JURIES (NORTHERN IRELAND) ORDER 1974 (Hansard, 27 November 1974)

§ THE PARLIAMENTARY UNDERSECRETARY of STATE, NORTHERN IRELAND OFFICE (LORD DONALDSON OF KINGSBRIDGE)
My Lords, we pass now from the intensely controversial question of Scottish legislation to the comparatively calm waters of Northern Ireland legislation. The Province itself is not particularly calm, but normally your Lordships are helpful in assisting the Government to put through legislation which at the moment has to be done, owing to direct rule, by Order in Council. My Lords, the first Motion which I wish to put before your Lordships is that the Draft Juries (Northern Ireland) Order 1974, laid before the House on July 31, 1451 be approved and I beg to move that this Order be now affirmed.
My Lords, the objective of this Order is to abolish the property qualification for jury service in Northern Ireland, thereby bringing conditions in Northern Ireland into line with ours over here. Your Lordships will remember that in 1972, following the recommendations made by the Departmental Committee on Jury Service which sat under the Chairmanship of the noble Lord, Lord Morris of Borth-y-Gest, the property qualification for jurors was abolished in England and Wales. The effect of this will be that everybody in Northern Ireland from 18 to 70 years old whose name is in the electoral register will become liable for jury service.
The annual number of potential jurors will be increased from just over 60,000 at the moment to almost 1 million. This fact, coupled with the complete reorganisation last year of the local authority structure upon which the present method of selection of jurors is based, has made necessary the formulation of an entirely new system for the annual selection of jurors in Northern Ireland. Accordingly, the Order seeks not only to abolish the property qualification for jurors in Northern Ireland but also to make new provisions for the selection and summoning of jurors in this wider field.
May I refer now to Article 3 which provides that every person who is aged between 18 and 70 and who is registered as an elector in Northern Ireland shall be qualified and liable for jury service, provided he does not fall within the categories of persons disqualified for or exempt from jury service as set out in Schedules 1 and 2 to the Order. These categories are broadly similar to those which are found in our own Juries Act 1974, with one or two variations to take account of categories of persons who have up to date been exempt in Northern Ireland—such as full-time teachers. We see no reason for changing that exemption. There is, however, one important difference. Over here the age limit is 65, whereas under the present Order it is proposed to extend it to 70 because it is felt that in Northern Ireland there are many people between 65 and 70 who would make good and willing jurors. However, we do not suggest that they 1452 should be compelled to serve upon a jury; it will be optional and not a compulsion to serve between the ages of 65 and 70. Accordingly, jury service will be optional for this age group and the provision is included in Schedule 2 to enable such people to claim exemption if they so wish.
If I may turn to Article 4 and Schedule 3, it is provided that the Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland shall arrange annually for the selection by computer of an adequate number of potential jurors, based upon the requirements estimated by the courts. On the basis of the number of names on the electoral register and the number of jurors likely to be required in any one year, it will be possible to work out the percentage of the total number required for jury service in that year and thereby to programme the computer to select, for example, every twenty-fifth name on the electoral register. The names so selected will then be arranged by the computer to form provisional lists for each area served by a Clerk of the Crown and Peace, and copies of these provisional lists will be sent to the appropriate Juries Officers.
Article 4(2) further provides that each potential juror so selected will then be notified that he will be liable to be called for jury service during the ensuing year, unless he legitimately claims, in the form of a statutory declaration, exemption on any of the statutory grounds, including age. Each year the several computer lists, as revised by the Juries Officers in the light of claims for exemption and notices of disqualification, will collectively form the Jurors List for Northern Ireland. Regulations to be made under Article 7 will prescribe the form of notice to be sent to potential jurors and the form of return which they will be required to complete.
By virtue of the provisions of Article 5. jurors for a court will normally be summoned by the appropriate under-sheriff, in numerical order from the Area Jurors list for the area in which that court is situated. Jurors for coroner's inquests will, however, while drawn from the Jurors Lists, continue to be summoned in the manner provided under the Coroners Act (Northern Ireland) 1959 which is specifically designed to enable a coroner's jury to be summoned at short notice.
Article 6 amends and consolidates the provisions of the existing law in relation 1453 to the excusing of jurors and enables rules of court to provide that the powers of a judge to excuse jurors may be exercised by specified court officers. The remaining provisions of the Order deal with consequential amendments and repeals and subordinate legislation to be made under the Order. My Lords, I commend this Order to you as an important contribution towards the continuing process of law reform. I beg to move.

