§ 35. Sir Donald ThompsonTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what proposals he has to keep two old courthouses in Calder Valley.
Mr. John M. Taylorrose—[HON. MEMBERS: "Get on with it."] I apologise for keeping the House waiting.
The Lord Chancellor has received an appeal from Calderdale borough council against the Calderdale magistrates courts committee determination to close two courthouses. No decision has yet been reached.
§ Sir Donald ThompsonI have invited my hon. Friend to come to Calder Valley with me to look at what is happening there. Does he agree that, although what goes on in a courthouse from day to day has nothing to do with the Member of Parliament concerned, where a courthouse is situated, and who attends it, has everything to do with that Member of Parliament, who is right to use every means available to ensure that that courthouse remains?
Mr. TaylorI concede the general point and, in particular, I concede that my hon. Friend is an assiduous constituency Member of Parliament. I should tell him and the whole House that magistrates courts can be closed only on a local recommendation of the local magistrates courts committee, and that that decision can be officially opposed only by the local paying authority. Only at that point does the Lord Chancellor have any locus or status in these matters; until then, he does not. The initiation of a closure is local.