§ 4.47 p.m.
THE LORD CHANCELLOR (LORD GARDINER)My Lords, I rise to propose to the House a Motion which I hope your Lordships will be prepared to consider without notice. It concerns the appointment of the two Appellate Committees of the House. These, as their name implies, are the Committees which 27 are authorised to hear judicial appeals to your Lordships' House, and the reason why there are two of them is simply that they are then enabled to sit concurrently if the state of Judicial Business makes that course desirable.
The Motion which I am now moving is almost in standard form, and is moved at the beginning of every Session. The reason for urgency in the matter, as on past occasions, is that the Committee is required to meet to-morrow morning, before this House will meet again, to continue the hearing of an important town and country planning appeal, Kent County Council v. Kingsway Investments and Kenworthy, which was part-heard yesterday. This situation of urgency is one which has occurred before, and nearly always in the same circumstances as to-day's—namely, that the hearing of an appeal has been begun in the previous Session or during Prorogation (because these Committees can sit during Prorogation) but has not been concluded, and it then becomes urgent to continue the hearing with the least possible delay in the new Session of Parliament. For this reason, the House has usually been willing in the past to consider a Motion of this kind without previous notice, and I hope your Lordships may be prepared to do so again to-day.
I have said that the Motion is almost in standard form. The only variation from previous Motions is that provision is now made for the senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary to preside in the Appellate Committee in the absence of the Lord Chancellor. This follows the terms of a Statement I made in the House on May 22 of this year concerning precedence at Judicial Sittings.
I therefore beg to move: That this House, in discharge of its constitutional duty to act as the ultimate tribunal in appeals from England, Scotland and 28 Northern Ireland, orders that two Committees, each of which shall include all Lords qualified under Section 5 of the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876, as amended by any subsequent enactment, be appointed to hear, during the present Session, such appeals as may be referred to them in order to secure the due expedition of Public and Judicial Business; and that in such Committees, in the absence of the Lord Chancellor, the senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary present do take the Chair, and that the Committees have leave to report to the House from time to time.
§ Moved accordingly, and, on Question, Motion agreed to.