Access to Justice (Northern Ireland) Order 2003

Proceedings

13.—(1) Subject to anything in any instrument made under this Part, the Commission may regulate its own proceedings.

(2) Committees—

(a)may be appointed, and may be dissolved, by the Commission, and

(b)may include, or consist entirely of, persons who are not members of the Commission,

but the Lord Chancellor may by direction require the Commission to make such provision relating to committees as is specified in the direction.

(3) A committee shall act in accordance with such instructions as the Commission may from time to time give; and the Commission may provide for anything done by a committee to have effect as if it had been done by the Commission.

(4) The Commission may pay to the members of any committee such fees and allowances as the Lord Chancellor may determine.

(5) Where a committee is to consider an individual contract entered into or proposed to be entered into, or an individual grant, loan or other payment made or proposed to be made, by the Commission, any member of the committee who is in any way directly or indirectly interested in the contract or the grant, loan or other payment shall disclose the nature of his interest at a meeting of the committee; and—

(a)the disclosure shall be recorded in the minutes of the committee, and

(b)the member shall not take any part in any deliberation or decision of the committee with respect to that contract or grant, loan or other payment.

(6) For the purposes of sub-paragraph (5), a general notice given at a meeting of a committee by a member of the committee to the effect—

(a)that he is a person with whom a contract may be entered into, or to whom a grant, loan or other payment may be made, by the Commission, or

(b)that he is a member of a specified body with which a contract may be entered into, or to which a grant, loan or other payment may be made, by the Commission,

shall be regarded as a sufficient disclosure of his interest in relation to any contract subsequently entered into with, or grant, loan or other payment made to, him or the body.

(7) A member of a committee need not attend in person at a meeting of the committee in order to make any disclosure which he is required to make under this paragraph if he takes reasonable steps to secure that the disclosure is made by a notice which is brought up and read out at the meeting.

(8) The validity of any proceedings of the Commission or of any committee appointed by the Commission shall not be affected by any vacancy among its members or by any defect in the appointment of any member.