§ MR. WATT (Glasgow, College)To ask the Lord-Advocate if his attention has been called to the fact that sheriffs and sheriffs' substitute in Scotland frequently act as ordinary directors of insurance companies, for which they receive remuneration, and that these companies are often engaged in litigation in the Law Courts, in many cases as defenders against workmen's compensation claims; and if, in future appointments to Sheriffships, he will make it a condition that active work in connection with trade shall not be entered on.
(Answered by Mr. Thomas Shaw.) My attention has not been called to this, and there is no information to support the suggestion that sheriffs and sheriffs' substitute frequently act as described. The disqualifications and disabilities of sheriffs and sheriffs' substitute are set forth in Section 21 of the Sheriff Courts (Scotland) Act, 1907, and to this I cannot 1185 doubt that they conform. As to the sheriffs' substitute, they are prohibited from inter alia engaging in "legal banking, or other private practice or business," and this would seem to include the directorships referred to. If any cases were found to exist in which directorships are hold by sheriffs which have produced, or are likely to produce, indirect relations with litigants or a conflict with judicial duty it would be for consideration whether the section mentioned should not be amended. As to future appointments there is, of course, no power to impose conditions not warranted by the law as it stands.