Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Act 1976 (repealed 1.3.1999) in England

Subject to subsection (2), any obligation to maintain secrecy or other restriction upon the disclosure of information obtained by or furnished to persons in the service of the Crown, whether imposed by any enactment or by any rule of law, shall not apply to the disclosure of information for the purposes of any investigation, appeal or proceedings under F1the Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Acts; and the Crown shall not be entitled in relation to any such investigation, appeal or proceedings to any such privelege in respect of the production of documents or the giving of evidence as is allowed to the Crown alone by law in legal proceedings.

A Minister of the Crown or the head of a Northern Ireland department may by a certificate in writing, with respect to any document or information specified in the certificate, or documents or information of any class so specified, certify that in his opinion the disclosure of that document or information or of documents or information of that class would be prejudicial to the safety of the United Kingdom or any part of it or otherwise contrary to the public interest; and where such a certificate is given nothing in the Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Acts shall be construed as authorising or requiring the communication to any person or for any purpose of any document or information specified in the certificate, or any document or information of a class so specified.

A document purporting to be a certificate such as is mentioned in subsection (2) shall be received in evidence and, unless the contrary is proved, shall be deemed to be such a certificate.

Where, in consequence of the enactment of subsection (1), any information is disclosed to persons not in the service of the Crown, those persons shall, without prejudice to subsections (1) and (2) and subject to subsection (5), be subject to the same restrictions upon the disclosure of the information as if they were in that service, and, in particular, the M1Official Secrets Act 1911 shall have effect in relation to them as if they were persons holding office under Her Majesty.

Where a person to whom subsection (4) applies is a member officer or servant of F2the Commission or the Tribunal, that subsection shall not preclude his disclosing the information in question to any other person so far as such disclosure is necessary—

Any reference in subsection (2) to a Minister of the Crown includes a reference to the Commissioners of Customs and Excise and the Commissioners of Inland Revenue.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—

• “access” shall be construed in accordance with subsection (7);

• “act” includes a deliberate omission, and any reference to an act, action or other thing done shall be construed accordingly;

• “advertisement” includes every form of advertisement, whether to the public or not, and whether in a newspaper or other publication, by television or radio, by display or circulation of notices or circulars, by exhibition of pictures, models or films or in any other way, and references to the publishing of advertisements shall be construed accordingly;

• F1“affirmative action”has the meaning given by section 58 of the Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Act 1989;

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• “benefits” includes all opportunities, services and facilities, and, in particular, includes opportunities for training, transfer or promotion, for betterment of any kind (including more attractive times or conditions of work) or for any financial advantage (including bonuses, advances of money and preferential terms for acquiring property of any kind);

• F3“the Commission” means the Fair Employment Commission for Northern Ireland;

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• “complainant” means a person making a complaint that unlawful discrimination has been committed against him . . . F5

• “complaint” means a complaint of unlawful discrimination made to the F6Tribunal under section 24;

• “confer”, in relation to a qualification, includes renew and extend;

• “contract” includes any contract, whether in writing or oral, express or implied;

• “contravention”, in relation to any provision, includes a failure to comply with that provision;

• “costs” includes expenses;

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• “the Department” means the Department of Manpower Services for Northern Ireland;

• “the Department of Finance” means the Department of Finance for Northern Ireland;

• “discrimination” and “discriminate” shall be construed in accordance with section 16(1) to (4);

• “employer” means—

  1. (a)

     in relation to a person who is seeking employment, anybody who has employment available;

  2. (b)

     in relation to a person employed under a contract of service or of apprenticeship or a contract personally to execute any work or labour, the person entitled to the benefit of that contract;

  3. (c)

     in relation to a person who has ceased to be in employment, his former employer;

  and “employee”, correspondingly, means such a person as is first mentioned in paragraph (a), (b) or (c) of this definition;

• “employment” means employment under a contract of service or apprenticeship or a contract personally to execute any work or labour, and, without prejudice to the definitions of “employer” and “employee” above, related expressions shall be construed accordingly;

• “employment agency” means a person who, for profit or not, provides services for the purpose of finding employment for workers or supplying employers with workers;

• “employment in Northern Ireland” shall be construed in accordance with section 49;

• “enactment” includes an enactment contained in an Act of the Parliament of Northern Ireland or an Order in Council made under the M1Northern Ireland (Temporary Provisions) Act 1972, or in a Measure of the Northern Ireland Assembly;

• “equality of opportunity” shall be construed in accordance with F9section 20 of the Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Act 1989;

• “financial year” means a year ending on 31st March;

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• “government department” includes a Northern Ireland department;

• “the High Court” means the High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland;

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• “member”, in relation to a vocational organisation, includes (except in section 21) a person seeking to become a member and a person who has ceased to be a member, and in relation to such an organisation (other than an organisation of workers or employers) also includes any person belonging to a class of person recognised by the organisation as having any particular status in connection with an employment or occupation for the purposes of which the organisation exists, including students and associates, and “membership” shall be construed accordingly.

