Employment Act 1989

Incorporation of Secretary of State for Employment

2 (1) The person who on the date on which this Act is passed is Secretary of State for Employment and his successors shall be, by that name, a corporation sole, with a corporate seal.

(2) The corporate seal of the Secretary of State for Employment shall be authenticated by the signature of a Secretary of State or of a Secretary to the Department of Employment, or by a person authorised by a Secretary of State to act for the purpose.

(3) The corporate seal of the Secretary of State for Employment shall be officially and judicially noticed, and every document purporting to be an instrument made or issued by the Secretary of State for Employment and to be sealed with that seal authenticated in the manner provided by sub-paragraph (2), or to be signed or executed by a Secretary to the Department of Employment, or a person authorised as mentioned in that sub-paragraph, shall be received in evidence and be deemed to be so made or issued without further proof, unless the contrary is shown.

(4) A certificate signed by the Secretary of State for Employment that any instrument purporting to be made or issued by him was so made or issued shall be conclusive evidence of that fact.

(5) Any document made or issued at any time before the date on which this Act is passed—

(a) by the Secretary of State for Employment (whether as such or as the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity), or

(b) by the Minister of Labour in connection with matters which, on that date, fall within the responsibilities of the Secretary of State for Employment,

shall, if effective immediately before that date, have effect as from that date as if it had been made or issued by the Secretary of State for Employment as a corporation sole; and where the document was sealed or signed as mentioned in section 11(2) of the [1916 c. 68.] New Ministries and Secretaries Act 1916 (as in force at the time of the sealing or signing of the document) it shall have effect as from that date as if it had been sealed or (as the case may be) signed as mentioned in sub-paragraph (3) above.

(6) Accordingly any document to which section 11(2) of that Act applied immediately before that date shall be treated for the purposes of sub-paragraph (3) above as if it were a document purporting to be such an instrument as is mentioned in that sub-paragraph; and the repeal by this Act of section 11(3) of that Act shall not affect the validity of any certificate issued before that date in pursuance of that provision.