Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977

42 The arbitration tribunal

(1) For the purpose of determining—

(a) any question or dispute which, under any provision of this Act, is expressly required to be determined by or is referred to “arbitration under this Act”, or

(b) any matter in respect of which jurisdiction is given to the arbitration tribunal under this Act,

there shall be established a tribunal called the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Arbitration Tribunal (in this Act referred to as “the arbitration tribunal ”).

(2) The arbitration tribunal shall be a court of record and shall have an official seal which shall be judicially noticed.

(3) The arbitration tribunal shall, as the Lord Chancellor may direct, either sit as a single tribunal or sit in two or more divisions and, subject to subsection (4) below, shall, for the hearing of any proceedings, consist of—

(a) a president who shall be a barrister or solicitor of not less than 7 years' standing appointed by the Lord Chancellor, and

(b) two other members appointed by the Secretary of State, after consultation with all the stockholders' representatives, one being a person of experience in business and the other being a person of experience in finance.

(4) In its application to proceedings which, by virtue of this Act, are to be treated as Scottish proceedings, subsection (3) above shall have effect with the substitution, for paragraph (a) thereof, of the following paragraph:—

“(a) a president who shall be an advocate or solicitor of not less than 7 years' standing who has practised in Scotland and who shall be appointed by the Lord President of the Court of Session”.

(5) The members of the arbitration tribunal shall hold office for such period as may be determined at the time of their respective appointments and shall be eligible for re-appointment but, notwithstanding that the period for which a member was appointed has not expired,—

(a) a member may, at any time by not less than one month's notice in writing to his appointor, resign his office;

(b) the appointor of a member may declare the office of that member vacant on the ground that he is unfit to continue in his office; and

(c) if any member becomes bankrupt or makes a composition with his creditor or, in Scotland, if a sequestration of a member's estate is awarded or a member makes a trust deed for behoof of his creditors or a composition contract, his office shall thereupon become vacant

(6) If any member of the arbitration tribunal becomes, by reason of illness or other infirmity, temporarily incapable of performing the duties of his office, his appointor shall appoint some other fit person to discharge his duties for any period not exceeding 6 months at one time, and the person so appointed shall during that period have the same powers as the person in whose place he was appointed.

(7) The provisions of Schedule 7 to this Act shall have effect with respect to the proceedings of the arbitration tribunal and matters relating thereto.

(8) In this section “appointor ”, in relation to a member of the arbitration tribunal, means—

(a) in the case of a member appointed under paragraph (a) of subsection (3) above, the Lord Chancellor or, if subsection (4) above applies, the Lord President of the Court of Session ; and

(b) in the case of any other member, the Secretary of State.

(9) In the [1975 c. 24.] House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975 and in the [1975 c. 25.] Northern Ireland Assembly Disqualification Act 1975, in Part II of Schedule 1 (bodies of which all members are disqualified), there shall be inserted at the appropriate point the words—

• “The Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Arbitration Tribunal”.

(10) In Part I of Schedule 1 to the [1971 c. 62.] Tribunals and Inquiries Act 1971 (tribunals under direct supervision of Council on Tribunals) after the entry the first column of which reads “Agriculture” there shall be inserted the following entry:—

“Aircraft and shipbuilding industries.

1A The Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Arbitration Tribunal established under section 42 of the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977.”.