§ As Amended (in the Standing Committee), Considered.
§ Motion made and Question proposed, "That the Bill be now read the third time."
§ Mr. WATTI do not think this measure should be allowed to pass the Third Reading without some public comment being made upon what it fails to deal with in connection with minor legal appointments in Scotland. This is an admirable Bill so far as it goes, but it does not go far enough. I think the Lord Advocate deserves the thanks of all Members of this House for having taken the action he has done. This Bill must be a new experience to the Members of the Front Ministerial Bench because it is a measure which will save the money of the taxpayer but it does not deal with the other clerks of Sessions, nor does it deal with the deputy sheriff clerks in Scotland. The Lord Advocate was good enough in Committee to indicate what line he proposed to take with regard to the other clerks. He proposes to introduce a measure in next Session of Parliament to constitute these clerks into one consolidated depart- 1948 ment. They will be freed from the present watertight compartment system, and it will be possible for them to rise from the lowest rung to the highest. He did not, however, say how he proposes to deal with the sheriffs deputes in Scotland, and it is because he did not tell us in Committee how he intended to deal with these that I trouble the House with my observations now.
§ Mr. SPEAKERThat will be a matter for discussion next Session.
§ Mr. WATTI understood I was in order in opposing a Bill on the Third Reading, on the ground that it did not contain—
§ Mr. SPEAKERNo, that is only applicable to the Second Reading. On the Third Reading the hon. Member must confine himself strictly to what is contained in the Bill.
§ Sir F. BANBURYI support the Third Reading of this Bill, because I believe it is the only measure which has been brought into this House since the Government has been in power which abolishes an office.