Some thoughts on a law (publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill…) being rushed through Parliament to let NI civil servants act as quasi-ministers. If you live in NI, this is about how you're governed. If you're in GB, you should care about it because it involves spending billions of your taxes...
This has profound constitutional and democratic implications, involving Parliament (presumably an empty chamber nodding it through because it's NI legislation) explicitly allowing civil servants to take ministerial decisions - with no democratic oversight.
The bill will retrospectively legalise something which Northern Ireland's highest court (in Buick) found was unlawful (servants taking decisions which ought to be for ministers) & which civil servants accepted by not appealing to the Supreme Court. But it won't overturn Buick.
The NIO has been working on this for months, yet chose not to consult the public or even publish the proposed legislation until today - a week before the Secretary of State wants this to become law under fast-track Parliamentary procedure which reduces scrutiny.
In the Buick case, a Northern Ireland Court of Appeal judge described the position now proposed by the Government - that civil servants can take some ministerial decisions - as "a radical & anti-democratic departure from the constitutional norms which apply elsewhere in the UK".
As drafted, the legislation implies that if you are planning to legally challenge anything civil servants have decided in NI since the departure of ministers 18 months ago then you have a week to do so. But if the court finds for you, then officials can just re-take the decision. 
The bill also not only removes the legal requirement for an election to be called in circumstances where it is clear a Stormont Executive cannot be formed - it retrospectively (presumably with an eye to the judicial review by abuse survivors on that point) makes that the law.
At its heart, the legislation allows a single civil servant to take a huge decision - & there's nothing we can do to overturn it or remove them. They must consider the Secretary of State's "guidance", but can then disregard that advice. Civil servants become the decision-makers.
The NIO rang to say that you can of course continue to legally challenge civil service decisions after next week. The point of this legislation is that it means you can no longer challenge the RIGHT of a civil servant to take a decision, a right the courts say they now don't have
The NIO has got in touch to say this is "emergency legislation" (even though the Buick judgment to which it is a response was in July). When asked why the public are only seeing it now, they say there was "extensive engagement on this legislation with the political parties in NI"
I was talking to a shrewd Stormont civil servant who raised multiple issues with this bill. For one, it will see some civil servants judge they should act as ministers & others judge that they shouldn't: "From a public point of view this will make decision-making very confusing."
That rather undermines Karen Bradley's claim that the law will bring "clarity" to decision-making by civil servants. In truth, there is perfect clarity right now: The courts say civil servants cannot act as ministers - but Mrs Bradley made clear she doesn't like that clarity.
