PRINCIPAL PROBATE REGISTRY (NON-CONTENTIOUS BUSINESS) (CANTERBURY SUB-REGISTRY) ORDER, 1953 (Hansard, 12 May 1953)

THE LORD CHANCELLOR (LORD SIMONDS)

My Lords, the object of the Draft Order which is laid on the Table of your Lordships' House is to amend the scheme of District Probate Registries which was established under Section 108 and the Second Schedule to the Supreme Court of Judicature (Consolidation) Act, 1925. Section 108 provides that that scheme can be amended only by an Order made by the President of the Probate Division, with the concurrence of the Lord Chancellor and the Treasury, and that before any Order is made it shall be approved by both Houses of Parliament by Resolution, with or without modification or addition.

The District Probate Sub-Registry at Canterbury which is reopened by the Draft Order was closed in 1940 on account of disturbance by enemy aircraft and lack of manpower. The Order by which it was closed was not made under the procedure which is now invoked but by an Order in Council made under the Administration of Justice (Emergency Provisions) Act, 1939. That Act was terminated in 1947, but not so as to affect things which had already been done under it. Consequently, in order to reopen the Sub-Registry at Canterbury it is necessary to comply with the procedure laid down in Section 108 of the Judicature Act, 1925.

I am satisfied that the Probate Sub-Registry at Canterbury should now be 395 reopened. The war-time conditions no longer persist, and there appears to be the same public demand for a Sub-Registry in Canterbury as there was before the war. I should add that under the Affirmative Resolution procedure under which the Order is to be made, the draft has already been subjected to the scrutiny of, and passed by, the Special Orders Committee of your Lordships' House, and by the Select Committee on Statutory Instruments in another place. I beg to move.