COUNTY COURTS BILL. (Hansard, 7 July 1924)

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (VISCOUNT HALDANE)
My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a Second time. I can, I think, explain it to your Lordships in a very few sentences. The county courts of this country are in a most confused condition as regards the payment of the registrars, the clerks and other officials whom they employ. Several different systems prevail, but in the main the registrars are paid out of the fees 273 of the court, though there are half a dozen variations, with which I do not desire to trouble your Lordships now. Sometimes the registrar is well paid and sometimes he is not, and some of the clerks are most miserably paid. On the other hand, taken in the aggregate, the fees received by the county courts are very large and there is at the present time a large surplus of revenue over expenditure.
The purpose of the Bill is very simple. It proposes that all the fees taken in the county courts should be paid into the Treasury, and that the registrars and their officials should be placed on the footing of being paid by the State. If this Bill passes, and when all expenses under it are met, there will still remain a surplus which may this year amount to £25,000, and I trust that it will ultimately lead to a still greater lowering of fees. But until we see how things work out, it is not prudent to venture upon a premature reduction of fees. The amount of business in the courts, and consequently the revenue, vary from year to year. All that this Bill proposes to do is to introduce the new and obviously right system of allowing the State to take the fees and pay the officials. It has been the work of three Lord Chancellors. It was really initiated by Lord Birkenhead, and then my noble friend Lord Cave took it up and put it into shape, and the Bill as I have it in my hands is exactly the Bill which was left by my noble and learned friend, though in the other House they inserted a clause enabling the registrar to have jurisdiction to strike out frivolous plaints. This clause may stand, as there is an appeal to the Judge. It is a good fault in a money Bill when the reforms it seeks to make produce a profit.

§ VISCOUNT CAVE
My Lords, after what the noble and learned Viscount has said the House will not be surprised to know that I hope that this Bill will receive a Second Reading. When I was on the Woolsack, I found that the arrangements for the remuneration of registrars and bailiffs and for their superannuation on attaining a, certain age were in a state of great confusion. Long and careful negotiations took place as to what should be done to 274 put the matter right, and this Bill is, in the main, the result of the arrangement that was so arrived at. It has been approved by the other House, and I hope your Lordships also will approve it.

LORD RAGLAN
My Lords, may I call the noble and learned Viscount's attention to Clause 11, which says that the Act extends only to England? Is not that a somewhat unusual expression, end should not Wales be included?

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR
There is some slight statutory variation, but it applies to Wales also.