House of Commons Disqualification Act, 1957
| Published date | 01 September 1957 |
| Author | S. A. Smith |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1957.tb02714.x |
| Date | 01 September 1957 |
LEGISLATION
HOUSE
OF
COMMON6
DISQUALIFICATION ACT,
1957
THE
grossest anomalies in the law relating to disqualification for
membership of the House of Commons have at last been removed
by the passing of the House of Commons Disqualification Act,
1957.’
Reform, although inevitable, has indeed been gradual.
A
draft Bill was prepared as long ago as
1948
to give effect to the
1941
Report of the Select Committee
on
Offices and Places of Profit
under the Crown.a But parliamentary time could not be found
for
so
complex and politically unrewarding a measure until
1955.
The Bill then introduced
was
committed to a Select Committee
of the House which recommended several important amendments.s
The Bill was not passed into law in the
1955-1956
session, but
it
was re-introduced in November,
1956,
in
substantially the form in
which
it
had emerged from the Select Committee. Only minor
amendments were made to the Bill during its passage through
Parliament during the
1956-1957
session.‘ The salient features of
the Select Committee’s Report have already been commented
on4a
at pp.
52-54
of
this Volume, but in view
of
the constitutional
importance of the Act its main provisions may be summarised here.
1.
Disqualification for membership ceases to derive from the
holding of
“
an office
or
place of profit under the Crown,” and now
derives from the holding of specific disqualifying offices, namely
(9.
l),
the holding
of
any of the full-time judicial offices named in
Part
I
of the First Schedule, employment in the civil service of
the Crown, membership of the regular armed forces
of
the Crown
(with certain exceptions), membership of a local police force,
membership of a legislature outside the Commonwealth, and the
holding
of
any of the numerous other disqualifying offices set out
in Parts
I1
and
I11
of the First Schedule. Part
11
of the Schedule
lists commissions, tribunals and other bodies of which all members
are disquaued, and Part
I11
lists a number
of
other disqualifying
offices
(e.g.,
Clerk of Assize, Comptroller and Auditor General,
Governor of the B.B.C., Registrar of Restrictive Trading Agree-
ments). Few will contend that the tenure of any of the appoint-
ments listed would be compatible with membership
of
the House
of Commons. In addition, the holders of any of the offices listed
in Part IV of the Schedule are disqualiiied for particular consti-
tuencies. Thus, a borough recorder and a chairman and deputy
1
The
Act
also applies, with certain modifications, to disqualification for mem-
a
H.C.
120
of
1940-1941.
3
H.C.
349
of
1955-1956.
4
For the House of Commons debates
on
the Bill, see
562
H.C. Deb.
1280-1316;
4a
By
Mr.
J.
A.
G.
Griflith.
bership of the Senate and
House
of Commons of Northern Ireland.
565
H.C. Deb.
1048-1111, 1171-1193; 566
H.C. Deb.
356-460, 1065-1082.
492
To continue reading
Request your trial