supplementary provisions

Supplementary provisions

S-5 Amendments, repeals and other consequential provision

5 Amendments, repeals and other consequential provision

(1) The statutory provisions set out in Schedule 3 have effect subject to the amendments specified in that Schedule.

(2) The statutory provisions set out in Schedule 4 are repealed to the extent specified in the second column of that Schedule.

(3) The Department may by order make such supplementary, incidental, consequential or transitional provision as it considers necessary or appropriate in consequence of, or for giving full effect to, any provision made by this Act.

(4) An order under subsection (3) may amend, repeal, revoke or otherwise modify any statutory provision (including this Act).

(5) No order may be made under subsection (3) unless a draft of the order has been laid before, and approved by resolution of, the Assembly.

S-6 Interpretation

6 Interpretation

(1) In this Act-

"DEL" means the Department for Employment and Learning;

"the Department" means the Department of Education;

"the Education Orders" has the meaning given by Article 2(2) of the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986;

"the funding departments" means the Department and DEL;

"statutory provision" has the meaning given by section 1(f) of the Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954;

"the transfer date" means the date appointed under section 7(2) for the coming into operation of section 3(1).

(2) Other words or expressions which are defined in Article 2(2) of the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 have the same meaning in this Act as in that Order.

S-7 Short title and commencement

7 Short title and commencement

(1) This Act may be cited as the Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2014.

(2) The following provisions of this Act come into operation on such date as the Department may by order appoint-

(a) section 2(3);

(b) section 3(1);

(c) section 5(1) and (2) and Schedules 3 and 4;

(d) paragraph 8(2) of Schedule 1.

(3) The other provisions of this Act come into operation on the day after this Act receives Royal Assent.

SCHEDULES

SCHEDULE 1

Section 1.

The Education Authority

Status

SCH-1.1

(1) The Authority shall not be regarded-N.I.

(a) as the servant or agent of the Crown; or

(b) as enjoying any status, immunity or privilege of the Crown.

(2) The property of the Authority shall not be regarded as property of, or held on behalf of, the Crown.

(3) Subject to the following provisions of this Schedule and Article 106 of the 1986 Order, section 19 of the Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954 applies to the Authority.

Membership

Membership

SCH-1.2

(1) The Authority shall consist of-N.I.

(a) a Chair appointed by the Department on the basis of merit through a fair and open public competition,

(b) 8 persons nominated in accordance with paragraph 3 ("political members"), and

(c) 12 persons appointed by the Department ("appointed members") of whom-

(i) 4 shal l be persons appearing to the Department to represent the interests of transferors of controlled schools, appointed after consultation with persons or bodies appearing to the Department to represent such interests;

(ii) 4 shall be persons appearing to the Department to represent the interests of trustees of maintained schools, appointed after consultation with persons or bodies appearing to the Department to represent such interests;

(iii) 1 shall be a person appearing to the Department to represent the interests of integrated schools, appointed after consultation with persons or bodies appearing to the Department to represent such interests;

(iv) 1 shall be a person appearing to the Department to represent the interests of voluntary grammar schools, appointed after consultation with persons or bodies appearing to the Department to represent such interests;

(v) 1 shall be a person appearing to the Department to represent the interests of controlled grammar schools, appointed after consultation with persons or bodies appearing to the Department to represent such interests; and

(vi) 1 shall be a person appearing to the Department to represent the interests of Irish Medium schools, appointed after consultation with persons or bodies appearing to the Department to represent such interests.

(2) In making appointments under sub-paragraph (1)(c)(iii), the Department shall, so far as practicable, secure that each person appointed has experience in a field of activity relevant to the discharge of the functions of the Authority.

(3) A person is disqualified for membership of the Authority if that person is an officer of the Authority.

Political members

Political members

SCH-1.3

(1) Where members are first appointed to the Authority, the political members shall be nominated by applying sub-paragraphs (3) to (8).N.I.

(2) Where at any other time-

(a) an Assembly is elected under section 31 or 32 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998,

(b) a resolution which causes one or more Ministerial offices to become vacant is passed under section 30(2) of that Act, or

(c) the period of exclusion imposed by a resolution under section 30(2) of that Act comes to an end,

all political members shall cease to hold office and the political members shall be nominated by applying sub-paragraphs (3) to (8).

(3) At the request of the Department, the nominating officer of the political party for which the formula in sub-paragraph (7) gives the highest figure may nominate a person as a political member.

(4) The nominated person may take up office as a political member by making a statement to that effect to the Department.

(5) If-

(a) the nominating officer does not exercise the power conferred by sub-paragraph (3) within the period of 7 days from the Department's request, or

(b) the nominated person does not take up office as a political member within that period,

that power shall become exercisable by the nominating officer of the political party for which the formula in sub-paragraph (7) gives the next highest figure.

(6) Sub-paragraphs (3) to (5) shall be applied as many times as may be necessary to secure that all of the offices as political member are filled.

(7) The formula is-

where-

S the number of seats in the Assembly which were held by members of the party on the day on which the Assembly first met following its election;

M the number of members of the party (if any) who hold office as a political member.

(8) Where the figures given by the formula for two or more political parties are equal, each of those figures shall be recalculated with S being equal to the number of first preference votes cast for the party at the last general election of members of the Assembly.

(9) A person shall cease to hold office as a political member if that person resigns by notice in writing to the Department.

(10) Where a person ceases to hold office as a political member otherwise than by virtue of sub-paragraph (2), the nominating officer of the party on whose behalf that person was nominated may nominate another person to hold the office.

(11) If-

(a) the nominating officer does not exercise the power conferred by sub-paragraph (10) within such period as the Department may determine from the person ceasing to hold office, or

(b) the nominated person does not take up the office within that period,

the vacancy shall be filled by applying sub-paragraphs (3) to (8) within the further period of 7 days.

(12) Where-

(a) the Assembl y has resolved under section 30(2) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 that a political party does not enjoy its confidence, and

(b) the party's period of exclusion has not come to an end,

the party shall be disregarded for the purposes of...

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