Special constable

Under Schedule 1 (64): the following are subject to FOI:

64 - Any person who— (a) by virtue of any enactment has the function of nominating individuals who may be appointed as special constable by justices of the peace, and (b) is not a public authority by virtue of any other provision of this Act, in respect of information relating to the exercise by any person appointed on his nomination of the functions of a special constable.

This is clearly targeted at section 79 of the Harbours, Docks and Piers Clauses Act 1874:

Any two justices may appoint such persons as shall be nominated for that purpose by the undertakers to be special constables ...

This applies to several port undertakers, including:

• First Corporate Shipping Limited (02542406), possibly through Bristol Dock Acts and Orders 1848 to 1986 (check authority), transferred from Bristol City Council by SI 1993/2974
• Dover Harbour Board, through the Dover Harbour Consolidation Act 1954.
• Someone in Falmouth, through the Falmouth Docks Act 1959 (c. xl) or Falmouth Harbour Act 1958 (c. xlvi) (check this)
• Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company, maybe through 42 & 43 Vict. c. clxxvii, 1923 c. lxxx, 1956 c. lxxxviii, 1968 c. xix, 1979 c. xvi, Felixstowe Dock and Railway Act 1988 (1988 c.xiv) (check authority)
• Portland Harbour Authority Limited (03002686), through SI 1997/2949.
• Belfast Harbour Commissioners, by virtue of the Belfast Harbour Acts and Orders 1847 to 1979 (check these: 10 & 11 Vict. c. lii; 15 & 16 Vict. c. cxxi; 17 & 18 Vict. c. xlv; 33 & 34 Vict. c. xcvii; 34 & 35 Vict. c. xli; 45 & 46 Vict. c. clxxi; 46 & 47 Vict. c. lix; 56 & 57 Vict. c. xliv; 61 & 62 Vict. c. cv; 1 Edward 7 c. cxxxiii; 8 & 9 Geo. 5 c. xviii; 9 & 10 Geo. 5 c. ix; 12 & 13 Geo. 5 c. 1; 21 & 22 Geo. 5 c. 1; 2 Geo. 6 c. iv; 14 Geo 6 c. iv; 5 Eliz. 2 c. iv; 10 Eliz. 2 c. iii; 15 & 16 Eliz. 2 c.i; S.R. 1979 No. 32)
• Larne Harbour Limited (R0000472), by virtue of Larne Harbour Orders 1871 to 1998 (check these: 1871 34 & 35 Vict. c. Iviii; 1888 51 & 52 Vict. c. cxix; 1936 26 Geo. 5 & 1 Edw. 8 c. i)

Various other persons have powers to appoint or nominate constables in a similar fashion, including:

• Mersey Docks and Harbour Company, by virtue of the Mersey Docks and Harbour (Police) Order (SI 1975/1224) (check this)
• Port of Tilbury London Limited (02659118) by virtue of the Port of London Act 1968 (1968 c.xxxii) (check this) and SI 1992/284
• PD Teesport Limited (02636007), by virtue of section 103 of the Tees and Hartlepools Port Authority Act 1966 (1966 c.xxv), transferred by SI 1991/2908:

  103.—(1) The Authority may continue and maintain the separate police force ... for police duty within the harbour, and may from time to time appoint officers and men for that purpose who shall hold office at pleasure.

  ...

  (3) Every member of the said separate police force shall, on appointment, be attested as a constable by making a declaration before a justice of the peace having jurisdiction within the harbour and such declaration shall be in the form set out in Schedule 2 to the Police Act 1964.

• An appropriately authorised airport operator (of which the only one[1] is Belfast International Airport Limited[2]) in Northern Ireland, by virtue of article 19 of the Airports (Northern Ireland) Order 1994:

  (1) An airport operator authorised in that behalf by the Secretary of State may appoint any person employed by the operator to be a constable on the airport managed by that operator.

  (2) An authorisation under this Article may be granted subject to such conditions as the Secretary of State thinks fit.

  (3) Every person appointed under paragraph (1) shall on his appointment make a declaration before a justice of the peace to execute the office of a constable on the airport for which he was appointed, and, when he has made the declaration, he shall on that airport have the powers and privileges and be liable to the duties and responsibilities of a constable.

While not in precisely the terms envisaged by FOIA, these are all basically the same. From Halsbury's Laws, it would seem that the distinction between nominating a constable for appointment by the justices and appointing a constable who must be sworn by the justices doesn't exist in practice, since the justices must appoint anyone who's nominated anyway.

There is one other case that is different, though:

• The chancellors and vice chancellors of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, by virtue of the Universities Act 1825:

  It shall be lawful for the chancellor or vice chancellor of the said universities respectively to appoint such number of able men as he shall think fit to be constables in and for the said universities respectively ... ; and to every man so appointed such chancellor or vice chancellor shall administer an oath well and faithfully to execute the office of constable, ...

Here, the local justices aren't involved at all and the oath is administered by the chancellor or vice-chancellor themselves. This would appear to take them outside the remit of the Act (though the Universities themselves are covered by other means).

DfT has a useful description of the various bodies of port police. It also lists a few former port police forces that might still be authorised:

• Manchester Dock Police
• Milford Dock Police