1870: 33 Victoria c.1: An Act to empower Committees on Bills confirming Provisional Orders to award Costs and examine Witnesses on Oath.

[25th March 1870.]

WHEREAS it is expedient to empower Committees of both Houses of Parliament to award costs in certain cases, and also to empower Committees of the House of Commons to administer oaths to witnesses in certain cases not already provided for:

Be it enacted by the Queen’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

[Power to Committees of either House of Parliament on Bills confirming Provisional Orders to award costs.]

1. Any Select Committee of either House of Parliament to which any Bill for confirming Provisional Orders has been referred in relation to any Provisional Order therein contained may award costs in like manner and subject to the same conditions as costs may be awarded by any Select Committee empowered to award costs by the Act of the twenty-eighth Victoria, chapter twenty-eight, and the provisions of the said Act so far as they are applicable shall apply to such Select Committees and to the matters so referred to them.

[Power to such Committees of House of Commons to examine witnesses upon oath.]

2. Any Select Committee of the House of Commons to which any Bill for confirming Provisional Orders has been referred in relation to any Provisional Order therein contained may examine witnesses upon oath in like manner as any Select Committee to which any Private Bill has been referred may administer oaths under the Act of the twenty-second Victoria, chapter seventy-eight, and the provisions of the said Act so far as they are applicable shall apply to any Select Committee to winch any such Bill has been referred as aforesaid and to the oaths administered by such Committee.

Source: Public General Statutes, 1870.