HL Deb 06 March 1952 vol 175 cc572-4WA
EARL JOWITT

asked Her Majesty's Government what progress is being made with the consolidation of the law relating to the practice and procedure of magistrates' courts.

THE LORD CHANCELLOR (LORD SIMONDS)

My right honourable friend the Home Secretary, in consultation with me, has recently appointed a Departmental Committee with the following terms of reference:—

"to consider—

  1. (a) a draft Bill, submitted to the Committee by the Secretary of State for the Home Department, designed to consolidate certain enactments relating to the jurisdiction of, and the practice and procedure before, magistrates' courts, and the functions of justices' clerks, and to matters connected therewith, with such corrections and minor improvements as may be authorised under the Consolidation of Enactments (Procedure) Act, 1949:
  2. (b) draft Rules, submitted to the Committee by the Secretary of State for the Home Department, designed to reproduce with modifications such procedural provisions of certain enactments relating to the matters aforesaid as are omitted from the said draft Bill as being more appropriate for enactment by rules than by statute, together with certain existing rules connected with such matters:

and to report—

  1. (i) whether the draft Bill, either as submitted to the Committee or with such alterations as they think proper to suggest, reproduces the existing law subject only to the omission of matters which in the opinion of the Committee, should be dealt with by rules, and to such corrections and minor improvements as ought, in their 573 opinion, to be recommended to the Lord Chancellor with a view to their being proposed in a memorandum laid by him before Parliament under the said Act:
  2. (ii) whether the draft Rules, either as submitted to the Committee or with such alterations as they think proper to suggest, ought, in their opinion, to be recommended to the Lord Chancellor with a view to their being made by him under section fifteen of the Justice; of the Peace Act, 1949, if the said Bill is passed."

The noble Lord, Lord Llewellin, has agreed to act as Chairman of the Committee, and the other members are:—

  • Mr. P. Allen.
  • Major Reginald Bullin, O.B.E., T.D
  • Mr. T. Anderson Davis, M.B.E.
  • Sir Laurence Dunne, M.C.
  • Sir Leonard Holmes.
  • Mr. J. K. T. Jones.
  • Sir Theobald Mathew, K.B.E., M.C.
  • Mr. Basil Nield, M B.E., Q.C., M.P.
  • Sir Granville Ram, K.C.B., Q.C.
  • Mr. W. T. C. Skyrme, T.D.
  • Mr. L. Edgar Stephens, C.B.E.
  • Mr. W. T. Wells, M.P.
  • Mr. J. Whiteside.
  • Mr. J. P. Wilson.

The Secretary is Mr. E. L. Bradley of the Home Office, S.W.1.

House adjourned at ten minutes past five o'clock.