§ Every Order-in-Council made under this Act shall be laid before Parliament as soon as may be after it is made, and if either House of Parliament, within the next twenty-eight days on which that House has sat after such an Order-in-Council as aforesaid is laid before it, resolves that the Order be annulled, the Order shall thereupon cease to have effect except as respects things previously done or omitted to be done, without prejudice, however, to the making of a new Order.—[Mr. Dalton.]
§ Brought up, and read the First time.
§ 4.59 p.m.
§ Mr. DaltonI beg to move, "That the Clause be read a Second time."
This matter was well ventilated on the Second Reading of the Bill and it is not necessary to enlarge upon it. In a sentence, what we desire to provide is that this House shall retain some measure of control over the very miscellaneous and multifarious Orders-in-Council that may be issued if this Bill becomes law. Although we have no doubt that in the great majority of cases neither House of Parliament will desire to intervene or interrupt these Orders, we thought that we would like to put this new Clause on the Order Paper, and we hope the Attorney-General will accept it.
§ 5.0 p.m.
§ The Attorney-GeneralAs I indicated when dealing with one of the earlier Amendments, we recommend the Committee to accept the proposed new Clause subject to a manuscript Amendment which I shall ask the Committee to accept as a Sub-section to it. I think the purpose of it will be clear. Some of the Orders-in-Council, and particularly some of those applying to the universities, may be regarded as rules within the Rules Publication Act. I do not think that is the case with Orders under Clause 2, but the university ones might be. If they were, it would mean the interposition of a further 40 days' delay before they could be laid before Parliament. I do not think that the Rules Publication Act was ever intended to apply to matters of that kind. 756 It would be unreasonable to ask the parties concerned to have a further 40 days' delay. I hope there will be no objection to agreeing to this new Clause, but I shall move to insert an Amendment in it.
§ Question, "That the Clause be read a Second time," put, and agreed to.
§ The Attorney-GeneralI beg to move, as an Amendment to the proposed new Clause, in line 6, at the end, to add:
(2) Section 1 of the Rules Publication Act, 1893, shall not apply to any Order-in-Council made under this Act.
§ Amendment to the proposed new Clause agreed to.
§ Clause, as amended, added to the Bill.