COURTS: HIGH COURT AND CROWN COURT CENTRES (Hansard, 26 January 1971)

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (LORD HAILSHAM OF ST. MARYLEBONE)

The Royal Commission on Assizes and Quarter Sessions recommended that the High Court and the new Crown Court should sit at substantially fewer places than those at which assizes and quarter sessions have sat in the past. In reaching provisional conclusions about court centres, I have sought to follow the Commission's proposals so far as possible, although there are a few cases in which this has proved to be impracticable or undesirable. At several of the smaller centres the courts will only sit occasionally, and these places will be staffed from the nearest convenient major centre. It will be necessary to consider in the light of experience how far the continued use of these smaller centres can be justified.

A High Court or Circuit judge may sometimes visit a place not shown in the list below, to meet the convenience of witnesses and others who live in a remote area, but such visits must be kept to the minimum if the defects of the present assize system are not to reappear.

Places described in the following list as first-tier centres will deal with both civil and criminal cases and will be served by High Court and Circuit judges; second-tier centres will deal with criminal cases only but will be served by both High Court and Circuit judges; while third-tier centres will deal with criminal cases only and will be served only by Circuit judges.

948WA

MIDLAND AND OXFORD CIRCUIT:

First-tier—Birmingham, Lincoln, Nottingham, Stafford, Warwick.

Second-tier—Leicester, Northampton, Oxford, Shrewsbury, Worcester.

Third-tier—Coventry, Derby, Dudley, Grimsby, Hereford, Huntingdon, Stoke-on-Trent, Walsall, Warley, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton.

Peterborough will replace Huntingdon as a third-tier centre as soon as suitable court accommodation can be provided there.

NORTH EASTERN CIRCUIT:

First-tier—Leeds, Newcastle upon Tyne, Sheffield, York.

Second-tier—Durham, Teesside.

Third-tier—Beverley, Bradford. Doncaster, Huddersfield, Kingston upon Hull, Wakefield.

Beverley will cease to be a third-tier Centre as soon as additional court accommodation can be made available at Kingston upon Hull.

NORTHERN CIRCUIT:

First-tier—Carlisle, Liverpool, Manchester, Preston.

Third-tier—Barrow-in-Furness, Birkenhead, Burnley, Kendal, Lancaster.

SOUTH EASTERN CIRCUIT:

First-tier—Greater London, Norwich.

Second-tier—Chelmsford, Ipswich, Lewes, Maidstone, Reading. St. Albans.

Third-tier—Aylesbury, Bedford, Brighton, Bury St. Edmunds. Cambridge, Canterbury, Chichester, Guildford, King's Lynn, Southend.

WALES AND CHESTER CIRCUIT:

First-tier—Caernarvon, Cardiff, Chester, Mold, Swansea.

Second-tier—Carmarthen, Newport, Welsh-pool.

Third-tier—Dolgellau, Haverfordwest, Knutsford, Merthyr Tydfil.

WESTERN CIRCUIT:

First-tier—Bodmin, Bristol, Exeter, Winchester.

Second-tier—Dorchester, Gloucester, Plymouth.

Third-tier—Barnstaple, Bournemouth, Poole, Devizes, Newport (I.O.W.), Portsmouth, Salisbury, Southampton, Swindon, Taunton.

I shall, as the Commission recommended, be reviewing from time to time what changes should be made in these initial proposals so as to ensure that the places where the higher courts sit regularly match the needs of the public. I shall also be asking local authorities and others wishing to make representations in connection with my proposals to do so not later than the 28th February.

House adjourned at three minutes past nine o'clock.