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Background and history
Very little information is currently available concerning the history of the office of Official Solicitor because the duties of this office have been dramatically revised within very recent years.
1870s
The present office of Official Solicitor to the Supreme Court of Judicature was created by an Order of the Lord Chancellor made on the 6 November 1875 with the approval of the Presidents of the newly constituted divisions of the High Court, and of the Treasury.
1921
The Official Solicitor intervened to arrange the release from prison of a female Labour councillor from Poplar, six months pregnant, who had been imprisoned along with most of the members of Poplar local council, for having refused to raise the rates, arguing that the poor inhabitants of Poplar could not afford to pay any more.
1970s
In the 1970s the office of Official Solicitor (temporal) was used to break a legal stalemate between the British Trades Union Congress and the government of Prime Minister Edward Heath. At that time, the Official Solicitor was able to draw upon ancient powers that nearly everyone had forgotten about, and by authority of the Office of Official Solicitor alone, cause the release from prison of strikers known as the Pentonville Five. This action resolved a major constitutional and political crisis at the time.
In July 1972, five docker shop stewards were sent to HM Prison Pentonville by the National Industrial Relations Court (NIRC) on a charge of contempt during the Conservative Party Government of Prime Minister Edward Heath. Following their arrest, a rolling series of strikes began to cause work stoppages until there was virtually an unofficial national strike. The action of the trades unions brought the nation to a standstill, and forced the government of the day into a corner. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) then called for an official national strike, demanding the release of the five shop stewards. As a result of this appeal thousands of striking workers marched through North London to Pentonville Prison.
The crisis came to a head and total disaster was averted when the then Official Solicitor Norman Turner1 (advised by John Vinelott, later a High Court judge) went in person to the prison and, on his orders, had the five shop stewards released.
1980s
In the 1980s the office of Official Solicitor was called upon by the Secretary of State for the Department of Trade and Industry after receiving the last in a chain of delegated overtures which had originated in the United States of America. This time the issue was pirate radio broadcasting.
On board a ship called Ross Revenge anchored in the North Sea were three radio stations. One of them was quite famous and known as Radio Caroline. Another station broadcast in the Dutch language to the Netherlands and both were on different AM frequencies. A third station was also in English but it broadcast on shortwave as World Mission Radio (WMR}. Its programs consisted of sponsored religion and it claimed on air that it was a USA station with its offices based in California. Its literature claimed the same thing.
A US citizen had claimed in a federal US court that the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), had caused his own offshore station called Radio Newyork International to be illegally raided while it was broadcasting from a ship anchored in international waters off Long Island, New York. For proof the defence team had raised the issue of the Radio Caroline ship and questioned whether the United States could regulate its signals which could be heard in the USA.
An Investigator assigned to the Official Solicitor and employed by the DTI, led the British part of a joint raid with Dutch officials to cause the cessation of all transmissions from the MV Ross Revenge. Once this had been accomplished that same official then responded with sworn testimony concerning Radio Newyork International which claimed to be owned by a British company and registered in an independent sovereign state called Sealand.
The Investigator (James Murphy), then informed the US court that Sealand was a former British World War II sea fort that was within British territorial waters which was not a state, but a place occupied by squatters who had no legal power to register ships. The US courts accepted this information and used it against the defendant.
1990s
The extra-ordinary powers that had been held by the Official Solicitor have been stripped away. In the 1990s the powers of the Official Solicitor (temporal) were further limited and the duties of the Official Solicitor redirected to become mainly a legal defender of the rights of children.citation needed The Official Solicitor acts at the administrator or trustee of last resort, and may be appointed by the court when no other person is either suitable or willing to act. In that capacity, the Official Solicitor has the same powers and is subject to the same obligations that apply to any other fiduciary.
See also
References
- ^ Daily Telegraph 24 December 2007, Obituary: Norman Turner
External sources
