Defamation: Northern Ireland
(asked on 15th October 2015) - View Source
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Defamation Act 2013 can be applied in Northern Ireland through a legislative consent motion by the Northern Ireland Assembly, without any further legislation by Parliament.
This question was answered on 23rd October 2015
A Legislative Consent Motion (LCM) consents to legislation being undertaken by the UK Parliament to extend to a part of the UK where the subject-matter of the legislation is devolved. An LCM cannot of itself extend existing UK Parliament legislation. As the law on defamation is a devolved issue, this is a matter for the Northern Ireland Executive.