Clause 17. —(PROVISION OF COURSES OF INSTRUCTION.) (Hansard, 7 December 1949)

§ Mr. Basil Nield (City of Chester)
I am certain that in all parts of the Committee this Clause will be welcomed as one providing machinery whereby courses of instruction may be available to justices of the peace. As I said in the Second Reading Debate, I hope that that will not mean that justices will endeavour to be amateur lawyers rather than good judges of fact. On the other hand, there are a number of technical matters with which magistrates are required to deal, and it is with reference to one of those matters that I desire to say a few words.
In the last few months, with the assistance of the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, and indeed the right hon. Gentleman himself, I have been struggling with the preparation and launching of a Bill to deal with the adoption of children. That is an important technical problem involving the interests of three parties—the child, the parent and the adopter—and it is a problem which may have to be dealt with by justices. Yesterday I addressed a meeting which included representatives of a number of bodies and societies dealing with this very human problem. They were rather concerned that there was no real uniformity in the way in which this very important problem was dealt with up and down the country My sole object in rising tonight is to say that I hope this particular matter may perhaps be one of the many questions upon which some decision may be forthcoming.

§ Mr. Bing
I should like to say just a few words on this subject. I hope that when the Home Secretary is considering the types of courses of instruction, he will bear in mind his own suggestion and see that it is quite possible for magistrates, as part of their courses, to attend the assizes and quarter 1963 sessions, where there are professional chairmen. Secondly, those people who are going to sentence others to prison should at least visit the prisons occasionally to see what takes place there. Thirdly, the most important thing in this connection is for them to know how other people live, how other classes live. Therefore, when the right hon. Gentleman is considering the types of courses of instruction, I hope he will remember sociology and the wider aspects of the matter and not deal only with purely legal matters.

§ Mr. Ede
One must bear in mind that as a rule magistrates are fairly busy people who, before their appointment to the bench, have acquired some knowledge of the ways of the world and some acquaintance with the way in which members of the community live. I do not want it to be thought that these courses are to be so elaborate and so technical that they will impose upon busy people an almost insufferable burden. It is also desirable that no effort shall be made to turn lay magistrates into people who can afford to disregard the legal advice of a qualified clerk. It may be that through the courses of instruction some magistrates would gain sufficient courage to deal with clerks who attempt to go beyond their proper province. I would say that is not an unnecessary part of the training for magistrates in some courts. I hope that these courses will enable a magistrate to understand what are his duties while he is sitting in court and when people come to him with documents and other things for him to sign, so that he will be fully competent to discharge the duties of his office.
The courses will be arranged by the Magistrates' Association, and it is not to be thought that the Government will lay down some kind of governmental view of what magistrates ought to be, what they ought to do and what they ought to know. I am quite sure that it would be fatal to the confidence of the country in the courts if it were thought that we are now going to embark on telling magistrates how the Government would like them to conduct their courts and to construe the law. I think this is a very desirable addition to the law and I believe that under the guidance of the Magistrates' Association a good deal of useful infor- 1964 mation will be conveyed to magistrates and that they will be better fitted to discharge their office.