The British House of Commons last night passed a new bill to introduce an independent commission to monitor paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland.
The bill will set up a four-member body which will oversee the implementation of the Belfast Agreement and the adherence of paramilitaries to the terms of the agreement.
The commission will have the power to sanction Assembly members if groups with which they are associated ruled to have failed to observe their ceasefires.
The North's Secretary of State, Mr Paul Murphy, said the commission will have a vital role in the restoring devolution, which was suspended last October. A date for new elections has not yet been announced.
The bill was passed by 325 to seven, with only the Democratic Unionist Party and a number of anti-Agreement Ulster Unionists, including Mr Jeffrey Donaldson.
Sinn Fein has also said it will not cooperate with the new commission.