§
30 After Clause 57, insert the following clause:
§ Assistance by Recorders for Transaction of business of High court. 1981 c. 54.
§ 'Recorders
§
At the end of the Table in section 9(1) of the Supreme Court Act 1981 (under which certain persons may be requested to act as judges in specified courts) there shall be added—
6. A Recorder. The High Court".'.
§ The Lord ChancellorMy Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 30. The point of this amendment is to put right something which was done, I think, inadvertently wrong in the Supreme Court Act. At the time we passed Section 9 of the Supreme Court Act, we did so in all innocence.
But I have since learnt from the Law Society that recorders, including solicitor recorders, have taken in the past urgent High Court applications in matrimonial and wardship cases, to the general benefit of the public; whereas this practice is now rendered impossible under Section 9 of the Supreme Court Act 1981. May I say that the Government are very appreciative of the part that the Law Society has 570 played in this matter and have accordingly provided for solicitor recorders to be restored to their previous position. I beg to move.
Moved, That this House doth agree with the Commons in the said Amendment.—(The Lord Chancellor.)
§ Lord RentonMy Lords, I should like to ask my noble and learned friend about one matter. On the face of it, this would seem to be a general enhancement of the status of recorders and the opportunities that they may be given. But are we to understand that it will be the practice that recorders should only be given the kind of High Court work to which my noble and learned friend referred just now as having been done by those solicitors who were recorders; or is it intended that greater use should be made of the power now given?
§ Lord MishconMy Lords, I merely rise to express cross gratitude—not angry gratitude but equal gratitude—from the Law Society to the noble and learned Lord and his department for the way in which their submissions were accepted by the noble and learned Lord. It was in fact a misadventure that they were not consulted before, and it is a fact, as the noble and learned Lord has said, that solicitor recorders have been extremely useful in dealing with matters that require urgent consideration and where other members of the Judiciary might not have been available so quickly; namely, in urgent matrimonial proceedings and especially in wardship cases to which the noble and learned Lord made reference. Having expressed my gratitude, it will be obvious that we concur with the amendment.
§ The Lord ChancellorMy Lords, I am indeed grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Mishcon. In reply to my noble friend Lord Renton, what happened—if I may summarise it, I hope, fairly accurately because it is a somewhat convoluted subject—is simply that, prior to the Act of 1981, to which I have referred, all recorders could do this work to which reference has been made. Of course, barristers who are recorders or assistant recorders and so on can do it anyhow and continued to be able to do it throughout the period that I am talking about, after Section 9 of the Supreme Court Act came into force. But the inadvertent effect of Section 9 of the Supreme Court Act 1981 was to deprive solicitors who were recorders of the right to do this work at all although they were equally qualified to do it. This was, of course, an act of discrimination against the solicitors' profession, which neither they deserve nor was it intended.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.