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The Employment Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 (Commencement No. 3) Order (Northern Ireland) 2020
This Order brings into operation certain provisions of the Employment Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 on 27th January 2020.
Article 2(a) to (e) commence provisions on early conciliation of employment disputes.
Article 2(f) commences the provision which places an obligation on the Department to review early conciliation.
Article 2(g) and (h) commences the provisions that permits the Department to make regulations which provide that the members of the panel of chairmen of industrial tribunals and Fair Employment Tribunal may be referred to as employment judges.
Article 2(i) commences the provision which prohibits the Labour Relations Agency, or persons appointed by the Agency, from releasing information relating to a worker, employer of a worker, or a trade union, that they hold in the course of performing their functions.
Article 2(j) corrects a small number of references in the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992, dealing with statutory shared parental pay, which were introduced by the Work and Families Act (Northern Ireland) 2015
Article 2(k) updates legislative references in Schedules 2 and 4 to the Employment (Northern Ireland) Order 2003.
Article 2(l) and (o) gives effect to the dispute resolution repeals in Schedule 3 of the Act.
Article 2(m) and (n) gives effect to Schedules 1 and 2, which respectively, make minor and consequential amendments to existing legislation, and set out how the relevant time limits for bringing a claim will be extended where necessary to provide sufficient time for early conciliation to take place and to ensure that the claimant is not disadvantaged.
The Rehabilitation of Offenders (Exceptions) (Amendment) Order (Northern Ireland) 2019
This instrument amends the Rehabilitation of Offenders (Exceptions) Order (Northern Ireland) 1979 (“the 1979 Order”) to give effect to changes to a criminal record ‘filtering scheme’ that allows some old and minor spent convictions to be ‘filtered, so that they are no longer disclosed and cannot be taken into account in employment decisions in certain circumstances. The 1978 Order makes it possible for certain convictions to become “spent”, which means that after a specified period a person can be treated for certain purposes as if the conviction had never happened and they need not, for example, tell an employer about the conviction when applying for a job.
To ensure that the public is adequately protected, however, certain exceptions to the 1978 Order are set out in the 1979 Order so that, for specified professions and occupations that typically involve a high degree of trust and often involve vulnerable persons, applicants must declare all past convictions when asked. The 1979 Order is amended periodically to ensure that the access to the criminal record disclosure regime keeps pace with changes in public risk; to ensure that disclosure regimes remain consistent across jurisdictions where appropriate; and to maintain the public trust and protection process.
This Order, the Rehabilitation of Offenders (Exceptions) (Amendment) Order (Northern Ireland) 2019 (“the 2019 Order”), stems from a Supreme Court judgment, which ruled that elements of the criminal record ‘filtering scheme’ operated by the Department of Justice were disproportionate. The ‘filtering scheme’ was established in 2014 following a review of the criminal records regime in Northern Ireland that was carried out by Sunita Mason during 2011, which recommended that the Department of Justice should filter old and minor convictions from standard and enhanced criminal record certificates; and to take account of the findings of two court cases concerning the disclosure of criminal record material at that time.
The terms of the scheme are that a conviction can be filtered after a period of 11 years (or 5.5 years for those under 18 at the time of the conviction), so long as the conviction was not for a specified offence as listed in the 1979 Order (e.g. serious violent and sexual offences; or offences of specific relevance for posts concerned with safeguarding children and vulnerable adults; etc.); did not attract a custodial sentence; and if there is no other conviction on the individual’s record.
The Supreme Court found that limiting the filtering scheme to a single offence, with the result that more than one old and minor conviction would be disclosed automatically, was disproportionate. The Department has, therefore, adjusted the terms of the scheme to allow more than one offence to be filtered in order to comply with the judgment.
The 2019 Order gives effect to this change by amending the 1979 Order to remove Article 1A(2)(c), which restricted the terms of the filtering scheme to a single conviction. The Department is satisfied that public protection is maintained, however, as the remaining elements of the filtering scheme will continue to ensure that there is no increased risk to the public as a result of this change.
No 96 The Statutory Adoption Pay (Curtailment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015
These Regulations come into operation from 15/3/15 and enable an adopter to give notice to end statutory adoption pay early on a specific future date.
No 94 The Statutory Shared Parental Pay (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015
These Regulations come into operation on 15/3/15 and set out the qualifying requirements that must be satisfied by an employee, and also by their partner, for the employee to qualify for statutory shared parental pay.
No 97 The Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 (Application of Articles 107G and 107I to Adoptions from Overseas) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015
These Regulations come into operation on 15/3/15 and essentially they modify existing powers to allow the making of regulations giving entitlement to shared parental leave to employees who are adopting from overseas. Such regulations are made separately.
No 101 The Paternity, Adoption and Shared Parental Leave (Parental Order Cases) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015
These Regulations come into operation on 15/3/15 and they modify the Paternity and Adoption Leave Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2002, the Maternity and Adoption Leave (Curtailment of Statutory Rights to Leave) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015 and the Shared Parental Leave Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015.
No 103 The Statutory Shared Parental Pay (Persons Abroad and Mariners) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015
These Regulations come into operation on 15/3/15 and modify the Statutory Shared Parental Pay (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015 to give certain persons abroad, those who work as mariners and those who work on the continental shelf an entitlement to statutory shared parental pay.
No. 571 (C. 39) The Employment Relations (2004 Order) (Commencement No.4 and Transitional Provisions) Order (Northern Ireland) 2005
This is the final implementation order for the Employment Relations (NI) Order 2004 and essentially it brings into effect, as of 8/1/06 the remaining matters not implemented by the previous three commencement orders.
391 Disability Discrimination (Exemption for Small Employers) Order (Northern Ireland) 1998
This Order lowers the small employer exemption threshold (available under Section 7 (1)) from 20 employees to 15 employees.
The National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2020
These Regulations are the annual amendments to the National Minimum Wage legislation which has existed since 1999 and they come into effect on 1/4/20.