SEDITIOUS AND BLASPHEMOUS TEACHING TO CHILDREN BILL. [H.L.] (Hansard, 5 August 1924)

§ LORD DANESFORT:

My Lord, in moving the Third Reading of this Bill T think it would be convenient if I explain why I have found it necessary to move a short Amendment at the end of Clause 4. The position is this. When the Bill was in Committee I was under 435 the impression that it was possible to make Section 17 of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, apply to Scotland. It gives the defendant a right to trial by jury. But on consulting important and leading Scottish authorities I found that this is not possible, because it would not fit in with the law and practice in Scotland as to criminal procedure. If a defendant is charged under this Bill with an offence in Scotland he will be amply protected by the legal procedure which exists in Scotland, which is that the Lord Advocate considers these prosecutions and in all proper cases he can, and does, send for trial before a Sheriff with a jury, or before the High Court of Justiciary with a jury, instead of having trial before the Sheriff without a jury. The effect of my Amendment will be to confine the operations of Section 17 of the Act of 1879 to England and Wales. As regards the procedure in Scotland I have the authority of the Lord Advocate for saying that, subject to the Amendment I propose to move, he approves of Clause 4 of the Bill.