The North/South Ministerial Council has approved this Code of Practice pursuant to Part 7 paragraph 7 of Annex 2 of the Agreement of 8th March 1999 between the Government of Ireland and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland establishing the North/South Implementation Bodies (“the Agreement”) whereby the responsible Ministers in Ireland and Northern Ireland were required to draw up a Code of Practice on access to information for the North/South Implementation Bodies for approval by the Council.