VALIDATION OF ELECTIONS BILL (Hansard, 27 July 1955)

§ THE JOINT PARLIAMENTARY UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (LORD MANCROFT)
My Lords, the purpose of this Bill is to validate the election of two Members of another place and to indemnify them for any breach of the law that their technical disqualification from membership of the House of Commons may have led them to commit. There is also another Bill, the Validation of Elections (No. 2) Bill, dealing with a further case, which has not yet come from another place but which we expect to receive in the course of the afternoon. I may have to ask your Lordships' permission to interrupt our affairs in order to present that Bill. The Commons' copies of the Bill are already in the Printed Paper Office.
The reason for the urgency of these two measures and for ensuring that they receive the Royal Assent today is to frustrate any attempt by a common informer to take any action during the Recess. These are not matters with which your Lordships are greatly concerned. I think all I need say is that there is no question of the bona fides of the three gentlemen or their innocence being in any way in doubt. I confess that there was some controversy in another place when the matter was debated, but it was a domestic controversy which I do not think your Lordships would in any way wish to follow. At the moment, as your 1077 Lordships know, a Committee is examining the position of those Members of your Lordships' House who, although entitled to sit, do not desire to take any part in our proceedings. I think it may be a pleasant end-of-term exercise to pass a Bill for the benefit of certain Members of another place who wish to take part in the proceedings of another place but are not entitled to do so. I beg to move that the Bill be read a second time.

§ EARL JOWITT
My Lords, it is not customary for your Lordships to interfere in these matters, which are primarily—indeed, almost entirely—matters for the House of Commons, and I know that there is a major Bill coming along which will deal with the whole matter. I may give your Lordships this personal recollection. When I was Attorney-General in the year 1929, which such a long time ago that the noble Lord who has just moved the Second Reading of the Bill was probably running about in a small sailor's suit, I had prepared a Bill which I thought was absolutely perfect to deal with this whole matter; yet it has still not come along.
The present position represents an unfortunate state of affairs. All Governments have suffered from it all down the ages, and Members of another place have quite unwittingly offended against an exceedingly obscure law. I think it high time that we had a Bill making the law relatively plain. I hope that some improvements on the Bill I prepared in 1929 have now been evolved. Is it not possible for the Government to consider that everybody who stands for election to Parliament should have sent to hint a note explaining what the law is, in order that he might consider his position relative to the law? Although we shall, of course, pass this Bill, it is not at all a satisfactory state of affairs. I do not know the facts of this case. I know that the people concerned are innocent; but people keep getting into this sort of trouble and it requires a Bill to get them out of it. I think it well worth while considering that something on the lines I have suggested should be sent round, to avoid this sort of difficulty arising in the future.
My Lords, having said that, I would add that of course we have no objection to the passing of this Bill or the other 1078 Bill which the noble Lord has indicated we shall receive. We shall facilitate their passage into law in the usual way, but I think it would be worth while considering whether this sort of thing could not be avoided in the future by adopting the course I have suggested, or by the passing of the major Bill. But, having regard to my past experience, I am a little sceptical.

LORD HAMPTON
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Mancroft, mentioned the question of a common informer. I was under the impression that "common informing" is no longer legal. Is that so, or can one still be a common informer if one so desires?

§ LORD MANCROFT
My Lords, I, too, fell into that trap. The common informer has been abolished for all purposes save that of elections.

§ THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY
My Lords in view of what the noble and learned Earl the Leader of the Opposition has said perhaps I might intervene for a moment. I hope that the legislation which is contemplated will be comprehensive and will cover all possible cases. I will, of course, pass al the suggestion which he has made, but in view of the fact that legislation is impending I should have thought that it was hardly necessary to take any other action. No doubt there have in the past been numerous and most inconvenient cases, usually resulting, I think, from the ingenuity of somebody who has discovered something which nobody knew before and which, in any event, did not matter much. One cannot prevent that happening. In legislation and regulations there are always unintentional errors which lay Members of Parliament open to things of this kind; but legislation is contemplated to do just that which the noble Earl the Leader of the Opposition says has long been needed.