HL Deb 06 February 1958 vol 207 cc482-4

2.46 p.m.

THE LORD CHANCELLOR (VISCOUNT KILMUIR) rose to move, That the Order of the 19th of November last, referring the Bill to the Joint Committee on Consolidation Bills, be discharged, and that leave be given to withdraw the Bill. The noble and learned Viscount said: My Lords, I am sorry to trouble your Lordships with this Motion, but it has been rendered necessary because of difficulties which have arisen regarding the proper interpretation to be placed on certain of the enactments which the Matrimonial Proceedings (Magistrates' Courts) Bill was designed to consolidate. Your Lordships may remember that the Royal Commission on Marriage and Divorce recommended that the law with regard to the jurisdiction and powers of magistrates' courts in matrimonial proceedings should be codified. The Consolidation Bill which is the subject of this Motion was introduced on November 13 last, and on the 19th of that month was referred by order of the House to the Joint Committee on Consolidation Bills. While the Bill was under consideration by the Joint Committee, questions were raised with regard to the proper interpretation of certain of the enactments consolidated in the Bill, and, in particular, as regards the Summary Jurisdiction (Separation and Maintenance) Act. 1925, and Section 11 of the Matrimonial Causes Act, 1937.

After careful consideration we have reluctantly come to the conclusion that these difficulties cannot be surmounted in a Consolidation Bill, in which, as your Lordships are aware, only minimum changes of the law can be made, and there is, therefore, no alternative but to withdraw the Bill. However, my right honourable friend the Home Secretary is conscious of the importance of replacing the complicated and scattered existing enactments on this subject by a single up-to-date enactment, and he proposes to set up an expert Committee to advise him on the steps which can best be taken for this purpose. He also proposes to seek the advice of that Committee on the best method of incorporating into any such new measure certain recommendations of the Royal Commission relating to the jurisdiction of magistrates' courts in matrimonial proceedings. As I say, I am sorry that this difficulty should have arisen, but I assure your Lordships that the work of consolidation will not be allowed to flag. I beg to move.

Moved, That the Order of the 19th of November last, referring the Bill to the Joint Committee on Consolidation Bills, be discharged, and that leave be given to withdraw the Bill.—(The Lord Chancellor.)

LORD SILKIN

My Lords, I am sure the House will agree that this Motion should be accepted, and I rise only for the purpose of getting some information. I take it I am right in my understanding that the reason for not proceeding with the consolidation is that if we had done so we should have been re-enacting two rather obscure clauses in two separate Acts of Parliament which have, in fact, been in operation for some twenty years without any great hardship to anybody. Nevertheless, it is desirable, if at all possible, to remove the obscurities, and I take it that the intention is to introduce legislation to remove the obscurities in the two Acts of Parliament to which the noble and learned Viscount referred and, at the same time, to take advantage of that to introduce further legislation arising from Reports of Committees; and that when that has been done the consolidation can be proceeded with. If I am correct in that assumption. then I think that it is a satisfactory way of proceeding, and I would ask only whether the noble and learned Viscount thinks that that is all that can be done in the present Session of Parliament.

THE LORD CHANCELLOR

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Silkin, is exactly right as to the situation. I do not think I can give an absolute undertaking as to the time because, of course, it depends on how long the Committee which my right honourable friend the Home Secretary proposes to set up will take. But I give him the assurance that I am anxious to see the law on this subject consolidated, and I shall press on as quickly as I can. I am glad to have the noble Lord's support, as he realises that to consolidate an equivocal position would be a bad step, and we must do our utmost to put it right as quickly as we can. I am grateful to the noble Lord for what he has said.

On Question, Motion agreed to, and ordered accordingly.