NORTHERN IRELAND BILL (Hansard, 8 March 1955)

§ THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (LORD MANCROFT)

My Lords, as the House is aware, the Parliament of Northern Ireland at Stormont has not the same freedom to legislate as has the Parliament of the United Kingdom here at Westminster. The Parliament of Northern Ireland is bound by limitations of a written Constitution setting out a long list of subjects upon which that Parliament is not allowed to legislate: on these subjects legislative power is reserved to the Parliament of the United Kingdom—they are known colloquially as the "reserved subjects." The Parliament of Northern Ireland legislates broadly upon domestic matters—that is, law, order, health, local government, and, as the House learned a week or two ago, such matters as driving licences and driving tests. In practice, it has not been possible to draw neat dividing lines. The limitations imposed on the Parliament of Northern Ireland require from time to time interpretation or modification in order to meet changes in circumstances and new problems that have arisen.

Sir Thomas Browne uses the expression in one of his works The silken thread that runs my story through. Unfortunately, I cannot pretend that any silken thread or central theme runs through the story of this Bill to which I am going to ask your Lordships to accord a Second Reading. There is no real central theme. Clauses 1 and 2 of the Bill deal with purely reserved matters; that is to say, questions on which the Parliament of Northern Ireland cannot legislate and which are deliberately excluded from their competence. Clauses 3, 4 and 5 relate to matters properly in the sphere of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, but they cannot legislate adequately because legislation which they desire would impinge to a small extent on reserved matters.

Clause 1 deals with the salary and expenses of the Governor of Northern Ireland. The Governor at the moment receives £8,000 a year, out of which he 810 has to pay the salaries and allowances of his personal staff. This salary was fixed as long ago as 1922 when, as your Lordships will be only too painfully aware, money was of a different value from what it is now. When that salary was fixed, it was also clear in the mind of Parliament that the man appointed to this task would necessarily have to be a man of private means—and these are no so common today as they were then. It has now been considered, as a result of this fact and of the fact that £8,000 is no longer sufficient to support the office adequately, that it would be more appropriate to provide separately for the Governor's salary and for his official expenses. This matter has been most carefully gone into and the actual figures scrutinised thoroughly. The decision has been taken that the private salary should now be £4,000 a year, subject to tax, and an expense allowance of not more than £10,000 a year: the exact amount is to be determined by my right honourable friend the Home Secretary and by the Treasury. Here I think it only proper to apologise for referring in his absence to the personal affairs of the Governor, who is, of course, a Member of your Lordships' House, but I am afraid that in the circumstances it was inevitable; I hope that your Lordships and the noble Lord, Lord Wakehurst, will forgive me and understand. The long and short of it is that, if possible, we want this provision to pass into law in the current financial year, because the Governor is considerably out of pocket as a result of the present situation.

The Governor will continue to be provided with certain services, but the present arrangements, with which I need not bother your Lordships in any great detail, will be modified. One considerable modification will be the fact that the Governor's official residence at Hillsborough, and its grounds, is going to be reconveyed to my right honourable friend the Minister of Works from the Northern Ireland Ministry of Finance. For this an enabling Bill will be necessary in the Northern Ireland Parliament; that is, to enable the grounds and house to be kept up by a Ministry which has experience in the maintenance of such residences. Northern Ireland will no longer contribute £2,000 a year towards the Governor's salary, and as a quid pro quo they will take over the payment of expenses arising from the Governor's 811 office work. There is no getting away from the fact that this office is an expensive one, but it seems right to the Government that if the office exists (as it does) it should be kept up with proper dignity; that the holder of the office, who does work which is admired so much on both sides of the Irish Sea, should not be put in the invidious and embarrassing position in which he now finds himself, and that arrangements in future should enable this high dignity of office to be maintained.

Clause 2 refers to the Supreme Court and is consequently also a reserved matter. The purpose of this clause is to reduce the work of the Divisional Courts in Northern Ireland by eliminating an unnecessary intermediate stage in civil and rating cases. The Hanworth Committee, as long ago as 1933, in their Report (Command 4471), recommended the abolition of Divisional Courts in this country. That, as your Lordships know, has not been done, but it appears to be of more urgency in Northern Ireland, where the setting up of Divisional Courts is clearly causing hardship to many people, including jurors, litigants and the Bench itself, owing primarily to the small number—I think it is only five—of High Court Judges in Northern Ireland. It is for this reason that this technical step is required.

Paragraph 1 (a) of this clause disposes of another minor anomaly in the present law whereby a decision of one magistrate on a point of law may go to the Court of Appeal, and the decision of another magistrate on exactly the same point to the Divisional Court. In both cases the decision will be final. This Bill ensures that the Court of Appeal is the final court in all appeals by way of case stated from magistrates' decisions.

Clause 3 is the first of the Bill's provisions either extending the legislative powers of the Parliament of Northern Ireland or putting those powers beyond doubt. A committee under His Honour Judge Johnson reported in 1952 on certain proposed reforms in the law of intestate succession in Northern Ireland. The Parliament of Northern Ireland now wish to implement most of the recommendations. One of the proposed reforms, however, would abolish escheat to the Crown in cases of intestacy and substitute the bona vacantia procedure, 812 which would provide for inheritance over a wider field of relationship to the deceased. The Parliament of Northern Ireland cannot legislate on matters affecting the interests of the Crown, and that is the reason for this clause. I am given to understand that the present law results in much hardship, and that the intended reforms, which the people of Northern Ireland desire, are long overdue. What they propose will bring the Northern Ireland law into general accord with the law of this country since 1925, the year of the great property legislation

I might add, in case anybody is puzzled, as I was when I first saw this point, as to why it was not desired to bring it into accord with our Intestate Estates Act, 1952 (which I had the honour of introducing in your Lordships' House as a Back-Bench Member), that on examining the principle I find that the law on intestacy in Northern Ireland is completely different from ours on major points. This particularly arises from the fact that Northern Ireland is populated with such a large number of small farms. That is the reason for making the law parallel with the English law of 1925 rather than that of 1952. Clause 4 overcomes a slight technical defect in the Statutory Instruments Act, 1946. This inadvertently failed to provide for publication of certain subordinate instruments relating to Northern Ireland in annual volumes of statutory instruments. The fact that these are not readily available elsewhere, or are difficult to trace, causes considerable inconvenience. This clause merely tidies up the matter.

Clause 5 is about coroners, and again it is more for the removal of doubt than for any extension of the powers of the Northern Ireland Parliament. As your Lordships know, coroners, technically and historically, have always been officers of the Crown. It is a very old and ancient office, going back into the dark ages of history: indeed, in the first Statute of Westminster it is laid down that "Coroners must be lawful and discreet knights." In that case, the present principal coroner is none other than the Lord Chief Justice himself. The Act of 1887 took away from coroners their rather glorious duties with regard to whales and sturgeon, but they still retain many extremely important functions, not only concerning inquests, but also with regard to such things as treasure trove. But 813 because of Section 4 of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920, the Northern Ireland Government is prevented from legislating in respect of the Crown or the succession to the Crown, or a Regency, or the property of the Crown, and it may well be argued that the Northern Ireland Government cannot, therefore, legislate about coroners. If they wish to do so, I think it is right that the Northern Ireland Parliament should have those powers.

So far as one can say that anything connected with Ireland is uncontroversial, this Bill, I think, is uncontroversial. It is strongly supported, of course, by the Government of Northern Ireland, and so far as it applies to him, the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland also strongly supports the appropriate provisions. With that explanation, I hope that the Bill may meet also with your Lordships' approval. I beg to move.