§ 1 Clause 8, page 4, line 9, at end insert—
§ "(1A) The Oaths Act 1961 shall extend to Northern Ireland."
§ The LORD CHANCELLORMy Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 1. This Amendmet extends the Oaths Act 1961 to Northern Ireland. It is desirable in principle and will, in addition, be useful in facilitating a consolidating Statute on the subject of oaths which will extend throughout the United Kingdom.
The present position is that the Oaths Act 1888 extends to the whole of the United Kingdom, but the Oaths Act 1961 (which applied the provisions of the Oaths Act 1888 as to affirmation to cases where it is not reasonably practicable to administer the oath to a person in the manner appropriate to his religious belief) does not apply to Northern Ireland. I am assured that there is no deep reason for this, arising from any difference of policy between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom on this matter, but simply that it was contemplated in 1961 that similar provisions would be introduced by the Stormont Parliament. This has not been done and the position in Northern Ireland is out of line with that elsewhere. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has agreed that this would be a convenient opportunity to remedy that defect and it will, as I have said, facilitate the consolidation of these Statutes on a United Kingdom basis. My Lords. I beg to move.
§ Moved, That this House doth agree with the Commons in the said Amendment. —(The Lord Chancellor.)
Viscount COLVILLE of CULROSSMy Lords, I welcome this Amendment, and I think that if he were in his place the noble Lord, Lord Hale, would have done so, too, because I believe it was he who drew attention to the difficulty in the case of certain Chinese witnesses, when we were earlier discussing this Bill. We shall now be able to deal with Chinese witnesses in Northern Ireland as well.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.