§ 3.8 p.m.
§ The Lord Chancellor (Lord Mackay of Clashfern)My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a second time. The Bill consolidates the provisions of the Justices of the Peace Act 1979. The 1979 Act has been substantially amended by subsequent legislation, notably legislation concerned with local government and by Part IV of the Police and Magistrates' Court Act 1994.
The 1979 Act is concerned with the appointment and organisation of justices of the peace and justices' clerks and the administration of the magistrates' courts. As well as amending the 1979 Act, Part IV of the 1994 Act made further provision about those matters, which is reproduced in the Bill. The 1994 Act, among other things, strengthened the role and accountability of magistrates' courts committees and put on a statutory footing Her Majesty's Magistrates' Courts Service Inspectorate.
Your Lordships may wish to be reminded that the principal statutory provisions governing the jurisdiction of, and proceedings in, magistrates' courts are to be found in the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980. Those provisions are not consolidated by the Bill.
My department has consulted widely in the course of the preparation of the Bill among organisations and others affected by the provisions consolidated by the Bill. The Bill will be referred in the usual way to the Joint Committee on Consolidation Bills if your Lordships are content to give it a Second Reading. I am sure that the House will wish to join me in expressing thanks to the draftsman of the Bill at the Law Commission for her valuable work in preparing the Bill. I commend the Bill to the House.
Moved, That the Bill be now read a second time.—(The Lord Chancellor.)
§ On Question, Bill read a second time, and referred to the Joint Committee on Consolidation Bills.