§ Mr. J. DAVISONasked the Home Secretary if he will state the number of persons summarily convicted during the three years 1916, 1917, and 1918; the number of those who had a right of appeal to Quarter Sessions; the conditions on which aggrieved persons are allowed to appeal; and the number of persons who were able to avail themselves of that right and the results?
§ Sir H. GREENWOODThe number of persons summarily convicted in 1916 was 540,858, and in 1917, 393,841. The number who appealed was in 1916, 161, and in 1917, 232. In 1916, 105 convictions were affirmed and fifty convictions were quashed. In 1917, 141 convictions were affirmed and seventy-five convictions were quashed. In twenty-two cases in the two years the appeal was abandoned. The figures for 1918 are not yet available. An appeal to Quarter Sessions is open to anyone who has been convicted by a Court of Summary Jurisdiction if he did not plead guilty nor admit the truth of the charge. The conditions of an appeal to Quarter Sessions will be found in Section 31 of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879.