HL Deb 06 March 1980 vol 406 cc535-6WA
Viscount COLVILLE of CULROSS

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether the Supreme Court Rule Committee has considered whether the Royal Command should be reinstated in the revised Writ of Summons.

The LORD CHANCELLOR (Lord Hailsham of Saint Marylebone)

The Committee met on 3rd March and considered this matter at length. They arrived at the following conclusions;

  1. (1) That prominence should be given, on the face of the High Court Writ of Summons, to the Royal Authority under which the Court exercised jurisdiction.
  2. (2) That the inclusion, in the revised form of writ, of a Royal Command (to return a completed form acknowledging service of the writ) would be inappropriate, the command "being one that the person addressed would be under no obligation to obey.
  3. (3) That Her Majesty's Authority as the Fountain of Justice should be signified not by a Royal Command but by the Royal Coat of Arms, that the Committee's earlier decision to this effect should be reaffirmed and that, accordingly, no amendment should be made to the form of the writ approved by the Committee and contained in the Statutory Instrument laid before Parliament on 20th December last.
  4. (4) That consideration should be given to revising other forms of originating process in which the Royal Authority was not at present apparent.
  5. (5) That the Lord Chancellor's Department should consider with the Law Society and the Senate any possible improvements in the consultation processes with the profession when changes in procedure were under consideration.

Arrangements are being made for proofs of the relevant parts of the new form of High Court Writ of Summons to be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

House adjourned at twelve minutes before ten o'clock.