§ LORD BELSTEAD
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Donaldson of Kingsbridge, for explaining this Order which contains a good deal of detail. As I understand what the noble Lord has said, it brings the qualifications for jury service in Northern Ireland into line now with the rest of the United Kingdom; and, my Lords, this certainly I support.
I should like to ask two questions of the noble Lord. I have endeavoured to give him notice of the second question, but I regret to say that I have not given him notice of the first. In his remarks the noble Lord has explained the reason why it will be possible for there to be jurors between the ages of 65 and 70. The Second Report from the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments drew special attention to the article which deals with this, Article 3(1) of which provides that: … every person who is aged between eighteen and seventy years and is registered as an elector … shall be … liable for jury service". As I understand it, the Joint Committee objected to the wording, and they offered a more suitable alternative wording which they said was to be found in the Social Security Act 1973. Clause 99(10)(b) provides that: a person shall be deemed to be between two particular ages if he has attained the first-mentioned age but has not attained the second-mentioned age". It is fair to claim that similar clarity of wording is effected in the corresponding provision of the Juries Act 1974 which provides the law for the rest of the United Kingdom. I apologise for asking the noble Lord a question upon a point 1454 which I have not warned him about and which is a detail, but why was the wording of the Order not changed after the Joint Committee took the view that they did? During the summer the House took quite a serious view of Orders which are not changed when the Joint Committee draws a fact of this kind to the attention of those who read the Report. Therefore I feel that I must ask the question to-day.
The other question is one of which I have given notice to the noble Lord. Am I correct in assuming that the wording of Schedule 1 does not disqualify those who are detained in Northern Ireland under the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1973? The first time that I read the Schedule I thought the effect was that they were disqualified, but now I understand from the noble Lord, to whom I am grateful, that the effect of the wording is that they are not so disqualified. I must confess that I am a little surprised, and I wonder whether this is altogether wise.
My Lords, the arrangements set out in this Order refer to the jury work of Northern Ireland. It must be our hope that the day will soon come when the security situation will also allow scheduled offences under the Emergency Provisions Act to be tried once again by Northern Ireland juries.

§ LORD DONALDSON OF KINGS-BRIDGE
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for his welcome of this Order and I will endeavour to deal with his two questions. The second is a very simple one: the word "detained" is used in a number of Acts about criminal procedures in this country and is in no way connected with the word "detained" which is used under the Emergency Provision Orders. The detention of people without going through the courts does not make them legally guilty of a crime, and it would clearly be wrong to put on such people a disability which is put by this Order on people who are convicted of a crime. The expression "convicted of a crime" is a technical expression with a specific meaning.

§ LORD KILBRACKEN
My Lords, before my noble friend leaves that point could he carry his explanation a little further, as it seems rather strange. Does this in fact mean that if somebody is detained in the Maze Prison, not having 1455 come before a commissioner, and a computer picks out his name he will be allowed to serve as a juror?

§ LORD DONALDSON OF KINGS-BRIDGE
My Lords, it means exactly that. There would be a very good reason for exemption, but one is visualising rather that somebody who has been subject to detention and is released for some reason will not forfeit his right to serve on a jury. The point of view of the Government in regard to this particular Order in Council is that everybody between 18 and 70 who is registered as an elector in accordance with the Electoral Law Acts (Northern Ireland) 1962 to 1973, shall be qualified and liable for jury service. The wording of the Order in relation to age qualification follows that which has been traditional in Northern Ireland legislation governing juries for over 100 years and it has not previously been called into question. For example, Section 9 of the Juries (Ireland) Act 1871 refers to all men between the ages of 21 and 60 years"; and Section 1 of the Jury Laws (Amendment) Act 1926 speaks of every person between the ages of 21 and 65 years". In fact this is the standard description. The phrase "between 18 and 70 years" includes only those who arc over 18 and under 70, and it will be so interpreted. The names of those persons who have attained the age of 70 will, on the basis of information obtained from the return forms, automatically be removed from the provisional lists of jurors. I hope that answers the noble Lord's question.

§ LORD PEDDIE
My Lords, I am sure that noble Lords must be intrigued by the statement that jurors will be selected through the operation of the computer. One must recognise that even the random selection of a computer must be dictated by some programming, and one can envisage an enormous number of difficulties being thrown up through the use of a computer, quite apart from the one which has just been mentioned. There is also, for example, the geographical aspect. I wonder whether my noble friend could give the House a little more information in practical terms as to how this computer determination will operate?

§ LORD DONALDSON OF KINGS-BRIDGE
My Lords, I see no difficulty. It may be I am purblind, but there is an electoral roll, there is an estimate which, as I stated, will be prepared and given to the electoral officer. In estimating how many jurymen will be required, you divide the electoral roll by that number and you take every 25th, every 30th, every 90th name or whatever number it may be. It is a random selection in a numerical list. I see no problem at all.

LORD HAWKE
My Lords, why does one need a computer to do that? I think I could do that without a computer.

§ LORD DONALDSON OF KINGS-BRIDGE
My Lords, the noble Lord's offer will be noted and passed on. There is a computer which is available to do this and we thought it might be rather quicker.