Office of Public Sector Information
Last Updated: 22/12/2008
This page provides links to the full text of all Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly as they were originally enacted by the Assembly, and the Explanatory Notes to the Acts.
It should be noted that during the period of suspension of devolved government in Northern Ireland that legislation that would normally be passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly may be made by Her Majesty by Order in Council. The full text of such Orders in Council are available on this website.
All Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly which result from Bills introduced into the Assembly by the Northern Ireland Executive, are accompanied by Explanatory Notes. The text of the Explanatory Notes is produced by the department responsible for the subject matter of the Act. The purpose of these Explanatory Notes is to make the Act accessible to readers who are not legally qualified and who have no specialised knowledge of the matters dealt with. They are intended to allow the reader to grasp what the Act sets out to achieve and place its effect in context.
The aim is to publish these documents on the internet simultaneously with their publication in printed form. The Explanatory Notes should be published on the internet at the same time as the Act but this might not always be possible and may follow some days after the publication of the Act.