Clause 182.—(OFFICERS ON ACTIVE LIST NOT TO BE SHERIFFS.) (Hansard, 17 February 1955)

§ Mr. Hector Hughes
This Clause will be read with a great deal of astonishment in Scotland. It seems to bar the professional progress of a very worthy class. One notes that: An officer of the regular forces… shall not be capable of being nominated or elected to be sheriff of any county, borough, or other place. In Scotland a sheriff is a judge, and it seems to me a great hardship that members of the legal profession who happen also to be officers should be barred from being nominated to be sheriffs … of any county, borough, or other place. Of course, the Clause may not mean what it says. Thinking that it meant something else I have put down an Amendment to Clause 214—which is the "Application to Scotland" Clause—and which I cannot discuss now, asking that this Clause do not apply to Scotland. If it means what it appears to mean, that Army officers are not to be allowed to become judicial personages in Scotland, I am sure that even my hon. Friend the Member for Dudley (Mr. Wigg), who spoke so highly at an earlier stage of the great judicial qualities of officers and gentlemen, would not approve of this. The Committee should have some explanation of this very astonishing Clause.

§ Mr. Willis
Arising from what has been said by my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Aberdeen, North (Mr. Hector Hughes), earlier we discussed an Amendment dealing with the composition of courts-martial, when we were told that only officers could serve on a court-martial because they apparently had all the legal wisdom, experience and ability to undertake that task.

§ The Deputy-Chairman (Sir Rhys Hopkin Morris)
The hon. Member must not revert to a previous Amendment.

§ Mr. Willis
I accept your guidance, Sir Rhys.
Under Clause 182 we are now told that an officer is not suitable to be a sheriff in Scotland, which is essentially a judicial post.

§ Mr. Head
It applies only to England.

§ Mr. Willis
The Clause does not specify England. It says that an officer shall not become a sheriff of any county, borough, or other place.

§ Mr. Head
A sheriff in Scotland is a different thing.

§ Mr. Willis
Of course, he is a different thing. But this Clause is not restricted to England. There is nothing in the Clause which restricts its application to England.

§ The Lord Advocate
I do not want to anticipate an argument, but to shorten the proceedings may I say that this Clause cannot possibly apply to Scotland because no sheriff is nominated or elected in Scotland. A sheriff in Scotland is appointed by the Crown.