§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
§ THE UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR (LORD STRATHCONA AND MOUNT ROYAL)My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be read a second time. This Bill, as its Title indicates, is mainly concerned with amendment of the law relating to criminal procedure in Scotland. The amendments embodied in the clauses are, in the main, unrelated to each other, though the principal ones are directed to one or other of the following purposes—firstly, to avoid imprisonment for failure to pay a fine, where the failure is due to lack of means—for example, Clause 1, which enables payment of fines by instalments, Clauses 2 and 3, which are analogous to provisions contained in the Money Payments (Justices Procedure) Act, 1935, and Clause 6, which extends the existing power to modify a sentence before imprisonment has followed—secondly, to obviate the necessity for the appearance of the accused person at certain more or less formal stages of the proceedings—this is done in Clauses 4 and 5—and thirdly, generally to simplify procedure, as in Clauses 8 and 11. Clause 12, on the other hand, is concerned with the criminal law rather than procedure. It clears up the doubt and perplexity into which the law relating to incest has been thrown in Scotland by the various Acts relating to the prohibited degrees for the purpose of marriage. The House will presumably 320 not desire at this stage a detailed exposition of each clause, or of the somewhat technical points necessarily involved, but will no doubt be prepared to give the Bill a Second Reading on the understanding that full explanation of the details of any of the various provisions can be given, if so desired, when the Bill goes into Committee.
§ Moved, That the Bill be now read 2a.—(Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal)
§ On Question, Bill read 2a, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.