Departmental Solicitor's Office

The Departmental Solicitor's Office (DSO) was established in 1993 when the legal offices of three government departments merged to form a new centralised legal department with the objective of providing high quality, cost effective legal advice and services to all instructing departments. DSO formed a directorate within the Department of Finance & Personnel. At that time all of the staff moved to Victoria Hall apart from one solicitor who was based in Orchard House, Londonderry.

Victoria Hall is a purpose built office block which occupies the site of the original Victoria Hall, built in 1839. This building had a colourful history. It was built as a music hall where Charles Dickens gave readings of his works to a packed house in 1858 but became a Brethren Meeting House in 1916. DSO gossip suggests that the present building is haunted but I cannot claim to have encountered any troubled spirits other than solicitors in urgent need of information!

I started work in DSO in 1995 when there were approximately 35 solicitors. At that time the legal staff either worked in one of the teams advising NICS government departments or in the Commercial & Property Division. Today the number of staff has grown to between 80 and 85. Organisational changes within Northern Ireland government have added functions to the core work of DSO. There is now a Litigation Division and a Civil Law Reform Division. The devolution of policing and justice to the Northern Ireland Assembly in the spring of 2010 added a Criminal Justice Division from the Northern Ireland Office and some responsibility for prisons from the Crown Solicitor's Office transferred to DSO. Most of the staff are based in two buildings in the city centre, Victoria Hall & Centre House. The Criminal Justice Division remains within the Stormont Estate and several members of staff are seconded to other government departments or bodies such as the Food Standards Agency; the Northern Ireland Law Commission and to statutory inquiries.

Government Legal Service Northern Ireland (GLSNI)

Oswyn Paulin is the Departmental Solicitor. In addition to his role as head of department, he is Chair of the Government Legal Service for Northern Ireland which came into existence on 1 April 2007, bringing together legal staff working in a range of units in both the devolved and non-devolved sectors. The GLSNI concept is largely inspired by the success of the long-established Government Legal Service in London and GLS Scotland, which was set up in 1999.

The units participating in GLSNI are – the Departmental Solicitor's Office; Crown Solicitor's Office; the Compensation Agency; Land Registers Northern Ireland; the Belfast-based staff of the Serious Organised Crime Agency; and the Central Claims Unit of the Department for Regional Development. This created a critical mass of about 130 legal staff, giving new opportunities for more effective recruitment, career development and training.

Departmental Solicitor's Office Library

In the DSO Library, our staffing comprises one Librarian and one Assistant Librarian. Mrs. Lucy Frey is the Assistant Librarian.

The library & research facility is valued by government lawyers. Legal staff are asked to comment on drafts of primary & secondary Northern Ireland legislation as well as advising on the implementation of EU legislation.

In Northern Ireland trying to work out the status of a piece of legislation can require considerable detective work as the historical period during which the legislation was passed will determine the title of the legislation and its subsequent standing. (Heather Semple gave an excellent presentation on Researching the law of Northern Ireland at the 39^th Annual BIALL Conference, held in Dublin in June 2008.)Footnote ¹

Typical legislation enquiries in DSO might be: Does this Westminster Act apply to Northern Ireland?; Is there a Northern Ireland/Westminster equivalent to this piece of legislation?; Has this section been amended?; Is this section or article still in force?; Has any case law been heard under this provision?; Can you find any journal articles on this legislation?; This legislation is different to the English legislation. Why?

On the last point, a recent enquiry originating from a leading academic in the area of unfitness to plead was passed to us. The question posed was whether the insanity defence in Northern Ireland, as defined by paragraph 1 of the Criminal Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 1966, is wider than that for England and Wales? If this is so, what is the background to this plea being different to that for England and Wales and is there any relevant case law?

Northern Ireland legislation is not well served by electronic resources. This type of query involves using all of the resources at our disposal to check for journal articles and case law. In fact, by checking the hard copy in the library, Volume 17 of the Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly for 1966 provided a very good commentary on the legislation but this 1966 volume predated the electronic journal indexes. Fuller background information on legislation can often be found in the Northern Ireland Hansard debates which are held by the Northern Ireland Assembly Library and are available in the Stormont Papers.

On occasion, the Public Record Office for Northern Ireland (PRONI) has delivered files to us from the archive of Office of Legislative Counsel (OLC) material relating to the drafting of Northern Ireland primary legislation for background information.

In any government legal office the staff will have to consult the statute books constantly. In Northern Ireland we seem to delve into more statute books than most!

We also receive requests for judgments and subject requests looking for cases or articles on particular areas of law. DSO has an agreement to provide the court authorities for Counsel where DSO solicitors are involved in litigation.

Sensitive government issues and cases are handled by DSO lawyers. From our perspective in the library it is interesting to spot the headline stories in the newspapers and to realise that our legal research has contributed to the legal advice behind the story.

Within the DSO Library we offer many services including, book loans, journal articles, provision of court authorities, checking the status of legislation, research, training DSO legal staff in the use of electronic resources, collection management. A wide range of electronic resources are available to staff through LION and Westlaw.

