War Emergency Laws (Continuance) Act, 1920.
(10 & 11 Geo. 5.) CHAPTER 5.
An Act to continue temporarily certain emergency enactments and regulations, and to make provision with respect to the expiration or revocation of emergency enactments and instruments made thereunder.
[31st March 1920]
Whereas the enactments mentioned in the first column of the First Schedule to this Act are subject to the limitations mentioned in the second column of that schedule, and it is expedient that they should be extended in the manner hereinafter appearing:
And whereas the Defence of the Realm Regulations will expire at the termination of the present war, and it is expedient that certain of those regulations should continue in force thereafter:
And whereas it is expedient to make provision as to the effect of the expiry of enactments and other instruments which will expire on, or on the expiration of an interval after, the termination of the present war:
Now, therefore, 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:
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Continuance of certain emergency Acts.1 Continuance of certain emergency Acts.
1. The limitations on the continuance or operation of the enactments mentioned in the first column of the First Schedule in this Act shall be modified in the manner and to the extent specified in the third column of that schedule.
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Continuance of certain Defence of the Realm Regulations.2 Continuance of certain Defence of the Realm Regulations.
(1) The Defence of the Realm Regulations mentioned in the first column of the Second Schedule to this Act shall, subject to the limitations, qualifications and modifications specified in the third column of that schedule, continue in force until the thirty-first day of August nineteen hundred and twenty, and as so continued shall have effect as if enacted in this Act:
Provided that it shall be lawful for His Majesty in Council to revoke in whole or in part any of the regulations so continued as soon as it appears to him that consistently with the national interest any such regulation can be so revoked:
Provided also that no such regulation as so continued shall have greater validity than it had before the time when but for this Act it would have expired.
(2) If after the termination of the present war any person is guilty of an offence under any regulation made under the Defence of the Realm Consolidation Act, 1914 , for the time being in force, he shall be liable on conviction under the Summary Jurisdiction Acts to imprisonment with or without hard labour for a term not exceeding three months or to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds or to both such imprisonment and fine, and the court may in any case order that any goods or money in respect of which the offence has been committed be forfeited:
Provided that—
(a ) a prosecution for any such offence shall not in England and Ireland be instituted except by or with the consent of the Attorney-General for England or Ireland, as the case may be, or by an officer of the police, or by a person acting in each ease under a special authority from the Government department concerned; and
(b ) in Ireland the court of summary jurisdiction, when hearing and determining an information or complaint in respect of any such offence, shall, in the Dublin metropolitan police district, be constituted of one of the divisional justices of that district, and elsewhere be constituted of a resident magistrate sitting with one or more other resident magistrates, and the court of quarter sessions when hearing and determining an appeal against a conviction of a court of summary jurisdiction for any such offence shall be constituted of the recorder or county court judge sitting alone.
(3) The Defence of the Realm (Food Profits) Act, 1918 , shall continue in force so long as any order made by the Food Controller under the powers continued by this Act regulating the price of any goods continues in force.
(4) If immediately before the passing of this Act a proclamation suspending the operation of section one of the Defence of the Realm (Amendment) Act, 1915 , in respect of any area is in force, then, as respects that area, all the Defence of the Realm Regulations then in force shall, subject to the power of His Majesty in Council by order to revoke any of such regulations, continue in force until the expiration of twelve months after the termination of the present war, subject, as respects any regulations modified by the Second Schedule to this Act, to the modifications therein contained, save so far as those modifications limit the operation of the regulations, and those regulations as so continued shall have effect as if enacted in this Act; and in that area offences against the said regulations shall, notwithstanding anything hereinbefore contained, continue to be triable and punishable in like manner as if the Defence of the Realm Consolidation Act, 1914, and the Acts amending that Act continued in force, except that where any such offence is tried by a court of summary jurisdiction or, on appeal, by a court of quarter sessions, the court shall be constituted as hereinbefore provided:
Provided that no such regulation as so continued shall have greater validity than it had before the time when but for this Act it would have expired:
Provided that, if the said proclamation is revoked before the expiration of the said twelve months, this section shall, as from the date of the revocation, apply in respect of the area in question in like manner as it applies in respect of the rest of the United Kingdom.
