This Order in Council provides for the application of Sections one, two and four of the Consular Conventions Act, 1949, to the French Republic, and thus enables Her Majesty to ratify the Consular Convention between the United Kingdom and France which was signed at Paris on the 31st of December, 1951 (Cmd. 8457).

The purport of Sections one, two and four of the Act is stated in the preamble to this Order. Sections one and four relate to England and, with the modifications contained in Section seven of the Act, to Northern Ireland; Sections two and four relate to Scotland.