COMMONS AMENDMENTS (Hansard, 13 December 1966)

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR

In the case of this Bill there only four Amendments, and, as I have said, in substance they are drafting Amendments. They fall into two pairs, Nos. 1 and 3, and Nos. 2 and 4. Clause 4(3) of the Bill, in the form in which it left your Lordships' House, extends the whole of the Bill to Northern Ireland, together with Section 7A of the Act of 1958 as it is to be amended by the Bill. While, strictly speaking, there is nothing wrong with Clause 4(3), it is not ideally drafted, and the Amendment accordingly consists of the third Amendment, which deletes Clause 4(3), and Amendment No. 1, which inserts in Clause 1 what is thought to be a better piece of drafting.

Although it is the normal practice in framing legislation to state expressly whether a Statute applies to Northern Ireland or not, this is not invariable. In the case of the Tribunals and Inquiries Act 1958 the way in which the Act was framed would have made it inconvenient to spell out those provisions which extended to Northern Ireland and those which did not. For this reason the Act was, in general, silent about the extension to Northern Ireland. I ought to add by way of confirmation that the whole of the Act of 1958 extends to Northern Ireland, subject to certain modifications. In case your Lordships wish to see which are the most important of these modifications they will be found in Section 1(9) and Section 10(7).

As the Act of 1958 is not expressed in terms to apply to Northern Ireland, we felt that it would be a mistake now to say that the whole of the current Bill should so apply. When this Bill becomes law, it and the Act of 1958 will, in a sense, constitute a code, and it would 1554 be a mistake if part of that code were expressed to apply to Northern Ireland and part were not. The only provision where an express extension is needed is in the case of Section 7A of the Act of 1958. Your Lordships may remember that that section was not in the Act of 1958 as originally enacted but was added by the Town and Country Planning Act 1959, and by the equivalent provision for Scotland. For some reason, which is not now clear, Section 7A was not extended to Northern Ireland, and this Bill will now put that matter right.

Amendments Nos. 2 and 4 deal with the position of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue. When a Minister—or, in Scotland, the Lord President of the Court of Session—wishes to make or approve procedural rules for any of the tribunals listed in the First Schedule to the Act of 1958, he is put under a duty by Section 8 of that Act to consult the Council on Tribunals before doing so. It has been discovered that the Board of Inland Revenue are not under such a duty. The reason for this is that "Minister" is defined in Section 14(1) as "including any Board presided over by a Minister", and, of course, no Minister presides over the Board of Inland Revenue.

It may be that at the time the 1958 Act was being drafted it did not occur to anyone that the Inland Revenue would have to make any such procedural rules as are contemplated by Section 8. But in fact they do, and whatever may have been the reason there does not seem to be any justification for the Inland Revenue being in a different position from other Government Departments. Accordingly, Amendments Nos. 2 and 4 will bring them into line—that is, on the footing that your Lordships will agree that, if other Departments have to consult the Council on Tribunals when preparing rules, there is no reason why the Inland Revenue should be in a different position. I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendments Nos. 1 to 4.