Sinn Féin fails to stop law to jail those guilty of RHI-type behaviour as MLAs vote Jim Allister’s bill through final stage

The Functioning of Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill was introduced by the TUV leader a year ago in response to the cash for ash scandal and creates one new criminal offence – the offence of a minister or spad sending official information to someone for the improper benefit of any person.

That clause – which cannot be applied retrospectively – was inserted after evidence of Arlene Foster’s then special adviser (spad) Andrew Crawford leaking information about the RHI scheme to family members in 2015.

However, former DUP MLA Jim Wells said he regretted that a second criminal offence in the bill’s original wording – which could have jailed ministers, spads or civil servants who evaded scrutiny by using private electronic devices or email accounts – had been voted down by the Assembly at an earlier stage.

The bill also brings spads under the civil service code, allows the standards commissioner to investigate complaints against ministers, caps spad pay, makes ministers both legally accountable and responsible for their spads, reduces the number of spads for the first ministers’ from eight to six, attempts to prevent Sinn Féin circumventing the law by appointing ‘super spads’, constrains ministers’ royal prerogative powers, and creates a legal duty to keep records of when spads and ministers are lobbied.

Sinn Fein Finance Minister Conor Murphy said it was “seriously flawed legislation” which was “unnecessary and disproportionate”, arguing that guidance and codes provided sufficient rules by which public servants are bound.

However, Mr Allister contended that such codes were weak, had been flouted with impunity in the past, and could be altered at the whim of the Executive.

Mr Allister claimed that Sinn Fin was “so small-minded it can’t get past the identity of the bill’s sponsor” and told the Assembly: “The only party that doesn’t want to make it a criminal offence to disclose to your mates or to commercial interests official information for improper purposes is Sinn Féin”.

Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill had both initially opposed the bill but the DUP’s Paul Frew argued strongly in favour of the reforms and yesterday his party supported the bill along with the UUP, SDLP, Alliance, PBP and independent MLAs.

Sinn Féin’s John O’Dowd said that the Executive had agreed a strategy not to support the bill and his party was sticking to that strategy.

Mr Allister argued that “this is not an orange or green issue” or “some Machiavellian conspiracy to undermine the Belfast Agreement”.

Eight years ago the North Antrim MLA managed to pass another private member’s bill which banned killers and others guilty of serious crimes for which they were unrepentant from being appointed as spads.

He said that as a single MLA it would have been easy for the big parties “to sweep aside what an individual member thinks is important – but that didn’t happen, and I’m grateful for that”.

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