HC Deb 23 April 1891 vol 352 c1170
MR. H. H. FOWLER (Wolverhampton, E.)

I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether, having regard to the waste of judicial time involved in the present arrangements for the administration of justice in London and at the Assizes, to the accumulation of arrears arising from the long periods during which the Courts are not sitting, and to the dissatisfaction which exists with respect to the increased cost and delay caused by the working of the Judicature Acts, the Government will institute an Inquiry, either by a Royal Commission or by a Select Committee, either of this or the other House, to inquire into and report on the whole question?

MR. W. H. SMITH

The Government do not propose to institute an inquiry into the working of the Judicature Acts. The principal Judicature Act, following on a Royal Commission, is of so recent an origin, while the Acts and regulations for the relief of business at the Assizes and for clearing the lists in London have scarcely yet been a year in full operation, that there does not appear to the Government to be any case for an inquiry of the kind suggested?