To ask the Minister for Communities, pursuant to AQW 8316/22-27, to detail the specific legislation that confirms a recall day is treated as seven days.

The orders which extended the expiry date of section 78 of the Coronavirus Act 2020 were made by the confirmatory procedure under section 90(2) of that Act and are subject to the procedure laid out in section 96 of the Act. Section 96(7) of the Coronavirus Act specifies that an order made under the confirmatory procedure ceases to have effect at the end of the period of 40 days beginning with the day on which the order is made unless, during that period, it is approved by resolution of the Assembly.

Section 96(8)(c) states that, when calculating the period of 40 days, no account is to be taken of any time during which the Northern Ireland Assembly is adjourned for more that 6 days.

Any day when the Assembly is recalled would count towards the 40-day period and, in accordance with section 96(8)(c) (following the adjournment of the Assembly at the end of a recall day) the following 6 days would also count towards the 40 days as these are days when the Assembly has not been adjourned for more than 6 days.