HC Deb 26 January 1944 vol 396 cc703-5W
Lady Apsley

asked the Attorney-General whether he will consider introducing a brief amending Bill raising the income limit of would-be beneficiaries under Poor Persons Rules by a reasonable

in London, respectively, during each of the last five judicial years; and the number of decrees made therein which have subsequently been set aside on the ground of collusion or any other ground in each such year.

Sir D. Somervell

The statistics relating to matrimonial causes are kept in calendar and not in judicial years. They are not kept so as to distinguish, in respect of cases tried at assizes, between those which are defended and those which are undefended. The information for which my hon. Friend asks cannot be given without an expenditure of time and labour which I do not think would be justified at the present time. So far as the figures are presently available, I have given them in the appended table.

During the period to which my hon. Friend refers there were 118 interventions by the King's Proctor, resulting in the rescission of 49 decrees in four of which collusion was alleged in conjunction with other charges. I would remind my hon. Friend that Section 178 of the Supreme Court of Judicature (Consolidation) Act, 1925, as amended by the Matrimonial Causes Act, 1937, expressly makes it the duty of the trial judge to find an absence of connivance, condonation or collusion, and unless he does so he cannot grant the decree.

percentage in view of the fact that existing limits were decided on 30 years ago when the value of money was very different.

Sir D. Somervell

My Noble Friend the Lord Chancellor has for some time had under active consideration the question what modifications as respects income limit and otherwise are needed in the present system of affording legal aid to the poorer sections of the community, and is in communication with the Law Society on the matter. The difficulty of making immediate amendments in the scheme is enhanced by the absence on war service of the majority of the members of the solicitors' profession, and by the burdens consequently cast on those who remain. Meanwhile, the scheme which has been introduced during the war for giving legal aid to persons in the Armed Forces of the Crown has given considerable relief to a large number of persons who might otherwise have been unable to obtain assistance through the ordinary Poor Persons' procedure.