§ Major Procterasked the President of the Board of Trade the reasons which have led him to provide by Rule 13 of Statutory Rules and Orders, 1940, No. 25, that a man accused of a contravention of the Prices of Goods Act, 1939, shall not be entitled, when summoned before a price regulation committee, to employ legal or other professional representatives to appear for him or to address the committee on his behalf; and is he prepared to reconsider this rule in order to restore to the subject his ancient right to employ members of the legal profession to protect his liberty?
§ Sir A. DuncanThe Price Regulation Committees set up under the Prices of Goods Act have no power to inflict penalties of any kind nor to summon before them a person against whom an allegation of a contravention of the Act has been made. Their function is to examine such allegations and, after giving an opportunity to an alleged offender of making representations to them and after hearing him if he so requests, to decide whether or not there is aprima facie case for prosecution under the Act, and, if so, to request the Board of Trade to institute proceedings. Their investigations, which are private, are in no sense comparable with trials in a court of law, and it is most undesirable that they should be regarded in that light. I am satisfied that the Rule to which my hon. and gallant Friend refers will contribute to the fair and efficient administration of the Act, and I see no reason why I should alter it.