§ 17. Mr. JANNERasked the Home Secretary whether his attention has been drawn to the fact that at the Mansion House Justice Room, on 25th April, over 100 persons were summoned by post and only two appeared; and whether he will take steps to amend the Service of Process (Justices) Act, 1932, to avoid further expense being entailed in future cases?
§ Sir J. GILMOURI have made inquiry, and am informed that 62 Income Tax summonses for the day in question were served by post. Of the defendants so summoned, only 13 failed to appear or to communicate with the Court, and eight of these paid the collector before the hearing. Service by post failed, therefore, in only five cases. I understand that at this Court service of summonses by post has been a definite success, and I see no need for amending legislation.
§ 18. Mr. JANNERasked the Home Secretary the number of courts of summary jurisdiction in the Metropolitan area which have used or attempted to use the method of service of summonses by post permitted by the Service of Process (Justices) Act, 1932; and in how many cases have such attempts to serve summonses proved unsuccessful?
§ Sir J. GILMOURI understand that this method has been experimentally tried at four of the Metropolitan police courts. The experiment has proved very successful in certain classes of cases, and is accordingly to be extended to other Metropolitan courts in the near future. Statistics are not available.