§ GENERAL LAURIE (Pembroke and Haverfordwest)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will take steps, by legislation or otherwise, to secure that the police shall institute the prosecutions in all cases against motor-car drivers who may contravene the law, and to secure that a person, who may be injured or run over by a motor-car need not apply personally to a magistrate for a summons.
§ MR. AKERS-DOUGLASA summons calling on any one to answer a criminal charge is issued in pursuance of an information laid by someone who is personally cognisant of the facts alleged to constitute the offence charged. I see no season for making an exception to the general law with regard to charges against motor-car drivers; nor can I issue instructions to the police to prosecute in every case of an alleged offence brought to their notice. It is their duty to enforce the law, but the question of 94 the cases in which it is proper for them to prosecute must be left to their discretion.
§ GENERAL LAURIEHow are proceedings to be initiated against motor drivers who break the law, and who is to do it?
§ MR. AKERS-DOUGLASThe person who sees the offence committed. The police will use their best efforts when their attention is called to a case. There is no holding back on the part of the police.
§ GENERAL LAURIEIf the attention of the police is called to a case, have they authority to act, and will they do so?
§ MR. AKERS-DOUGLASCertainly they will act; but, as I have said, the question whether they will prosecute must be left to their discretion.