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Effect of expiration of emergency legislation.3 Effect of expiration of emergency legislation.
(1) Where any Act passed during the continuance of the present war or any order, regulation, or other instrument made thereunder expires at the termination of the present war or on the lapse of any time thereafter such expiry shall not—
(a ) affect the previous operation of any enactment or instrument so expiring or anything duly done or suffered under any enactment or instrument so expiring; or
(b ) affect any right, privilege, exemption, obligation or liability acquired, accrued, or incurred under any enactment or other instrument so expiring; or
(c ) affect any penalty, forfeiture, or punishment incurred under any enactment or instrument so expiring; or
(d ) affect any investigation, legal proceeding, or remedy in respect of any such right, privilege, obligation, liability, penalty, forfeiture, or punishment as aforesaid;
and any such investigation, legal proceeding, or remedy may be instituted, continued, or enforced, and any such penalty, forfeiture, or punishment may be imposed as if the enactment or instrument had not expired, with this qualification as respects proceedings for offences under the Defence of the Realm Regulations, that anything required thereunder to be done by, to, or before the competent naval or military authority may be done by, to, or before such officer as the Admiralty or Army Council may appoint for the purpose.
(2) Where any such Act, order, regulation, or other instrument so expiring contains any provision making it an offence to disclose any information obtained in pursuance of the powers conferred by the Act, order, regulation, or instrument, or preserving any right which may be prejudiced by the communication of information required to be furnished thereunder, that provision shall notwithstanding such expiry continue in force.
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Application to Isle of Man.4 Application to Isle of Man.
(1) Where any enactment or regulation continued by this Act has by Order in Council made under the Isle of Man (War Legislation) Act, 1914 , been extended to the Isle of Man, the continuance effected by this Act shall apply to the enactment or regulation as so extended.
(2) For removing doubts, it is hereby declared that any Order in Council made under the said Act extending any enactment or regulation to the Isle of Man may be revoked by Order in Council.
5 Short title.
5. This Act may be cited as theWar Emergency Laws (Continuance) Act, 1920.
S C H E D U L E S.
FIRST SCHEDULE.
Enactment. |
Nature and Extent of Limitation. |
Nature and Extent of Extension. |
Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (Temporary Rules) Act, 1914 (4 & 5 Geo. 5. c. 27). |
Limited to the continuance of the present state of war in Europe and for a period of six months thereafter. |
To continue, so far as it relates to the extension of the time within which acts or things may or are required to be done under the Patents and Designs Act, 1907, or the Trade Marks Act, 1905, until the tenth |
Enactment. |
Nature and Extent of Limitation. |
Nature and Extent of Extension. |
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day of January nineteen hundred and twenty-one as if in section three thereof for the words ‘during the continuance of the present state of war in Europe and for a period of six months thereafter’ there were substituted the words ‘until the tenth day of January nineteen hundred and twenty-one.’ |
Special Constables Act, 1914 (4 & 5 Geo. 5. c. 61). |
Limited to special constables appointed during the present war. |
To extend to special constables appointed during a period of one year after the termination of the present war, as if in section 1 (1) after the words ‘during the present war’ there were inserted the words ‘or a period of twelve months after the termination thereof.’ |
The Courts Emergency Powers Act, 1914 (4 & 5 Geo. 5. c. 78), and the enactments to be read or construed as one with that Act, viz., the Courts Emergency Powers (Amendment) Act, 1916 (6 & 7 Geo. 5. c. 13), as amended by the Courts (Emergency Powers) Act, 1917, s. 8, the Courts Emergency Powers (No. 2) Act, 1916 (6 & 7 Geo. 5. c. 18). |
Limited to the continuance of the present war and a period of six months thereafter. |
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