§ MR. ATHERLEY-JONES (Durham, N.W.)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether, prior to his accession to Office, the practice had obtained at Courts of Quarter Sessions and other Criminal Courts of supplying the presiding Justices, Recorders, and other Judges with a list of those prisoners who had suffered previous conviction on a document separate and distinct from the calendar which contained the names and other particulars of all prisoners; whether, recently, an order has been issued and acted upon by which, on the calendar so supplied, the list of previous convictions appears, and thus the presiding Judge becomes acquainted 109 with the antecedents of prisoners prior to their trials; with what object has that change been made; and, whether he will cause directions to be given whereby the old practice may be reverted to?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.)I am informed that the old practice was to print the previous convictions on that copy of the calendar which was delivered to the Judge, except in a few cases in which the particulars of previous convictions were supplied to the Judge on a separate paper, or more frequently written in the Judge's copy of the calendar. The present practice is to write the list of previous convictions on one copy of the calendar, which is supplied to the Judge alone. The Judge has always had the previous convictions in his hand before the trial, and the change makes no difference in that respect. The Judge can now, if he wishes, use the ordinary printed calendars in which no previous convictions appear. I have not received any complaints of the new system; and it does not appear to mo to call for alteration.