§ Captain J. HAYasked the Solicitor-General for Scotland if he is aware that the Registrar-General for Scotland has compiled and recently issued to local registrars in Scotland a list of denominations whose ministers are to be regarded as entitled to sign Schedules of Marriage (C) from which the name of the spiritualist denomination has been omitted; will he state the reasons for this omission; and is he prepared to take such steps as will ensure that in the administration of the law in Scotland members of the spiritualist denomination are placed on an equality with those of other religious bodies?
§ The SOLICITOR-GENERAL for SCOTLANDThe answer to the first part of the question is in the negative. No such list has been compiled or issued to local registrars. I understand, however, that the Registrar-General recently informed a local registrar that he was unable to approve the acceptance of a1532W marriage schedule signed by an official of the spiritualist body. The Schedule in question can be signed only by a person entitled, according to the Statute regulating the matter, to celebrate a regular marriage and the Registrar-General was of opinion that officials of the spiritualist body are not so entitled. The question is one of law which can be finally determined only in the Courts.