Member

My purpose in this debate is to enable us to give greater clarity and reduce the legal risk arising from the exceptional structure of powers generated by the Bill by making it clear both that Parliament has approved the use of the prerogative powers and that their future use will be subject to appropriate parliamentary scrutiny. First, I accept that the treaty, while removing sovereignty, maintains the UK’s jurisdiction in Diego Garcia. It is therefore not a foreign jurisdiction and the Bill correctly disapplies the provisions of the Foreign Jurisdiction Act 1890. Given that the powers are established under an international treaty, which is itself made under a prerogative power, the source of the powers used in Diego Garcia can correctly be regarded as continuing to be prerogative powers. The Orders in Council will therefore be prerogative orders, not statutory orders.