Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill – in a Public Bill Committee am 5:30 pm ar 29 Tachwedd 2007.
Northern Ireland Commissioner for Prison Complaints: exceptions etc. to Commissioner’s powers under section (Powers of Commissioner to obtain information)
‘(1) Subject to subsection (3), no person shall be compelled by virtue of this Part to give any evidence or do any other thing which that person could not be compelled to do in civil proceedings before the High Court.
(2) No obligation to maintain secrecy or other restriction on the disclosure of information obtained by or provided to persons in Her Majesty’s service, whether imposed by or under any enactment or by any rule of law, applies in relation to an investigation.
(3) The Crown is not entitled in relation to an investigation to any privilege in respect of the production of documents or of the giving of evidence as would otherwise be allowed in legal proceedings.
(4) No person shall be compelled or authorised by virtue of this Part—
(a) to provide any information relating to proceedings of the Cabinet or of any Committee of the Cabinet; or
(b) to produce any document relating to such proceedings.
(5) For this purpose a certificate which—
(a) is issued by the Secretary of the Cabinet with the approval of the Prime Minister, and
(b) certifies that any information or document (or part of a document) relates to any proceedings mentioned in subsection (2),
is conclusive of the matters certified.
(6) In this section “investigation” means any investigation under this Part.’.—[Maria Eagle.]
A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
