HC Deb 05 May 1971 vol 816 cc394-5W
Mr. Percival

asked the Attorney-General what will be the constitution of the circuits after the introduction of the new courts system.

The Attorney-General

My noble friend the Lord Chancellor has considered the representations received following the answer which I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for the Isle of Thanet (Mr. Rees-Davies (when I announced my noble Friend's provisional proposals for the reconstitution of the circuits after the appointed day under the Courts Bill, which is expected to be 1st January, 1972. The Bill is now awaiting Royal Assent. He has decided that some slight changes in those proposals are necessary in the Counties of Buckinghamshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, and he is notifying the local authorities concerned. The constitution of the circuits, after the coming into operation of the new courts system, will accordingly be as follows:

North Eastern: Northumberland, Durham and Yorkshire.

Northern: Cumberland, Westmorland, Lancashire, parts of Derbyshire (Glossop Petty Sessional Division and parts of Chapel en le Frith P.S.D., comprising New Mills and Whaley Bridge Urban Districts) and parts of Cheshire (Birkenhead, Wallasey, Stockport, Stockport Borough, Hyde, Dukinfield and Stalybridge P.S.D.'s).

Midland and Oxford: Staffordshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough, Derbyshire except those parts shown in the Northern Circuit), Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, parts of Buckinghamshire (Newport Pagnell, Stoney Stratford and Fenny Stratford P.S.D.'s), Oxfordshire (except Henley P.S.D.), and parts of Berkshire (Abingdon and Abingdon Borough P.S.D.'s).

South Eastern: Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Buckinghamshire (except those parts shown in the Midland Circuit), part of Oxfordshire (Henley P.S.D. only), Berkshire (except Abingdon, Abingdon Borough and Faringdon P.S.D.'s), Greater London, Surrey, Sussex, Kent.

Wales and Chester: Wales, Monmouthshire and Cheshire (except those parts shown in the Northern Circuit).

Western: Gloucestershire, part of Berkshire (Faring-don P.S.D.), Bristol, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. —[Vol. 808, c. 364–5.]