COMMONS AMENDMENTS (Hansard, 18 July 1967)

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR

My Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendments Nos. 4 and 5. The object of these Amendments is to ensure that the barrister and solicitor members of the rule-making authority under the Bill are members of their professional bodies. Clause 7(1) provides that rules under the Bill shall be made by the Lord Chancellor together with any four or more of the 222 following persons; namely, the President of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division, one puisne Judge attached to that Division, one registrar of the principal probate registry, two county court judges, one county court registrar, two practising barristers and two practising solicitors. The members (apart from the President) are to be appointed by the Lord Chancellor for such time as he may think fit.

In the case of the Supreme Court Rule Committee, which has hitherto made the rules for matrimonial causes, Section 99 (4) of the Supreme Court of Judicature (Consolidation) Act 1925, requires the two barrister members to be members of the Bar Council, one of the solicitor members to be a member of the Council of the Law Society and the other solicitor member to be a member of the Law Society and also of a provincial law society. The Bar Council and the Law Society have urged that, in order to secure proper representation of the two branches of the legal profession on the rule-making body under the Bill, the barrister and solicitor members should have to be similarly qualified. The Amendments give effect to this suggestion. I beg to move.