CRIMINAL JUSTICE ADMINISTRATION (POSTPONEMENT) BILL. (Hansard, 30 November 1914)

§ Mr. RAWLINSON
I would like a full explanation as to how this Bill should be proposed. Last Session we passed the Criminal Justice Administration Act, and this Bill is now introduced to postpone its coming into operation from 1st December until 1st April. It appears to me that the principal provisions of the Act could be brought into operation on 1st December, and that certain Sections could be postponed. I do hope that the Home Secretary will not postpone the whole of this very much needed measure, so far as minor matters are concerned.

§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. McKenna)
That is precisely the point with which this amending Bill deals. We ask power to postpone the Act of last year four months, the general reason being that the offices of the clerks to the justices have been to a large extent depleted in consequence of the War. A large number of the staff have gone away, and in consequence of that they have been unable to make or to consider the rules which for the first time will have to be brought into operation under the Act. It is also equally true that in the Home Office, owing to the pressure of other work, we have been unable to get out in time the necessary rules and orders which the Act contemplates. The hon. and learned Gentleman opposite says that these considerations do not apply to the whole of the Bill, and accordingly we take power to introduce certain parts of the Act immediately after 1st December by Order in Council. The Clauses which I propose to include in the Order in Council would be Clause 1, which deals with the allowing of time for payment of fines; Section 18, dealing with consecutive sentences of imprisonment; Sections 21 and 22, which facilitate the release of prisoners; Section 23, which secures that a person committed for trial on a charge of misdemeanour shall be informed of his right to apply to a judge of the High Court for bail; Sections 30, 31 and 32, which deal with periodical payment and the recovery of arrears in bastardy and rights of infants' cases; Section 33, which affects a pressing amendment of the law with regard to the duties of ratepayers; and Section 35, which merely removes doubts in certain criminal cases.

§ Mr. HUME-WILLIAMS
Section 25 is very much needed in reference to the manner of payment of fines.

§ Mr. McKENNA
As to that Clause, my advisers came to the conclusion that we could not bring it into operation now without other work having to be done. However, I will consider both Sections 25 and 37, with a view, if possible, of bringing them into operation at once. It is for that reason, because we thought we might be able to bring more Clauses into operation by Order in Council than we could definitely name now, that we have adopted 734 this form of suspending the Bill giving to the Department power by Order in Council to bring Clauses into operation as and when we could. The original form of the draft was to bring certain Clauses into, operation immediately, and suspend the rest. But we thought that the present form would leave it open to us to reconsider such Clauses as Sections 25 and 37, in order to bring them into operation at the earliest possible moment. Speaking for myself, I am most anxious to see the Act brought into operation at the earliest moment, and it is with very great reluctance that I felt myself obliged to propose this Bill at all.

§ Mr. RAWLINSON
I do hope that between now and Monday the right hon. Gentleman will take into consideration the inconvenience of legislation in such a form that we do not know when it comes into operation. How is a poor country solicitor whose office is depleted by the absence of clerks to find out when a particular Order in Council is made, suppose you make two or three Orders in Council between now and March? It is very important to get before the country—and the only way is by an Act of Parliament—the Sections which you mean to bring into force. Really, in the vast majority of these cases, no rules are required at all, or even if they are enforced without rules nothing particular would happen, because people would get on until the rules were passed. I press the Government to go through this Bill very carefully, to put into the Bill only items as to which it is perfectly certain that rules are required, and to do all they can to avoid Orders in Council.

§ Mr. McKENNA
I will certainly consider what can be done between now and Monday.

§ Mr. RADFORD
I would like to join with the hon. and learned Member for the University of Cambridge in asking the Home Secretary to consider some methods of bringing parts of this Bill into operation as soon as possible. I think that the method suggested by the hon. and learned Member is much the more convenient. I hope that alt consideration will be given to the administrative difficulties caused by the proposal now made. It is a great disappointment to me, as I believe it is to all 735 persons interested in criminal reform, that Clause 1 of the Bill, which deals with finance, is proposed to be deferred in its operation.

§ Mr. McKENNA
It is included.

§ Mr. RADFORD
I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will take into consideration the point which has been referred to.

§ Mr. McKENNA
As I understand the point of the hon. and learned Gentlemen opposite and of my hon. Friend, they would rather see the Bill in a form which declare that certain Clauses are to come into operation, and than that the others should be suspended. They would rather have definite knowledge at once what the Clauses are than leave them over to be put into operation piecemeal.

§ Mr. RAWLINSON
Certainly.

§ Mr. McKENNA
I think that is a very reasonable point, and I shall consider it.

§ Sir JOHN JARDINE
I am glad that my right hon. Friend has come to that decision, simply on account of the fact that it relieves the clerks and magistrates in Petty Sessions of a great deal of difficulty that they would have been under if the other course had not been adopted.