13 Facts About Northern Ireland Assembly

1. Northern Ireland Assembly has 9 statutory committees, each of which is charged with scrutinising the activities of a single ministerial department.

2. The very first bill of the Northern Ireland Assembly was to do with members' pensions and was taken through with minimum ado by a member of the Commission.

3. Northern Ireland Assembly is chaired by the Speaker and three Deputy Speakers, of whom one is appointed Principal Deputy Speaker.

4. The Northern Ireland Assembly can vote to dissolve itself early by a two-thirds majority of the total number of its members.

5. The Northern Ireland Assembly is dissolved shortly before the holding of elections on a day chosen by the Secretary of State.

6. The second election to the Northern Ireland Assembly was delayed by the UK government until 26 November 2003.

7. Northern Ireland Assembly has authority to legislate in a field of competences known as "transferred matters".

8. Northern Ireland Assembly has both legislative powers and responsibility for electing the Northern Ireland Executive.

9. In 1982 another Northern Ireland Assembly was established at Stormont, initially as a body to scrutinise the actions of the Secretary of State, the British minister with responsibility for Northern Ireland.

10. In turn, the Northern Ireland Assembly selects most of the ministers of the Northern Ireland Executive using the principle of power-sharing under the D'Hondt method to ensure that Northern Ireland's largest voting blocs, unionists and Irish nationalists, both participate in governing the region.

11. Northern Ireland Assembly is a unicameral, democratically elected body comprising 90 members known as Members of the Legislative Assembly.

12. The Northern Ireland Assembly is currently in a period of suspension, after it collapsed in January 2017 due to policy disagreements within the leadership and the resignation of the late Martin McGuinness.

13. Northern Ireland Assembly is the devolved legislature of Northern Ireland.