Northern Ireland Act 1947
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
Northern Ireland Act , 1947.
(10 & 11 Geo. 6.) 37.
An Act to enlarge the legislative power of the Parliament of Northern Ireland in respect of certain matters and, in connection therewith, to remove doubts regarding the validity of certain laws made by that Parliament; to validate the Fire Services (Emergency Provisions) Act (Northern Ireland), 1942; to apply Part III of the Requisitioned Land and War Works Act, 1945, to Northern Ireland; to extend section two of the Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1945; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[31st July 1947]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Enlargement of legislative power of the Parliament of Northern Ireland.
1 Power as regards certain schemes extending athwart land frontier.
(1) This section applies to schemes for one or more of the following matters, namely, —
(a ) the use or development of water power for the purpose of generating electricity or for any other purpose;
(b ) the storage or supply of water;
(c ) the drainage or irrigation of land;
(d ) the supply of electricity;
(e ) the provision, maintenance, improvement, alteration or abandonment of highways, railways, inland waterways or bridges;
being schemes extending as well to the portion of Ireland outside the jurisdiction of the Parliament of Northern Ireland as to the portion of Ireland within the jurisdiction of that Parliament but not further.
(2) Neither—
(a ) the general limitation imposed by section four of the Government of Ireland Act, 1920 (in this Act referred to as ‘the principal Act’), confining the legislative power of the Parliament of Northern Ireland to the making of laws in respect of matters exclusively relating to the portion of Ireland within their jurisdiction or some part thereof; nor
(b ) the specific limitations imposed by paragraphs (4) and (7) of that section precluding that Parliament from making laws in respect of relations with foreign states or relations with other parts of His Majesty's dominions or in respect of trade with any place out of the part of Ireland within their jurisdiction,
shall apply to the making by that Parliament of laws with respect to schemes to which this section applies or for giving effect to arrangements or agreements entered into for the purposes of any such schemes; and section six of the principal Act (which precludes the Parliament of Northern Ireland from repealing or altering a provision of an Act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom after the appointed day and extending to the part of Ireland within the jurisdiction of the Parliament of Northern Ireland although the provision deals with a matter with respect to which that Parliament have power to make laws) shall not preclude the Parliament of Northern Ireland from effecting, as respects Northern Ireland, by a law made as aforesaid any requisite consequential repeal or alteration of a provision of an Act passed as aforesaid.
(3) Accordingly, the reference in subsection (8) of section eight of the principal Act (which section relates to the exercise of executive power in Northern Ireland) to matters with respect to which the Parliament of Northern Ireland have, under the provisions thereinbefore contained, no power to make laws, shall be construed as not including schemes to which this section applies.
2 Power as regards certain transfers of property of public utility undertakers and local authorities.
(1) No law made by the Parliament of Northern Ireland providing for the transfer, to an authority charged with the duty of providing or authorised to provide any public inland transport facilities or port facilities or charged with the duty of supplying or authorised to supply electricity or gas, of the property of persons carrying on public utility undertakings (being property held by them for the purposes of their undertakings) shall be void—
(a ) as regards the transfer of property of persons other than local authorities, on the ground that a provision of the law with respect to the amount to be paid thereunder in respect of the transfer or the manner in which or the time at which that amount is to be satisfied contravenes the restriction imposed by section five of the principal Act on the making by the Parliament of Northern Ireland of a law so as to take any property without compensation;
(b ) as regards the transfer of property of local authorities, on the ground that the said restriction is contravened, if provision is made by the law—
(i) for recouping them sums required to be paid by them in respect of loans raised by them for the purposes of the undertakings in question (or, in the case of loans raised partly for those purposes and partly for other purposes, fractions of the sums required to be paid by them in respect thereof ascertained by reference to the proportions of the loans that were applied for the first-mentioned purposes); or
(ii) for the transfer to the authority of their debts and liabilities as former public utility undertakers.
(2) No law made by the Parliament of Northern Ireland providing for the transfer, without compensation, to an authority or person of property held by local authorities for the purposes of, or in connection with, any functions of theirs otherwise than as public utility undertakers shall be void on the ground that it contravenes the said restriction if the transfer is effected in conjunction with, or as a consequence of, the transfer to that authority or person of those functions.
(3) In relation to the Electricity (Supply) Act (Northern Ireland), 1931 (section thirty-two whereof provides for the transfer to the Electricity Board for Northern Ireland, upon the acquisition by them of the electricity undertaking of a local authority, of the debts and liabilities of the local authority as former undertakers) and to the Electricity (Emergency Supplies) Act (Northern Ireland), 1942 (paragraph 2 of Part II of the First Schedule whereto contains the like provisions as respects an acquisition by the Ministry of Commerce for Northern Ireland), subsection (1) of this section shall be deemed to have come into force immediately before the passing of those Acts respectively; and in relation to the Public Health (Tuberculosis) Act (Northern Ireland), 1946 (section nine whereof provides for the transfer to the Northern Ireland Tuberculosis Authority of functions of councils under the Tuberculosis Prevention (Ireland) Acts, 1908 and 1913, and property of councils used for the purposes of or in connection with those functions) and to the Public Health and Local Government (Administrative Provisions) Act (Northern Ireland), 1946 (divers provisions whereof provide for the transfer of functions of local authorities and section twenty-eight whereof provides for the transfer of property of local authorities enjoyed in connection with functions transferred), subsection (2) of this section shall be deemed to have come into force immediately before the passing of those Acts respectively.
(4) In this section—
(a ) the expression ‘local authority’ means the council of a county, county borough, borough, urban or rural district, the board of guardians of a poor law union and the commissioners of a town, and includes a combination of local authorities; and
(b ) the expression ‘public utility undertaking’ means a railway, light railway, tramway, road transport, water transport, canal, inland navigation, dock, harbour or pier undertaking and an undertaking for the supply of electricity or gas, and ‘public utility undertakers’ shall be construed accordingly.
3 Power to provide for compulsory retirement of county court judges.
3. The Parliament of Northern Ireland shall not be precluded, by reason only of the requirement contained in section forty-eight of the principal Act that a judge of a county court or other court with a like jurisdiction in Northern Ireland appointed after the appointed day shall hold his office on the same tenure as that by which the office was held at the time of the passing of that Act, from making a law providing for the vacation of his office by such a judge at such age (not being less than seventy years) as may be specified by the law.
4 Power as regards provision of health services.
(1) None of the limitations or restrictions imposed (whether by the principal Act or by any subsequent Act) on the power of the Parliament of Northern Ireland to make laws shall extend to prevent that Parliament from enacting a provision the purposes whereof are similar to the purposes of a provision of the National Health Service Act, 1946 , the National Health Service (Scotland) Act, 1947 , or any enactment passed after the passing of this Act amending either of those Acts.
(2) In so far as it relates to provisions the purposes whereof are the taking of property, this section shall have effect in addition to, and not in derogation of, the provisions of section two of this Act.
5 Power to adjust superannuation rights of Northern Irish civil servants to meet...
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