§ MR. BROOKE ROBINSON (Dudley)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Home Office propose to do anything to remove the disabilities attaching to persons who have lately without their consent been sentenced by magistrates to be placed on a so-called black list, some being also committed to an inebriates' home, having regard to the fact that such sentences the High Court, in the case of the Commissioner of Police v. Donovan, has decided to have been illegal.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Akers Douglas.) There seems to be some misunderstanding as to the effect of the decision referred to. The High Court decided that in order that an inebriate may be dealt with summarily it is necessary that he should consent to the jurisdiction of the magistrate. If he did not so consent the magistrate would be obliged to commit him for trial, when an order under Section 6 of the Licensing Act, 1902, or under the Inebriates Act, 1898, could be made upon the prisoner's conviction by a jury. The consent is not necessary in regard to the actual making of any such order. There appears to be no action for me to take in the matter.