HC Deb 16 June 1938 vol 337 cc503-4
The Lord Advocate

I beg to move, to leave out the Clause.

I have already explained the reasons for this Amendment.

Amendment agreed to.

Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Bill be now read the Third time."

7.54 p.m.

Mr. Westwood

This Bill does not give us perfection in connection with criminal procedure in Scotland, but undoubtedly it is a big improvement. We welcome the improvements that are contained in it, and we hope that in the very near future the Government will introduce legislation with the object of still further simplifying and making more easy and just the criminal procedure in Scotland.

7.55 p.m.

Mr. Maxton

I wish to associate myself with the remarks made by my hon. Friend the Member for Stirling and Falkirk (Mr. Westwood). This Bill ought to make a very substantial improvement in the treatment of offenders in Scotland. H it is administered fully and generously by the magistrates, it ought to lead to a very substantial reduction in the prison population of Scotland. However, I hope that the Scottish Office will not regard the passing of this Bill as excluding them from considering the whole question of prison reform when the right hon. Gentleman the Home Secretary is introducing a Measure of that description for England. There is still outstanding, in the matter of the treatment of criminals and offenders in Scotland, the question of how those who are sent to prison ought to be treated when they get there. In my view, experience and knowledge, prison conditions in Scotland are infinitely worse than they are in England. If there is a crying need, as has been intimated by the Government and the Home Secretary, for modification and amelioration of the prison system in England, there is a greater need for modification and amelioration in the Scottish system. In supporting this Measure, and recognising that it will relieve a large number of people in Scotland who have never been inside a prison, I hope that the Government will also have regard to those whom the Measure does not save from prison, and see that the treatment of those who go to prison is made more humane and more in keeping with modern ideas.