HC Deb 22 December 1919 vol 123 c1068W
Mr. RENDALL

asked the Home Secretary if he will state the salary of the King's Proctor, the expenses of his office in connection with his duties under the Matrimonial Causes Act, 1857, and, taking the average for the past five years, the annual number of cases in which he intervenes successfully; whether any data exist as to the moral results of Ins successful intervention or of the mode of life led by the parties directly concerned; and whether, as such an official is deemed unnecessary in Scotland, the Government will consider the desirability of abolishing the office?

Sir GORDON HEWART

My right hon. Friend has asked me to reply to this question. The Procurator-General (called in divorce matters "the King's Proctor") receives no salary in respect of his duties, whether in divorce or in prize matters. He receives a salary as Treasury Solicitor. In the last completed year the expenses of his office in connection with divorce amounted to £9,958 13s. 8d. He has intervened successfully in 164 cases during the past five years—that is to say, an annual average of thirty-three cases. There have been during the same period five unsuccessful interventions. No such data as are referred to in the question appear to exist with regard to the moral results of the Procurator-General's interventions. The answer to the last part of the question is in the negative.