Civil servants should not be making policy decisions for Northern Ireland

Legislation was put before Parliament yesterday to extend the period for the formation of a Stormont executive.

At its heart is a provision that shines a spotlight on the serious political situation in which Northern Ireland is now situated.

Devolution has been down for months at a time of local, national and world turbulence and economic uncertainty.

The Stormont administration faces an overspend of almost £700m. This meant that there would need to be efficiencies even after the chancellor Jeremy Hunt's recent financial statement admitted the necessity for nation-wide spending cuts.

But in the absence of ministers, only civil servants can now take decisions.

This is an intolerable situation. Such public servants have to be scrupulously neutral politically, and indeed the UK civil service has been admired for more than a century for its professionalism.

There are decisions that are going to need to be made that are highly controversial and deeply political.

So the government's new legislation enables civil servant leaders to take "limited decisions" in the absence of ministers, and the secretary of state Chris Heaton-Harris will provide guidance on when and how they should use these powers.

This is a welcome new role for the NI secretary and a new way of operating, but it is also an inadequate procedure that reflects a fundamental weakness in how successive UK governments approach NI.

It is essential that if Stormont breaks down or stalls, London reserves and occasionally uses the right to introduce direct rule with no concrete say in decision-making for the Irish government.

Failing to claim that right undermines sovereignty, as in this case.