• “Northern Ireland” includes such of the territorial waters of the United Kingdom as are adjacent to Northern Ireland;

• “notice” means a notice in writing;

• “occupation” includes any trade, business, profession or vocation, but not any employment;

• “occupation in Northern Ireland” shall be construed in accordance with section 49;

• “organisation” includes any society or association whether corporate or unincorporate;

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• “practices” includes procedures and arrangements;

• “proper officer”, in relation to any body corporate or unincorporate, means the secretary or other executive officer charged with the conduct of the general affairs of the body;

• “qualification” includes authorisation, recognition, registration, enrolment, approval and certification;

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• “the respondent”, in relation to a complaint, has the meaning given by section 24(1);

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• “school” hasthe same meaning as in the M2Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order F121986;

• “the Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights” means the commission constituted by that name under section 20 of the M3Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973;

• “statutory body” means a body set up by or in pursuance of an enactment, and “statutory office” means an office so set up;

• “training” includes any form of education or instruction, except that in F13section 22 of this Act and sections 11(1)(e) and 20(4)(b)(ii) of the Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Act 1989 it does not include F14education provided by—

  1. (a)

     a school, or

  2. (b)

     F15an institution of further education within the meaning of the Further Education (Northern Ireland) Order 1997 or an institution providing further education in respect of which grants are paid under Article 5(1)(b) of that Order, or

  3. (c)

     a college of education within the meaning of the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986, or

  4. (d)

     . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . F16

  5. (e)

     a university;

• F17“the Tribunal” means the Fair Employment Tribunal for Northern Ireland;

• “unlawful discrimination” shall be construed in accordance with section 16(5);

• “vocational organisation” means—

  1. (a)

     an organisation of workers, or

  2. (b)

     an organisation of employers, or

  3. (c)

     any other organisation of persons engaged in a particular employment or occupation, or employments or occupations of any class, for the purposes of which the organisation exists.

In this Act references to a person’s religious belief or political opinion include references to his supposed religious belief or political opinion and to the absence or supposed absence of any, or any particular, religious belief or political opinion.

In this Act any reference to a person’s political opinion does not include an opinion which consists of or includes approval or acceptance of the use of violence for political ends connected with Northern Irish affairs (including the use of violence for the purpose of putting the public or any section of the public in fear).

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For the purposes of this Act a person is seeking employment if he is available for employment, whether or not he is aware of the existence of an opportunity for any particular employment.

References in this Act to submitting a person for consideration for employment include references to making available to an employer in any way relevant particulars relating to him.

References in this Act to the affording by any person of access to benefits are not limited to benefits provided by him alone, but include any means by which it is in his power to facilitate access to benefits provided by others.

Without prejudice to any provision of section 49 or any order under subsection (3) of that section and subject to any other provision of this Act which is limited by its express terms to acts done in Northern Ireland, references (however expressed) in this Act to acts done or to power to do any acts, other than references to acts which may be the subject of criminal proceedings under this Act, include references to acts done or power to do the acts outside Northern Ireland; and references to a contract include references to a contract the proper law of which is not the law of Northern Ireland.

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Except so far as the context otherwise requires, any reference in this Act to an enactment shall be construed as a reference to that enactment as amended or extended by or under any other enactment, including this Act.

In this Act, except where otherwise indicated,—

The enactments mentioned in Schedule 6 shall have effect subject to the respective amendments there specified (being amendments consequential on the provisions of this Act).

The following enactments, namely,—

shall have effect in relation to the right of a person to make a complaint of unlawful discrimination under this Act as if it were such a right of appeal, reference or review as is mentioned in those enactments.

Section 20(1)(b) of the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973 is hereby repealed.

at the beginning of subsection (1) there shall be inserted the words “ Subject to subsection (4) below” ; and

after subsection (3) there shall be inserted the following subsection—

“(4)

This section does not apply to any act or omission which is unlawful by virtue of the Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Act 1976 or would be unlawful but for some exception made by virtue of Part V of that Act.”