§ In the appointment of members of the local tribunal the local registration authority shall provide for the adequate representation of labour in the registration district, and in a district where there is a body generally representative of labour the local registration authority shall consult such body before making their appointments, and such local authority shall, wherever practicable, appoint one or more women on the local tribunal.
1061§ The appointment of members of the, local tribunal shall be subject to the approval of the President of the Local Government Board, who may at any time revoke the appointment of a member who has proved to be unfitted for the work.
§ The local and appeal tribunals shall generally be conducted in public, but the tribunal may in a special case, with the assent of the applicant, conduct the proceedings wholly or in part in private, provided that the applicant shall have the right to claim that his case may be wholly or in part heard in private.
§ An applicant is entitled to have oral or written testimony on his behalf considered by the tribunal and he may have his case conducted by counsel or by a solicitor or lay a friend.
§ The military representative is a party to the hearing of a case, but he is not entitled to be present during the time an applicant has been ordered to withdraw nor is he entitled to take any part when the tribunal is considering its decision.
§ An applicant is entitled to claim exemption on any or upon more than one of the grounds set out in Section two, Sub-section (1), of the principal Act, and the tribunals must hear and determine each and all of the grounds of his application.
§ The decision of the local tribunal shall be immediately communicated to the applicant in writing, and if sent by post it shall be sent in a registered letter, and the applicant shall be entitled to give notice of appeal within three clear days of the receipt of such decision.—[Mr. Snowden.]
§ Clause brought up, and read the first time.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Clause be read a second time."
§ Mr. SNOWDENI propose to move these three new Clauses in one. The first part deals with the question of labour representation. On the Committee on the principal Act a very definite promise was given by the right hon. Gentleman that there should be an Instruction to local authorities to appoint labour representation on the tribunal. That certainly has not been done. I know of no tribunal where labour representation can be regarded as adequate. In my own Constituency, where trade unionism is stronger than it is probably in any other town of a population of 130,000, there are 1062 30,000 trade unionists, and yet the local trades council has not been considered at all by the local registration authority, and there is no labour representation on the tribunal that is recognised by the local trade union movement. That is typical of all over the country. I want to make the provision of such representation statutory.
Mr. MONTAGUE BARLOWWhat would the hon. Member consider adequate trade union representation. Would he think two out of five sufficient, for that is not unknown?
§ Mr. SNOWDENI do not want trade union representation particularly. The President of the Local Government Board in a speech on the original Bill made that point clear. What we wanted was labour representation. There are a great many parts of the country where trade unions hardly exist and you could not have trade union representation there. I think what we all desire is that the working classes should be adequately represented. If their representation were in proportion to their numbers in the population they would be in the majority in a number of the tribunals. There have been very few cases of the appointment of women to the tribunals. That is referred to in the first Clause. The next proposal is to give power to the Local Government Board to revoke the appointment of a member of a tribunal. I have given a great many instances to the Local Government Board where the members of the tribunal acted in a most illegal manner. They have evidently been supported by the appointing authority. The power of the President of the Local Government Board is limited to sending a mild letter of remonstrance, and the local tribunal may act on it or not. The local tribunal in my place acted in a most illegal manner. It was brought to the notice of the President of the Local Government Board, who wrote a letter to them next week. The tribunal passed a resolution unanimously saying, "We shall do what we like. If you do not like this you must get somebody else."
The next point is to make it statutory that the proceedings of the local tribunal shall be public unless the applicant desires otherwise. There have been a great many cases in which the tribunal would not allow the public to be present during the hearing of the case, though the applicant was anxious to be heard in public. The next point is that an applicant is entitled 1063 to have oral or written testimony on his behalf considered by the tribunal and he may have his case conducted by counsel or by a solicitor or by a friend. There has been a very large number of cases in which the tribunal has refused to take evidence on behalf of an applicant or to allow anyone to appear on his behalf. Then the military representative ought not to be in a different position from the applicant, but in a great many cases he is placed in a privileged position, and while the public are excluded while decisions are being considered by the tribunal the military representative is allowed to remain. We do not know, of course, what happens. He evidently remains behind to influence the decision of the tribunal. It is quite conceivable that in a great many cases an applicant may change his ground of objection. He may be regarded by his employer as indispensable, and his domestic circumstances may be such as to justify an application for exemption. He is legally entitled to claim on both grounds, but it is a common practice for a tribunal to refuse to consider more than one ground, and to say, "On which ground do you elect to have your application heard? We refuse to hear you on more than one ground." All these proposals, except one, are from the Instruction, and what I desire is to give them statutory authority.
§ Sir G. CAVEI recognise that the greater part of this Amendment is covered by the Regulations or Instructions issued by the Local Government Board. The point is whether these items are not matters of procedure which are far more suitable to be dealt with by Regulations than by the provisions of an Act of Parliament. Procedure by Regulation has this advantage, that if it is found to be not appropriate it can be altered and improved from time to time.
§ Mr. SNOWDENIn some cases we find the same words appearing in the Instructions as in the Regulations. That is not invariable. I understand that the Regulations have the authority of law. That is not so in the case of the Instructions. If I can get these proposals incorporated in the Regulations I am willing to withdraw.
§ Sir G. CAVEI am afraid I cannot give that assurance. But I am quite sure my right hon. Friend will fully consider the points raised.
§ Mr. SNOWDENMay I suggest, in order to expedite the business, that I am willing that the matter should be put down for the Report stage. Between now and then the right hon. Gentleman may be able to give me some more definite assurance. In view of that I do not press the point now.
§ Motion and Clause, by leave, withdrawn.