The Emergency Powers Act 1964 is an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

and was passed to amend the

Emergency Powers Act 1920 The Emergency Powers Act 1920 (10 & 11 Geo. 5 c. 55) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that gave the Sovereign power, in certain circumstances, to declare a state of emergency by proclamation. The Act also authorised emergenc ...

and make permanent the Defence (Armed Forces) Regulations 1939. Section 1 of this Act did not apply to

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. Section 1(1) of the

which stated: "''If at any time it appears to His Majesty that any action has been taken or is immediately threatened by any persons or body of persons of such a nature and on so extensive a scale as to be calculated, by interfering with the supply and distribution of food, water, fuel, or light, or with the means of locomotion, to deprive the community, or any substantial portion of the community, of the essentials of life, His Majesty may, by proclamation (hereinafter referred to as a proclamation of emergency), declare that a state of emergency exists''." was amended: "''...for the words from 'any action' to 'so extensive a scale' there shall be substituted the words 'there have occurred, or are about to occur, events of such a nature." Section 1 was repealed by the

Civil Contingencies Act 2004 The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (c. 36) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that makes provision about civil contingencies. It also replaces former Civil Defence and Emergency Powers legislation of the 20th century. Background to ...

. Section 2 of this Act amended the Defence (Armed Forces) Regulations 1939 which allowed soldiers 'temporary employment in agricultural work or in other work, being urgent work of national importance' by making this permanent. In 2004, the

Joint Committee of the House of Commons and House of Lords A joint committee of the Parliament of the United Kingdom is a Joint committee (legislative), joint committee of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, formed to examine a particular issue, whose members are drawn from both the House of Commons and ...

named this Act a 'fundamental part of the constitutional law' of the UK.First Report of the Joint Committee on Draft Civil Contingencies Bill 28 November 2003 HL 184 HC 1074 para 183
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References

{{UK legislation 1964 in British law Emergency laws in the United Kingdom United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1964 Constitutional laws of the United Kingdom