HC Deb 15 December 1971 vol 828 cc129-30W
Mr. Clinton Davis

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will specify the magistrates' courts in England in which the clerks refuse to take contemporaneous notes of summary trials; and what direction he has issued in this connection.

Mr. Carlisle

There is no law or direction requiring courts to take such notes.

Mr. Clinton Davis

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will introduce legislation to require a contemporaneous note of proceedings tried summarily in magistrates' courts to be kept by the clerk of the court.

Mr. Carlisle

This is one of the recommendations made in the Law Society's memorandum on appeals from the criminal jurisdiction of magistrates' courts, which my right hon. Friend is studying.