The legislation.gov.uk text for the Salaries (Public Services Ombudsman) Order (Northern Ireland) 2026 shows that the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission has set the annual salary for the Public Services Ombudsman at £130,000. The statutory rule was made on 7 July 2026 and comes into operation on 30 July 2026. The instrument is tightly drawn. It addresses remuneration for the office-holder under paragraph 6 of Schedule 1 to the Public Services Ombudsman Act (Northern Ireland) 2016, rather than making any change to the Ombudsman’s statutory powers or the way complaints are handled.
The most important drafting point is that the salary figure applies earlier than the commencement date. Article 3 is given effect from 19 November 2025, so the £130,000 rate is treated as payable from that date even though the Order itself starts on 30 July 2026. The explanatory note states that paragraph 6(2) of Schedule 1 to the 2016 Act allows a salary order to have retrospective effect. In practical terms, the Assembly Commission is using that power to align the salary from the earlier date without needing a separate instrument for the intervening period.
The Order also introduces an automatic annual adjustment mechanism. On 19 November each year, described in the instrument as the revalorisation date, the Ombudsman’s salary must increase or decrease by the same percentage change applied to salaries paid to staff employed by the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission since the previous revalorisation. That drafting matters because it removes the need to restate the salary in a fresh figure each year. Instead, future movement is tied directly to the Assembly Commission’s own staff pay changes, creating a formula that is clearer for administration and easier to track.
The formula works in both directions. If Assembly Commission staff salaries rise by a given percentage, the Ombudsman’s salary rises by that percentage on 19 November. If those salaries fall, the Order allows the Ombudsman’s salary to fall on the same basis. For governance and payroll teams, that creates a predictable reference point. The relevant questions each year become the percentage change applied to Assembly Commission staff salaries and the timing of the annual revalorisation date, rather than a new discretionary salary-setting exercise.
The 2026 Order also revokes the Salaries (Public Services Ombudsman) Order (Northern Ireland) 2020. That revocation is significant because it makes the new instrument the operative framework for the office, replacing the earlier arrangement with an updated base salary and an embedded uprating method. For policy readers, the direct public-facing effect is limited. The measure does not alter access to the Ombudsman, complaint routes or decision-making powers. Its impact sits in the constitutional and administrative detail of how an independent statutory office is remunerated.
In plain terms, the Assembly Commission has done three things. It has fixed the Ombudsman’s annual salary at £130,000, applied that rate from 19 November 2025, and linked future annual changes to the percentage movement in Assembly Commission staff pay. Signed on the authority of the Assembly Commission by Lesley Hogg, Clerk to the Assembly, the Order gives the office a clearer pay framework than the revoked 2020 instrument. Unless a later statutory rule changes the position again, 19 November will now be the standing date for yearly salary adjustment.