Thu | Mar 28, 2024

SOE regulations withdrawn for retabling later

Published:Wednesday | December 7, 2022 | 12:12 AM
Attorney General Dr Derrick McKoy (right) is seen with Dr Horace Chang, the minister of national security, at a Jamaica House press conference on November 15.
Attorney General Dr Derrick McKoy (right) is seen with Dr Horace Chang, the minister of national security, at a Jamaica House press conference on November 15.

A little more than two hours after Clerk Valrie Curtis announced the tabling of the emergency powers regulations in Parliament on Tuesday, the document was withdrawn for review by Attorney General Dr Derrick McKoy.

Acting Prime Minister Dr Horace Chang told The Gleaner late Tuesday that The Jamaica Gazette Supplemental Proclamation Rules and Regulations Volume 145 Numbers 297 and 298 dated Tuesday, December 6, 2022, were pulled back after the printery sent copies of the documents to Parliament.

The attorney general “always wishes to review (the regulations) before they are tabled to ensure there are no errors, whether typo, editorial or substantive”, Chang said.

The deputy prime minister said that the regulations will be tabled in the Senate on Friday and in the House next Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced the reimposition of states of emergency (SOEs) in Clarendon, St Catherine, St James, Westmoreland, Hanover, and sections of Kingston and St Andrew. St Ann is now also under an SOE.

In June, the Government tabled the wrong regulations in Parliament for the SOE in St Catherine, which prompted Chang to order an investigation into the matter.

At the time, Chang told Parliament that “the error is regretted”.

Members of parliament had to be called back in June to the House for the tabling of the correct document.

The SOE regulations have been a source of resistance from rights groups and the parliamentary Opposition.