CLUBS (SCOTLAND) BILL. (Hansard, 18 March 1936)

§ Mr. BARR

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to declare and amend the law relating to the registration and conduct of clubs in Scotland. The law of registration and conduct relating to clubs in Scotland is contained in the Licensing (Scotland) Act of 1903, and in the Temperance (Scotland) Act of 1913. The sheriff is the registration authority, and all applications to the sheriff must in the case of county areas be signed by two members of the licensing court or two members of the court of appeal, or one member from each of these courts, and in the case of burghs by two magistrates or two representatives of the appeal court, or one of each of these courts. The certificate signed by these two possessing that authority must be that the club is a bona fide club and that it is not to exist mainly for the supply of excisable liquors. The sheriff grants or refuses the application and the grant runs for a period of 12 months, after which it must be renewed or lapse. The sheriff has a discretion that is limited. The only grounds on which he can receive objections or refuse either registration or renewal of registration are such as, for example, that the number in the club is under 25, that the premises are not convenient or suitable, that it exists mainly as a drinking club, and that it contravenes certain rules that are laid down for the conduct of clubs.

445 Notwithstanding these safeguards a good many excesses have appeared, and it is to remove these that this Bill is to be presented, if the House will so agree. The main points in this new Bill that I propose to present are, first, that the licensing court should be the registration authority, and that is with a view to co-ordinating the authorities for the supply or sale of excisable liquor, whether by a public house or by a club. Subject to certain qualifications embodied in the provisions of the Bill, the discretion of the court to order a renewal or refusal will be a full discretion. A very important Clause is this, that a club must be in bona fide operation without registration for one year before it can be registered. That is to prevent the uprising of the drinking club or the bogus club. In the next place, if a public house has been dispossessed of its licence, if it is on premises where a licence has been forfeited, where it has not been renewed, or where it has lapsed, a club cannot go in to take up these premises and run its operations for a period of five years.

All clubs have to be subject to the permitted hours applicable to licensed premises in the area, except of course in relation to those resident in the club. One of the most vital provisions is that no club is to be registered in a no-licence area and no new club can be registered in a limitation area. The sense of fairness and the strength of public opinion have enabled us in Scotland in the larger number of no-licence areas to keep clubs from coming there. In many cases they have been unable to get the two signatures that are necessary for the registration of a club. I will give the House an illustration, showing the strength of opinion. In Kilsyth, which is a mining area, and has had no-licence since 1920, they could never get two magistrates or two of the Appeal Court to sign the application for a club. There came to be a vacancy in the Appeal Court and a man who was favourable to signing for a club was put up as a candidate. An anti-club nominee was put up against him. The anti-club nominee received from the Justices of the Peace 27 votes, and the candidate in favour of a club received only seven votes. That did not mean that these Justices were teetotallers, but that they thought it would be most inequitable, when they had voted for no-licence 446 by the artificial and large majority necessary, that clubs should be brought in to annul the people's decision.

Sometimes a sheriff has come to our rescue. The sheriff cancelled the registration of two or three clubs in the White-inch Ward of Glasgow, which is a no-licence area. It appeared that in one of these clubs in that dry area there was spent in the 14 months it had been in existence £5,281 on excisable liquor, and only £64 on food. We were not always, however, so fortunate. For example in the town of Wick, which is a no-licence area, two clubs in particular received fresh authority and fresh registration at the hands of the sheriff-principal. One of them—the Caithness Club—was spending on excisable liquors 89 per cent. of its expenditure; and the other, with a membership of 142, was spending the large sum of £3,362 in a year. Yet these clubs were continued. In asking that there should be no clubs possible in a no-licence area we are only reverting to a Clause inserted by the Scottish Grand Committee on 11th June, 1912, to the following effect, namely: Excisable liquor may be supplied or sold in a registered club to any member thereof only on the days on which, and during the hours within which, liquor may be supplied or sold in public houses within the areas. That was defeated on the Report stage, but not without expression of opinion from all parts of the House that a great anomaly was being created. I might here quote Viscount Cecil of Chelwood—Lord Robert Cecil, Member for the Hitchin Division, as he then was—who on 9th October, 1912, said: It was a grotesque absurdity to say that any no-licence resolution should have no effect on clubs. There must be many in the House who do not approve of the policy of no-licence who will yet hold that it is inequitable and unfair, after no-licence had been carried by the inflated and artificial majorities necessary, that the area should be flooded with clubs. Should it be my privilege at a later stage to read the names of those who are backing this Bill, it will be seen that it is supported in most quarters of the House. The other day it was remitted to the Home Secretary to make research into this subject of clubs, and I am most anxious that we 447 should get this Bill for his study. He will find it a perfect compendium in regard to the subject of clubs. The Secretary of State for Scotland has done me the great kindness of writing to me to-day expressing his regret that he will not be present. I know that he is just bursting to know what is in this Bill, and he, too, has to make research. I cannot conceive that this honourable House will stand between me and the valuable and helpful gift which I desire to hand over to the Secretary of State for Scotland and to the Parliamentary Secretary.

Question put, and agreed to.

Ordered to be brought in by Mr. Barr, Mr. James Brown, Mr. Johnston, Mr. Kirkwood, Mr. Mathers, Sir Samuel Chapman, Sir Edmund Findlay. Mr. McKie, Mr. Foot, Mr. Maclay, and Sir Archibald Sinclair.