HC Deb 15 March 1956 vol 550 cc674-5

9.33 p.m.

The Joint Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. W. F. Deedes)

I beg to move, in page 17, line 8 at the end to insert: (4) For the purposes of section eight of the Summary Jurisdiction (Appeals) Act, 1933, in its application to appeals from a juvenile court, the panel constituted under subsection (2) of that section shall include, in addition to the the members provided for by that subsection, a special section consisting of—

  1. (a) fifteen justices to be nominated annually from amongst themselves by the members of the panel constituted for juvenile courts in the metropolitan stipendiary court area under paragraph 2 of the Second Schedule to the Children and Young Persons Act, 1933; and
  2. (b) one justice to be nominated annually from amongst themselves by the members of any panel constituted under paragraph 1 of that Schedule for juvenile courts in a petty sessional division of the county of London not wholly comprised in that area;
and arrangements shall be made to secure that, so far as practicable, when an appeal from a juvenile court is to be heard by the court of quarter sessions for the county of London, members of the special section will be available to sit with the chairman of the court, and will be not less than half the justices so sitting: Provided that this subsection shall not have effect in relation to any appeal entered by the clerk of the peace before such day as the Secretary of State may appoint by order made by statutory instrument This Amendment was put down to meet a point raised by the hon. Member for Widnes (Mr. MacColl) in Committee, where I undertook to meet his point with our draft. This is our draft. The hon. Gentleman was concerned that there was no provision to secure that justices with juvenile court experience were included in an appeal court hearing appeals from the London juvenile courts. I think this meets the intention which the hon. Gentleman had in mind.

Amendment agreed to.