HL Deb 29 April 2003 vol 647 cc581-2

15 After Clause 21, insert the following new clause— "Jurisdiction of courts (1) Without prejudice to the generality of the power under which it is made, subordinate legislation to which this section applies—

  1. "(a) may take provision for a judge of the Supreme Court of Gibraltar to be appointed as an additional judge (with the two judges acting under section 123 of the Representation of the people Act 1983 (c. 2) as applied for the purposes of European Parliamentary elections) for the trial of an election petition relating to the election of MEPs in the combined region; and
  2. (b) may, for the purposes of such an election petition—
  1. (i) confer the powers, jurisdiction and authority of a judge of the High Court on any Gibraltar judge who is so appointed; and
  2. (ii) make any other provision necessary to secure that a Gibraltar judge so appointed is treated as if he were a judge of the High Court.
(2) Without prejudice to the generality of the power under which it is made, subordinate legislation to which this section applies may—
  1. (a) confer jurisdiction over any matter connected with the election of MEPs in the combined region on an election court constituted under section 123 of the Representation of the People Act 1983 (c. 2) (as applied for the purposes of European Parliamentary elections);
  2. (b) confer jurisdiction over any such matter(not being a matter within the jurisdiction of the election court) on—
    1. (i) one or more courts in the United Kingdom;
    2. (ii) one or more courts in Gibraltar (whether specified in the regulations of left to be determined by or under the law of Gibraltar); or
    3. (iii) one or more courts in the United Kingdom and one or more courts in Gibraltar.
 (3) This section applies to—
  1. (a) an order under section 11;
  2. (b) regulations under section 16; and
  3. (c) regulations under section 7 of the 2002 Act."
 The Commons agreed to this amendment with the following amendment:

15A Line 28, leave out "regulations" and insert "subordinate legislation"

Baroness Scotland of Asthal

My Lords, I beg to move the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 15A to Lords Amendment No. 15. I would ask the House to return its attention to this Bill only briefly. As noble Lords may remember, we made a moderate number of amendments to the Bill as it passed through its stages in your Lordships' House. The other place yesterday agreed to our amendments and we can feel confident that our scrutiny has left the Bill a better piece of legislation.

It has emerged, however, that there was a minor technical error in the drafting of the new specific clause on jurisdiction that we inserted into the Bill by our Amendment No. 13 in Grand Committee. As your Lordships may remember, the new clause is intended to enable the conferring of jurisdiction on the courts to be made either under regulations or an order. At present one of the references in the enabling power is erroneously restricted to "regulations". An amendment to the original amendment agreed yesterday in another place corrects that error, and ensures that the clause can work as intended. I commend the amendment to the House.

Moved, That the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 15A to Lords Amendment No. 15.

Baroness Rawlings

My Lords, we on these Benches welcome the acceptance of the amendment and take the opportunity to say how much we welcome, too, the aims of this legislation, especially as we have campaigned for a long time for a better deal for the people of Gibraltar.

Lord Roper

My Lords, we on these Benches also welcome the Commons' agreement to the amendment which we made to the legislation and accept the technical amendment that they have made to it.

On Question, Motion agreed to.