Government Library Service

Working within the Northern Ireland Civil Service we are members of the Government Library Service (GLS) chaired by Kirby Porter, Principal Librarian in the NICS who is Head of Profession. This GLS predates the GLSNI and is vital for professional staff working in a small specialised library. Meetings of the GLS are held monthly when we meet colleagues from the other NICS libraries. As a member of the GLS Training Team, Lucy organises training events which aid our continuing professional development within GLS.

One of the training events which is offered within GLS is a Legislation Course. George Woodman from the Northern Ireland Assembly Library developed this course for librarians and researchers within the Assembly but it has proved to have a wider appeal to library staff throughout GLS. The next course is planned for the autumn of 2011 in Departmental Solicitor's Office Library. George plans to retire in 2012 when I will inherit the mantle of running the Legislation course.

I am Chair of the GLS Marketing Team which endeavours to market the library & information services available within the NICS. As a group we have been able to organise Open Days within the greater Belfast area offering civil servants the opportunity to find out about the e-Library resources from librarians and suppliers. Following the success of these Open Days we plan to hold an Open Day at the CAFRE agricultural College at Loughry in spring 2012.

The Marketing Team has identified occupational groups across the NICS to whom we offer presentations highlighting the NICS e-Library and other relevant library resources.

In common with other libraries, there is concern about the reduction in the numbers of people visiting government libraries. Most of our enquiries come by e-mail or telephone calls which can lead to the perception of libraries not being busy.

I am also a member of other teams such as the Procurement Team. Within this group we aim to identify shared electronic resources which would be of benefit across the NICS. (It should be noted that GLS shared electronic resources do not include legal resources as the licensing costs of providing access to the whole of the NICS are prohibitive). Amongst many activities of GLS, in March, we held a Joint North-South Meeting with government librarians from the Republic of Ireland.

(Top row l–r) Lucy Frey, DFP, Alison Lorrimer, DFP, Barry Lowry, Speaker, Heather Corbett, DHSS&PS, George Woodman, NI Assembly, Judith Finlay, DFP, Janice Ewing, DARD. (Bottom row l–r) Ruth Armstrong, CAFRE, Gerardine Berryman, NI Assembly, Anne Peoples, Speaker, Gillian Potter, DRD, Stephanie McCloskey, CAFRE, Noel Menary, former DARD Librarian, now retired, Mary Doyle, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Patricia Webb, DARD.

The identity of the GLS has been strengthened by the development of a shared catalogue in 2006 using the SIRSI Library Management System.

The NICS e-Library catalogue may be viewed on the OPAC at http://library.nics.gov.uk

Apart from checking the catalogue holdings; the OPAC also allows shared access to online resources to civil servants through IP address recognition.

Complications can arise when participating in a shared catalogue such as the OPAC, which allows everyone to see our stock and to place reservations for books held in DSO. A delicate balance has to be struck between sharing resources and safeguarding essential textbooks for use by DSO legal staff, and that is never straightforward.

The effects of the economic crisis have been felt within GLS. One of our departmental libraries, the Department for Enterprise, Trade & Industry (DETI), closed during 2010. The reallocation of the stock; the catalogue changes and the dispersal of the fixtures and fittings of the DETI Library was dealt with by the librarians within GLS.

DOJ

Until 2010 the right to administer policing and justice matters in Northern Ireland was reserved by the Westminster Parliament. The Department of Justice Act (Northern Ireland) 2010 transferred this authority to the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Prior to 2010 criminal justice matters were dealt with by the Criminal Justice Branch of the Northern Ireland Office. This change occurred a few months before the retirement of Helen Wilson, the Librarian at NIO. The newly formed DOJ decided not to recruit a replacement but to buy in library services from a comparable library. We were approached and agreed to provide a service which includes answering enquiries; and offering professional advice. A Service Level Agreement was signed in July 2010. It has proved to be an interesting experiment. In practical terms the SLA offers DOJ staff a service somewhere between a dedicated in house library and an outsourced service. We catalogue material for DOJ who used a different LMS until 2010. The enquiry work is different from our standard legal enquiry work as some of the requests come from policy makers in areas such as youth justice rather than lawyers. The SLA is due to be reviewed in July 2011.

The Office of the Attorney-General for Northern Ireland

The Office of the Attorney-General is in the process of appointing a part-time Librarian.

On the devolution of justice, the arrangement whereby the Attorney General for England and Wales was also Attorney General for Northern Ireland came to an end. The Justice (Northern Ireland) Act 2002 provides for the appointment of an independent, non-political Attorney General for Northern Ireland. The Attorney General has a range of statutory and non-statutory responsibilities including acting as chief legal adviser to the Executive.

The Attorney has responsibility for referring any Assembly legislation, where there is doubt about its vires, to the UK Supreme Court, and is a notice party in devolution litigation. Statute provides that the Attorney General for Northern Ireland may participate in the proceedings of the Assembly to the extent permitted by its standing orders but may not vote in the Assembly.