The Magistrates' Courts (Northern Ireland) Order 1981

Enforcement of orders other than for the payment of money N.I.

112.—(1) Where power is conferred under any enactment upon a magistrates' court to require any person to do or to abstain from doing anything other than the payment of money and no mode is provided for the exercise of such power, the court may, subject to the provisions of this Order, exercise such power by order.

(2) The court may annex to any order requiring any person to do or abstain from doing anything other than the payment of money any condition as to time or mode of action and may by order on complaint suspend or rescind such order on any undertaking being given or upon the condition being performed.

(3) Where a person fails to comply with an order such as is mentioned in paragraph (2) by either failing to do, within the time specified in the order or (if no time is so specified) forthwith, the thing he is required to do or, as the case may be, doing the thing he is required to abstain from doing and the enactment under which the order was made prescribes no punishment for such failure, a resident magistrate or other justice of the peace may upon complaint made to him at any time—

(a) issue a summons for the appearance of the person by whom that thing is required to be done or not done before a court of summary jurisdiction acting for the same petty sessions district as the court which made the order; or

(b) by warrant cause such person to be brought before a resident magistrate acting for the same petty sessions district as the court which made the order or for any other petty sessions district in the same county court division.

(4) A warrant shall not be issued under paragraph (3) unless the complaint is in writing and substantiated on oath.

(5) Where a person has been taken into custody in pursuance of a warrant issued under paragraph (3) for the purpose of causing him to be brought before a resident magistrate he shall, if it will not be practicable to bring him before a resident magistrate within twenty-four hours after he was so taken into custody, be brought, as soon as practicable, before a justice of the peace who may, if he thinks fit, discharge such person upon his entering into a recognizance for a reasonable amount to appear before a resident magistrate at the time and place named in the recognizance; but where such person is not so discharged the justice of the peace shall commit him to prison and direct that he shall be brought before a resident magistrate as soon as practicable thereafter and in any case not later than eight days from the date of such commitment.

(6) Upon the appearance of a person summoned before a court of summary jurisdiction under paragraph (3) or on proof that the summons was duly served on him the court or, where a person is brought before a resident magistrate pursuant to a warrant issued under that paragraph, the resident magistrate—

(a) may order that person to pay a sum not exceeding £50 for every day during which he fails to comply with the order or a sum not exceeding[F1 £5000]; or

(b) may commit him to prison for a fixed period not exceeding two months or until he either complies with the order or satisfies a court of summary jurisdiction that he intends to comply with it (and the court may issue a warrant to enforce the order of commitment);

but a person who is ordered to pay a sum for every day during which he fails to comply with the order or who is committed to prison until he complies or satisfactorily indicates his intention to comply with the order shall not by virtue of this Article be ordered to pay more than £1,000 or be committed for more than two months in all for doing or abstaining from doing the same thing contrary to the order (without prejudice to the operation of this Article in relation to any subsequent failure to comply with the order).

(7) In relation to an order made by a resident magistrate or justice of the peace sitting out of petty sessions, the references in paragraph (3)(a) and (b) to the same petty sessions district as the court which made the order acted for shall be construed as references to the petty sessions district in which the order was made.

(8) Payment of any sum ordered to be paid under paragraph (7) shall be enforceable in the same manner as payment of a sum adjudged to be paid by a conviction.

Annotations:

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F1 1994 NI 15