DEPARTMENT OF THE CIVIL SERVICE (NORTHERN IRELAND) ORDER 1976 (Hansard, 21 July 1976)

§ Lord DONALDSON of KINGSBRIDGE

My Lords, I beg to move, That the Department of the Civil Service (Northern Ireland) Order 1976, a draft of which was laid before this House on 30th June 1976, be approved. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State in answering a Question on 8th June in another place announced his decision to establish a Department of the Civil Service for Northern Ireland. This order gives effect to that decision.

At present the Department of Finance in Northern Ireland, through its Civil Service Management Division, is responsible for the management and control of the Northern Ireland Civil Service. Unlike his predecessor, however, the present Permanent Secretary of the Department of Finance is not also head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service. The head of the Civil Service is responsible to the Secretary of State for the co-ordination of the policies and programmes of all Northern Ireland Departments and for advising him on these matters, including the allocation of resources. He also continues to be answerable to the Secretary of State for the overall direction and management of the Civil Service and especially for recommendations on top appointments. In these circumstances, it is structurally 909 and administratively appropriate for the present Civil Service management division of the Department of Finance to become an independent Department.

Article 3 provides for the establishment and title of the new Department, makes provision for the distribution of its business, its seal, style and like matters. Article 4 constitutes the new Department as the Department for the general management and control of the Northern Ireland Civil Service and substitutes it for the Department of Finance in the Civil Service Order (Northern Ireland) 1975 which deals with making regulations and giving directions about employment in the Civil Service, It also allows for the transfer of specific functions to the new Department by subordinate legislation. Article 5 extends the jurisdiction of the Parliamentary Commissioner to the new Department and applies the provisions of the Northern Ireland Constitution Act which make it unlawful for a Department to discriminate or to require the taking of oaths in connection with appointments. I commend the Order to the House. My Lords, I beg to move.