HL Deb 23 March 1926 vol 63 cc726-7

Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.

THE PAYMASTER-GENERAL (THE DUKE OF SUTHERLAND)

My Lords, this is a Bill providing that a person convicted on indictment may appeal to the High Court of Justiciary, and it gives effect to the recommendations of a Committee which was appointed by the Secretary for Scotland last year. At present persons convicted on indictment in Scotland have only limited rights of appeal. There is, for example, no means of bringing the verdict of a jury under judicial review, whether the trial is in the High Court or the Sheriff Court. This Bill confers rights of appeal in Scotland substantially similar to those enjoyed in England under the Criminal Appeal Act of 1907. I beg to move tat the Bill be now read a second time.

Moved, That the Bill be now read 2a.—(The Duke of Sutherland.)

VISCOUNT HALDANE

My Lords, this Bill is quite a good one and the only observation to be made upon it is that it ought to have been introduced long ago. My noble friend Viscount Dunedin has been driven away by smoke and therefore he cannot make his observations upon the Bill. I will only say that I have read the Bill and I think it does that which the noble Duke says: it applies the principle of the English law. But why it is that we in Scotland, not only in respect of smoke but in respect of criminal appeals, should be left behind the country south of the Border I cannot tell. Your Lordships can scarcely realise that even the principle—which Lord Cairns passed a quarter of a century ago—of the Settled Land Act has never been applied to Scotland and, what is more, it is not likely to be applied. Both in the matter of land and in the matter of smoke the people of Scotland appear to be of a highly conservative disposition, and not decreasingly so, so far as I can see.

THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY

I wish they were a little more conservative.

VISCOUNT HALDANE

I really think the noble Marquess has not acquainted himself with the movements of opinion there. We get nothing from Scotland that is of an advanced, much less of a revolutionary character. At any rate, the noble Duke has done his best to make up for this delay by bringing in this Bill, even thus tardily.

On Question, Bill read 2a, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.