HC Deb 15 July 1948 vol 453 cc1616-8

Lords Amendment: In page 38, line 1, leave out Subsection (1) and insert:

  1. "(1) Where an appellant within the meaning of the Criminal Appeal Act, 1907, is admitted to bail under that Act, the time during which he is at large after being so admitted shall be disregarded in computing the terms of any sentence to which he is for the time being subject.
  2. (2) Subject as hereinafter provided, six weeks of the time during which any such appellant, when in custody, is specially treated as such in pursuance of rules made under Section forty-eight of this Act, or the whole of that time if it is less than six weeks, shall be disregarded in computing the term of any such sentence as aforesaid:
Provided that—
  1. (a) the foregoing provisions of this Subsection shall not apply where leave to appeal is granted under the Criminal Appeal Act, 1907, or any such certificate as is mentioned in paragraph (b) of Section three of that Act has been given for the purposes of the appeal; and
  2. (b) in any other case, the Court of Criminal Appeal may direct that no part of the said time, or such part thereof as the court thinks fit (whether shorter or longer than six weeks) shall be disregarded as aforesaid.
 (3) Subject to the foregoing provisions of this Section, the term of any sentence passed by the Court of Criminal Appeal under the Criminal Appeal Act, 1907, in substitution for a sentence passed on the appellant in the proceedings from which the appeal is brought shall, unless the court otherwise directs, begin to run from the time when it would have begun to run if passed in those proceedings, and references in this Section to any sentence to which an appellant is for the time being subject shall be construed accordingly. (4) In relation to a person sentenced to Borstal training, any reference in this Section to the term of that sentence shall be construed as a reference to the periods during which, under the Second Schedule to this Act, he may be detained in a Borstal institution; and nothing in this Section shall be construed as affecting any period during which a person so sentenced is liable to supervision under the said Second Schedule. (5) The Court of Criminal Appeal may, when they dismiss an appeal or application for leave to appeal order the appellant or applicant as the case may be to pay the whole or any part of the costs of the appeal or application, including the cost of any transcript of the shorthand notes of the proceedings at the trial made in accordance with a direction given by the registrar under Section sixteen of the Criminal Appeal Act, 1907; and any order under this Subsection may be enforced by the person to whom the costs are ordered to be paid in the same manner as an order for the payment of costs made by the High Court in civil proceedings.

Mr. Ede

I beg to move, "That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment."

I think that the Amendments in line 11 and line 15 might conveniently be taken with this one. During the Committee stage in this House an Amendment was moved by the hon. Member for West Leicester (Mr. Janner) to limit to six weeks the time which the appellant to the Court of Criminal Appeal might lose by appealing, and the Attorney-General undertook on behalf of the Government to consider the matter. The effect of the Clause is to provide this limit of time subject to the discretion of the court to direct in a particular case either that a longer or shorter period may be lost. The effect of Proviso (a) is that where leave to appeal is granted, or the appellant appeals on the certificate of the trial judge, he will not lose any time. In Subsection (5) there is provision enabling the Court of Criminal Appeal to order an unsuccessful appellant to pay costs, including the cost of transcript. This was necessary because transcripts run to hundreds of pages, and had to be made to enable the court to deal with frivolous appeals against convictions by certain persons. The Amendments to line 11 and line 15 are merely drafting.

Sir D. Maxwell-Fyfe (West Derby)

I beg to move, "That further consideration of the Lords Amendments be now adjourned."

I do this so that the right hon. Gentleman might let us know what his intentions are. I do not think he can complain of anyone wasting time tonight. The House obviously wanted to discuss the first question, and since then we have all kept to the points. It is getting rather late, but I think everyone would welcome an expression from the right hon. Gentleman of what he intends to do. I do not think it would take very long on another occasion and it is rather late to consider this rather complicated matter tonight.

Mr. Ede

I had hoped that in the last discussion we had really disposed of all controversial matters that remained, and I understood that that was the general view. That being the case, I would have hoped that the House would agree that we should continue and deal with the remainder of these Amendments. I hope the House will do that because in the matter of these amendments we have not merely to consider our own convenience, but the convenience of another place, and if we adjourned this matter until next week, we should be seriously inconveniencing another place in the consideration they will have to give to the Amendments that we have made. I do not think we should be putting an undue strain on the House by continuing now. If it appears at a later stage that we get involved in some fresh controversy, I would then consider the appropriate course to take.

Sir D. Maxwell-Fyfe

I appreciate the point about the difficulty in another place at this stage of the Session, and I am quite prepared to withdraw my Motion on the understanding that the right hon. Gentleman has mentioned—in case we strike some difficulty later on. I therefore beg to ask leave to withdraw my Motion.

Motion, by leave, withdrawn.