§ DR. CLARKI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury (1) whether the sheriff substitutes of Scotland are compelled to pay out of their small salaries, some of them only receiving £500 a year, the travelling expenses incurred in holding Courts at considerable distance from their residences for civil and criminal work and also for Registration Courts and Board of Trade inquiries, and other duties of a judicial and executive character; (2) whether any other class of judges or civil servants in the United Kingdom are in this position; (3) whether he is aware that the Commissioners on Courts of Law reported in 1870 that the minimum salary of sheriff substitutes should be £700 per annum; (4) whether at the present time there are 19 of these officials, more than a third of the whole body, whose salaries are less than the sum recommended by the Commissioners; (5) and whether the Secretary for Scotland has called his attention to the necessity of increasing the salaries of these underpaid judges?
§ MR. HANBURYIt is the fact that sheriff substitutes in Scotland are compelled to pay out of their salaries the travelling expenses which they incur in the discharge of their duties, and the salaries have been fixed with regard to that fact. I am not aware of any other class of judges who receive a similarly inclusive salary, for there are cases in the Civil Service where an officer's remuneration is fixed with the view of covering his travelling expenses. The answer to the third paragraph is in the affirmative. At the date of the last Finance Accounts there were 50 salaries of sheriff substitutes charged on the Consolidated Fund, and 18 of these were below £700 a year. I have received no representation on the subject from the Secretary for Scotland.