(1)
A court may, in any proceedings, declare that a provision of any legislation is incompatible with 1 or more of the principles specified in section 7(1)(a) to (h) (unless the incompatibility is justified under section 7(2)).
(2)
However, a court may not make a declaration unless, before the declaration is made,—
the public entity responsible for administering the legislation concerned (if any) has been given the opportunity to provide to both the person seeking the declaration and the court a statement as to whether the legislation is incompatible with the principles; and
the Solicitor-General has been given notice of, and the opportunity to be joined as a party to, the proceedings.
(3)
In this section and section 13,—
court means the High Court, the Court of Appeal, or the Supreme Court
proceedings means—
proceedings that relate only to an application for a declaration under subsection (1) or the Declaratory Judgments Act 1908; or
judicial review proceedings.
(4)
Subsection (1) applies to legislation made before the date on which this Act comes into force only after the tenth anniversary of that date.
Compare: Human Rights Act 1998 ss 4, 5 (UK)