§ Lord GARDINERasked Her Majesty's Government:
What progress has been made with the proposed consolidation of the emergency provisions legislation applying to Northern Ireland which was referred to in the Annual Report of the Law Commission for 1975/76.
§ The LORD CHANCELLORI yesterday introduced a Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Bill which has been prepared by the Law Commission as part of their continuing programme of consolidation of the law. The Government regard this programme as most important.
This new Bill is a pure consolidation of the provisions of three Statutes and several Statutory Instruments and makes no changes in the law. Provided that it receives the approval of Parliament, its relevant provisions will have the same 1106WA validity, the same requirement for renewal and will be subject to the same Parliamentary procedures as the legislation which they will replace. It will, however, spell out the rights and liabilities of the individual, and the powers and responsibilities of the Security Forces, in a more simple and understandable form.
Given the present need for emergency legislation, we believe that this should be as clear and intelligible as possible and we greatly welcome the Law Commission's contribution to the improvement in its form.