§ MR. CLELAND (Glasgow, Bridgeton)To ask the Lord Advocate whether his attention has been directed to the interpretation placed upon the Probation of Offenders Act in parts of Scotland to the effect that offenders on probation can only be dealt with and sentenced by the individual magistrate who placed the accused on probation, and in addition that the probation officer's report cannot be placed before the Court; and, if so, what steps he proposes to take to prevent the provisions of the said Act becoming nugatory.
(Answered by Mr. Thomas Shaw.) My attention has not been called to this. I hardly think the points mentioned should cause any difficulty. On the first, all that seems to me to be necessary is that an offender on probation who has failed to observe the conditions of the probation order should be dealt with by the Court which pronounced the order, not by the individual magistrate or magistrates who did so. On the second, the probation officer's report I think can, and indeed ought, to be placed before the Court, and, if it is either sworn to or put on affidavit, it appears to me that it would form ''information on oath," which is what the statute requires. A Court of Law may have, of course, to determine these questions; and I gather from my hon. friend that a present and practical difficulty has been felt in administration, and it is only for this reason that I have ventured to state my views.