There will not be a Northern Ireland Assembly election in December, the British Secretary of State has confirmed.
Chris Heaton-Harris had said he would call another poll after the deadline to restore power-sharing passed last week.
The law requires an election to take place within 12 weeks but it will not happen next month.
But Mr Heaton-Harris says that the he won’t now call an election next month after consultations with politicians, business leaders and community groups.
He said that since the 28 October deadline he had listened to people’s “sincere concerns about the impact and cost of an election at this time”.
“Next week I will make a statement in Parliament to lay out my next steps,” he added.
“My objective, what the people of Northern Ireland deserve, is the restoration of a strong devolved government.
“My duty is to create the right environment for the parties in Northern Ireland to work together to restore the devolved institutions and deliver on crucial issues impacting Northern Ireland’s people.
“I do not take this duty lightly, nor do I overlook the very real concerns people have around their cost of living.”
His decision came after the PSNI’s Chief Constable said another Assembly election could cost the more than £600,000 to police.
Simon Byrne said the last assembly election cost the PSNI £672,750 to resource.
In his monthly report to the Policing Board, he said a fresh election would “incur similar costs”.
It is understood costs would be separate from the £6.5m figure cited by the NI Electoral Office.
During elections the PSNI’s responsibilities include carrying out checks on count venues beforehand, overseeing security for ballot boxes and having officers in place at count centres.
In the chief constable’s report, he stated that £328,943 of the funding spent on May’s election was for overtime claimed by staff.
He added: “We would anticipate that any further election called later this year would incur similar costs, dependant on the exact nature of the arrangements for count centres.”
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