§ 28Schedule 3, page 98, line 28, leave out from "which" to end of line 30 and insert "(disregarding any limitation by reason of amount or value or annual value) a county court would have jurisdiction to hear and determine if they were commenced in it".
§
29Schedule 3, page 98, line 34, leave out from "applications" to end of line 36 and insert "relating to the adoption or custody of, or access to minors (including applications relating to guardianship or custodianship);
(3A)This section applies to all proceedings transferred to the High Court under section 75B or 75C of this Act.".
§
30Schedule 3, page 98, line 36, at end insert—
(3A) An order for the transfer to a county court of any proceedings by or against the Crown in the High Court shall not be made without the consent of the Crown.".
§
31Schedule 3, page 98, line 39, at end insert—
(4A) Where proceedings are ordered to be transferred from the High Court to a county court—
§ (4B) Subject to subsection (4C) of this section, on the documents mentioned in subsection (4A) of this section being so lodged or sent, the proceedings shall be transferred to the county court.
§ (4C) The transfer shall not affect any right or appeal from the order directing the transfer; or the right to enforce in the High Court any judgment signed or order made, in that court before the transfer.".
§ 32Schedule 3, page 99, line 1, leave out from beginning to "At" in line 8 and insert—
§ "Transfer of proceedings to High Court by Order of High Court
§ 75B.—(1) If the High Court thinks it desirable, at any stage in proceedings commenced in a county court or transferred to a county court under section 75A of this Act, that the proceedings, or any part of them, should be heard and determined in the High Court, it may order the transfer to the High Court of the proceedings or, as the case may be, of that part of them.
§ (2) The power conferred by subsection (1) of this section is without prejudice to section 29 of the Supreme Court Act 1981 (power of High Court to issue prerogative orders).
§ "Transfer of proceedings to High Court by Order of county court
§ 75C.—(1) ".
§ 33 Schedule 3, page 99, line 35, leave out from first "court" to end of line 40 and insert "which the High Court would have jurisdiction to hear and determine if they were commenced in it, other than—
- (a) matrimonial causes;
- (b) applications relating to the adoption or custody of, or access to, minors (including applications relating to guardianship or custodianship).
§ (5) This section applies to all proceedings transferred to a county court under section 75A of this Act.'."
§ The Lord ChancellorMy Lords, Amendment No. 28, to which I will now speak, is grouped with Nos. 29, 30, 31, 32 and 33, all of which are in sequence, and then Nos. 52, 54, 58, 59, 61 and 78. All these amendments are consequential to the code for the transfer of cases from the High Court to the county court, and vice versa, introduced into the Bill during its Committee stage. The first of these amendments makes it plainer 670 that the power of transfer to county courts may be exercised not only in cases where there is a limitation on the amount—for instance, in contract or tort, £2,000—but also where there is a concurrent jurisdiction not divided between the courts by relation to amount. I believe this to be largely a drafting amendment. Amendment No. 29 restates in more general terms the exception from the new powers of transfer for proceedings relating to the welfare of children.
The new subsection (3A) makes it plain that the High Court may re-transfer to the county courts a case that has come up to it by the exercise of Section 75B or 75C. The third amendment moves the proviso to Section 78(2) of the County Courts Act 1959, which provides that an order for transfer to the county courts of any proceedings by the Crown in the High Court shall not be made without the consent of the Crown, into the new Section 75A. This thereby enables the proviso to Section 78(2) of the 1959 Act to be repealed in Amendment No. 59. Amendment No. 30 also reflects paragraph (a) of the proviso in Section 2 of the Crown Proceedings Act 1947, thereby enabling the whole of the proviso for that subsection to be repealed in Amendment No. 52.
Amendment No. 31 removes the substance of Section 77 (repealed by Amendment No. 59) of the County Courts Act 1959, which sets out the procedure on the transfer of cases from the High Court to a county court into the new Section 75A. The fifth amendment divides the new Section 75B into two new sections. There are two main purposes. The first is to ensure that the power of the High Court to bring proceedings up to itself is untrammelled by any exception. The second purpose is to ensure that the power of transfer up does not prejudice Clause 29, which relates to prerogative orders. This amendment makes no change to Section 75B, subsections (2), (3) and (4), beyond making them a separate section on their own. The sixth amendment is the obverse of the second amendment, dealing with children's cases and re-transfer. It also imports new words into the power to transfer so as to ensure that Parliament's intentions in conferring exclusive jurisdiction upon the county courts (as in the case of sex discrimination, race relations, et cetera) is not got around by exercise of the power of transfer. The seventh amendment, Amendment No. 52, is consequential. Amendment No. 54 is a related repeal about jurisdiction in the Companies Act 1948. Amendment No. 58 is another consequential repeal, as is the tenth amendment. The eleventh and the twelfth amendments are also consequential.
§ Moved. That this House doth agree with the Commons in the said amendments—(The Lord Chancellor.)
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.