AQW 17252/22-27

Mr David Honeyford
Alliance Party
Lagan Valley

Tabled Date: 23/10/2024
Answered On Date: 30/10/2024
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Finance to detail any actions carried out by her Department further to the publication of the Law Commission’s Report on Land Law - NILC 8 in 2010 and its recommendation that the two pieces of draft legislation, Land Law Reform and Ground Rents, should be implemented in full.

Answer:

This area of policy currently falls to a small and busy team which has a broad civil law reform remit. Priorities for the remainder of this mandate include delivering reform through a Marriage and Civil Partnership Bill, exploring policy development in relation to the issue of no-fault divorce as well as providing advice and direction across a range of other diverse policy areas which include land law.

Initial work was commenced in relation to land law reform by the Department some years ago following the publication of the Law Commission report. Following discussions both inside the Department and with the Office of Legislative Counsel it was concluded that implementation of the detailed and complex recommendations of the Law Commission’s report would require a fully-funded project team involving both subject-matter and legislative process experts. At that time, as now, that expertise and resource was not available in the Department.

While there are aspects of the report that may be desirable in terms of legislative reform, further consideration of the Law Commission recommendations will be dependent on future resource and competing priorities.