§ Mr. HARMOOD-BANNERasked the Attorney-General whether the draft rules relating to the Public Trustee now upon the Table of the House were considered by the Law Officers of the Crown before they were laid upon the Table; whether the Law Officers have advised that these rules, and in particular Rule 6 (b) (ii), are intra vires the Public Trustee Act, 1906; and, if not, whether the Law Officers will now give the matter their careful consideration and, in the event of their being of opinion that any of the proposed rules are ultra vires the Act, order such rules to be withdrawn?
§ Sir RUFUS ISAACSThe rules referred to have been made by the Lord Chancellor, and were drafted in the Public Trustee Office in accordance with the opinion of a Chancery counsel specially familiar with their subject matter. It is not the practice for draft rules issued in2060W such circumstances to be settled by the Law Officers, and these rules were not so settled. In response to the hon. Member's request, the Law Officers have considered Rule 6 (b) (2), and it appears to them that the opinion upon which the Public Trustee acted in drafting the rule is right, and that the rule is not ultra vires.