Functions of the Office of the Legislative Counsel

The principal function of the Office is to draft Bills for the Northern Ireland Executive for introduction to the Northern Ireland Assembly. The Office also works with Parliamentary Counsel in Whitehall to ensure the correct application to Northern Ireland of Westminster Bills. Counsel provide advice and guidance to Ministers and officials on constitutional and legislative matters and oversee the Statutory Publications Office (SPO).

SPO is responsible for the registration of all Northern Ireland Statutory Rules and for publishing, indexing and updating the Northern Ireland Statute Book. To this end it publishes annual volumes of statutes and statutory rules, together with indexes, the Chronological Table of the Statutes and Chronological Table of Statutory Rules which help the reader to find the relevant up to date statutory text.

The Directorate joined the UK Statute Law Database (SLD) at its launch on 20 December 2006. This made available an updated version of NI primary legislation up to 31 December 2005. SPO are updating amendments from 01 January 2006 and creating historical versions from that date. Updated legislation is available free to all legal researchers at www.statutelaw.gov.uk.