The Nuclear Installations (Virgin Islands) Order 1983

Statutory Instruments

1983 No. 1893

ATOMIC ENERGY AND RADIOACTIVE SUBSTANCES

The Nuclear Installations (Virgin Islands) Order 1983

Made

21st December 1983

Coming into Operation

21st December 1983

At the Court at Buckingham Palace, the 21st day of December 1983

Present,

The Queen's Most Excellent Majesty in Council

Her Majesty, in exercise of the powers conferred upon Her by section 28 of the Nuclear Installations Act 1965, section 33 of the Energy Act 1983 and section 4(6) of the Congenital Disabilities (Civil Liability) Act 1976, is pleased, by and with the advice of Her Privy Council, to order, and it is hereby ordered, as follows:—

1.—(1) This Order may be cited as the Nuclear Installations (Virgin Islands) Order 1983 and shall be read and construed as one with the Nuclear Installations (Virgin Islands) Order 1973 (below called the 1973 Order).

(2) This Order shall come into operation on 21st December 1983.

(3) In this Order any reference to a provision of the Nuclear Installations Act 1965 (below called the 1965 Act) shall be construed as a reference to that provision as it has effect in the Virgin Islands under the 1973 Order.

2.—(1) In subsection (1) of section 21 of the 1965 Act (compensation in respect of carriage), for the words “equivalent to £2,100,000 sterling” there shall be substituted the words “which is the equivalent in sterling (on the day, or first day, of that occurrence) of 5 million special drawing rights”.

(2) After that subsection there shall be inserted—

“(1A) The Governor may with the approval of the Secretary of State by order increase or further increase the sum expressed in special drawing rights in subsection (1) of this section; but an order under this subsection shall not have effect in respect of any occurrence before (or beginning before) the order comes into force.”

(3) After subsection (4) of that section there shall be inserted—

“(4A) Subsection (3) of this section shall not apply where the carriage in question is wholly within the territorial limits of the Virgin Islands.”

(4) This section shall not have effect in respect of any occurrence before (or beginning before) the commencement of this section.

3.  In subsection (5) of section 17 of the 1965 Act (foreign judgments), at the beginning there shall be inserted the words “Subject to subsection (5A) of this section”; and after subsection (5) there shall be inserted—

   

“(5A) Subsection (5) of this section shall not have effect where the judgment in question is enforceable in the Virgin Islands in pursuance of an international agreement.”

4.  In section 26(1) of the 1965 Act (interpretation), in paragraph (a) of the definition of “excepted matter”, for the words “or scientific” there shall be substituted the words “scientific or educational”.

5.  Section 3 of the Congenital Disabilities (Civil Liability) Act 1976, modified and adapted as in the Schedule hereto, shall extend to the Virgin Islands.

N. E. Leigh

Clerk of the Privy Council

SCHEDULE SECTION 3 OF THE CONGENITAL DISABILITIES (CIVIL LIABILITY) ACT 1976 AS EXTENDED TO THE VIRGIN ISLANDS

Disabled birth due to radiation

3.—(2) For the avoidance of doubt anything which—

(a) affects a man in his ability to have a normal, healthy child; or

(b) affects a woman in that ability, or so affects her when she is pregnant that her child is born with disabilities which would not otherwise have been present,

is an injury for the purposes of the 1965 Act.

(3) If a child is born disabled as the result of an injury to either of its parents caused in breach of a duty imposed by section 10 or 11 of the 1965 Act (foreign operators and others to secure that nuclear incidents do not cause injury to persons, etc.), the child's disabilities are to be regarded under the subsequent provisions of that Act (compensation and other matters) as injuries caused on the same occasion, and by the same breach of duty, as was the injury to the parent.

(4) As respects compensation to the child, section 13(3) of the 1965 Act (contributory fault of person injured by radiation) is to be applied as if the reference there to fault were to the fault of the parent.

(5) Compensation is not payable in the child's case if the injury to the parent preceded the time of the child's conception and at that time either or both of the parents knew the risk of their child being born disabled (that is to say, the particular risk created by the injury).

EXPLANATORY NOTE

This Order amends certain provisions of the Nuclear Installations Act 1965, as extended to the Virgin Islands, so as to bring them into conformity with similar amendments made by Part II of the Energy Act 1983 in relation to the Act of 1965 as it applies in the United Kingdom. It also extends to the Virgin Islands, with adaptations and modifications, section 3 of the Congenital Disabilities (Civil Liability) Act 1976.