Department for Social Development

Department for Social Development
Department overview
Formed	December 1999
Preceding Department	Department of Health and Social Services
Jurisdiction	Northern Ireland
Headquarters	Lighthouse Building, 1 Cromac Place, Gasworks Business Park, Ormeau Road, Belfast, BT7 2JB
Employees	7,452 (September 2011)
Annual budget	£505.4 million (current) & £161.6 million (capital) for 2011-12
Minister responsible	Nelson McCausland
Website
www.dsdni.gov.uk

Northern Ireland

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The Department for Social Development is a devolved Northern Ireland government department in the Northern Ireland Executive. The minister with overall responsibility for the department is the Minister for Social Development.

Aim

DSD’s overall aim is “tackling disadvantage and building sustainable communities”.

The incumbent Minister is Nelson McCausland (Democratic Unionist Party).

Responsibilities

The department's main responsibilities are as follows:

• housing
• community and voluntary sector development
• urban regeneration
• social legislation

Northern Ireland has parity with Great Britain in three areas:

• social security
• child support
• pensions

Policy in these areas is technically devolved but, in practice, follows policy set by Parliament to provide consistency across the United Kingdom .

The department is also responsible for the following public bodies:

• Northern Ireland Housing Executive
• Social Security Agency
• Ilex Urban Regeneration Company

(jointly with the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister)

• Charity Commission for Northern Ireland
• Disability Living Allowance Advisory Board for Northern Ireland
• Rent Assessment Panel
• Vaughan Charity

It also oversees the Office of the Social Fund Commissioner.

DSD’s main counterparts in the United Kingdom Government are:

• the Department for Work and Pensions (on social security);
• the Department for Communities and Local Government (on housing and urban regeneration);
• the Cabinet Office (on the voluntary and community sector);
• the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (on gambling and alcohol licensing).

In the Irish Government, its main counterparts are:

• the Department of Social Protection;
• the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government (on housing);
• the Department of Justice and Equality (on gambling).

History

Following a referendum on the Belfast Agreement on 23 May 1998 and the granting of Royal Assent to the Northern Ireland Act 1998 on 19 November 1998, a Northern Ireland Assembly and Northern Ireland Executive were established by the United Kingdom government under Prime Minister Tony Blair. The process was known as devolution and was set up to return devolved legislative powers to Northern Ireland. DSD is one of 11 devolved Northern Ireland departments created in December 1999 by the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and The Departments (Northern Ireland) Order 1999.

A devolved minister first took office on 2 December 1999. Devolution was suspended for four periods, during which the department came under the responsibility of direct rule ministers from the Northern Ireland Office:

• between 12 February 2000 and 30 May 2000;
• on 11 August 2001;
• on 22 September 2001;
• between 15 October 2002 and 8 May 2007.

Since 8 May 2007, devolution has operated without interruption.

Ministers for Social Development

	Minister	Party	Start	End
	Nigel Dodds	Democratic Unionist	2 December 1999	11 February 2000
Office suspended
	Nigel Dodds	Democratic Unionist	30 May 2000	27 July 2000
	Maurice Morrow	Democratic Unionist	27 July 2000	24 October 2001
	Nigel Dodds	Democratic Unionist	24 October 2001	14 October 2002
Office suspended
	Margaret Ritchie	SDLP	8 May 2007	24 May 2010
	Alex Attwood	SDLP	24 May 2010	5 May 2011
	Nelson McCausland	Democratic Unionist	16 May 2011

Direct rule ministers

During the periods of suspension, the following ministers of the Northern Ireland Office were responsible for the department:

• George Howarth (2000)
• Des Browne (2002–03)
• John Spellar (2003–05)
• David Hanson (2005–07)

See also

• Committee for Social Development

External links

• DSD
• The Departments (Northern Ireland) Order 1999PDF (37.0 KB)