Part 2: Judicial Appointments Schedule 11: District judges and deputy district judges Section 61: Orders permitting disclosures to Judicial Appointments Commission
318.Section 5A of the Justice (Northern Ireland) Act 2002 (‘the 2002 Act’) confers power to disclose information to the Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission for the purposes of selection for appointment to judicial office in Northern Ireland. Section 5A(1) of the 2002 Act provides that information held by ‘permitted persons’ may be disclosed to the Commission for the purposes of making any such selection. Section 5A(5) of that Act specifies a number of ‘permitted persons’ for the purpose of section 5A. Section 5A(6), which has yet to be commenced, provides that the Lord Chancellor may by order designate other persons, who exercise functions which he considers are of a public nature, as ‘permitted persons’. The order-making power contained in section 5A(6) is not, however, currently subject to any Parliamentary control. Section 61 remedies this anomaly by subjecting the order-making power contained in section 5A(6) to the negative resolution procedure.