Issue by Department of Codes of Practice
95.—(1) The Department may issue Codes of Practice containing such practical guidance as the Department thinks fit for the purpose of promoting the improvement of industrial relations or of promoting what appear to it to be desirable practices in relation to the conduct by trade unions of ballots and elections.
(2) The Department shall, after consultation with the Agency, prepare and publish a draft of any Code of Practice that it proposes to issue under this Article.
(3) The Department shall consider any representations made to it about a draft prepared under paragraph (2) and may modify the draft accordingly.
(4) If the Department determines to proceed with the draft the Department shall lay it before the Assembly.
(5) If the draft is approved by resolution of the Assembly, the Department shall issue the Code in the form of the draft and the Code shall come into operation on such day as the Department may by order appoint.
(6) If the Department is of the opinion that the provisions of a Code of Practice to be issued under the preceding provisions of this Article will supersede the whole or part of a Code previously issued by the Department under this Article or by the Agency under Article 90, the Department shall in the new Code state that on the day on which the new Code comes into operation in pursuance of an order under paragraph (5) the old Code or a specified part of it shall cease to have effect (subject to any transitional provisions or savings made by the order).
(7) The Department may from time to time revise the whole or any part of a Code of Practice issued under this Article and issue that revised Code, and, subject to paragraph (8), paragraphs (2) to (5) shall apply (with appropriate modifications) to such a revised Code as they apply to the first issue of a Code.
(8) A Code of Practice issued under this Article may be revised by the Department in accordance with paragraphs (9) to (11) for the purpose of bringing it into conformity with statutory provisions coming into operation after the Code was issued by the making of consequential amendments and the omission of obsolete passages.
(9) Where the Department proposes to revise a Code under paragraph (8), it shall lay a draft of the revised Code before the Assembly.
(10) If, within the statutory period beginning with the day on which a copy of the draft is laid before the Assembly, the Assembly so resolves, no further proceedings shall be taken thereon, but without prejudice to the laying before the Assembly of a new draft.
(11) If no such resolution is passed as is referred to in paragraph (10), the Department shall issue the Code in the form of the draft and the Code shall come into effect on such day as the Department may by order appoint.
(12) A Code of Practice issued under this Article may be revoked by an order made by the Department; but no such order shall be made unless a draft of the order has been laid before and approved by resolution of the Assembly.
(13) A failure on the part of any person to observe any provision of a Code of Practice issued under this Article shall not of itself render him liable to any proceedings; but in any proceedings before a court or industrial tribunal or the Industrial Court—
(a)any such Code shall be admissible in evidence; and
(b)any provision of the Code which appears to the court, tribunal or Industrial Court to be relevant to any question arising in the proceedings shall be taken into account in determining that question.
(14) Without prejudice to Article 107(3), an order under paragraph (5), (11) or (12) may contain such transitional provisions or savings as appear to the Department to be necessary or expedient in connection with the Code of Practice thereby brought into operation or (as the case may be) revoked.