HL Deb 27 June 1978 vol 394 cc276-7

[No. 51.]

Schedule 5, page 100, line 6, at end insert—

'The Juries Act (Northern Ireland) 1953

For sections 1 and 2 substitute—

" Payments to be made in respect of jury service.

1.—(1) Subject to the following provisions of this section, a person who serves as a juror shall be entitled, in respect of his attendance at court for the purpose of performing jury service, to receive payments, at rates determined by the Lord Chancellor with the consent of the Minister for the Civil Service and subject to any prescribed conditions, by way of allowance—

  1. (a) for travelling and subsistence; and
  2. (b) for financial loss, where in consequence of his attendance for that purpose he has incurred any expenditure (otherwise than on travelling and subsistence) to which he would not otherwise be subject or he has suffered any loss of earnings, or of benefit under the enactments relating to national insurance and social security, which he would otherwise have made or received.

(2) Subsection (1) shall apply to service on a coroner's jury.

(3) The determination of the amounts payable to persons under subsection (1) and the manner of making those payments shall be in accordance with arrangements made by the Lord Chancellor and all such payments shall be made out of moneys provided by the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

(4) In subsection (1) 'prescribed' means prescribed by regulations made by the Lord Chancellor with the consent of the Minister for the Civil Service; and for the purposes of that subsection a person who, in obedience to a summons to serve on a jury, attends for service as a juror shall be deemed to serve as a juror notwithstanding that he is not subsequently sworn.

(5) No person shall be entitled under any Act other than this Act or under any rule of law, custom or agreement to payment for his service as a juror."'

The LORD CHANCELLOR

My Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 51. With this Amendment, I will speak also to Amendments Nos. 54 and 78. These Amendments will alter the way in which certain fees, salaries and allowances payable to coroners and jurors are fixed.

Moved, That this House doth agree with the Commons in the said Amendment.—(The Lord Chancellor.)