§ Baroness WOOTTON of ABINGERasked Her Majesty's Government:
In what year lay justices first exercised summary jurisdiction in criminal cases in (a) metropolitan magistrates' courts and (b) metropolitan juvenile courts.
§ The MINISTER of STATE, HOME OFFICE (Lord Harris of Greenwich)Lay justices began exercising summary jurisdiction in criminal cases in three metropolitan magistrates' courts following the recommendations of a Departmental Committee of 1959, and these arrangements were extended to all such courts when the formerly separate lay justices courts were amalgamated on 1st April 1965 following the passage of the Administration of Justice Act 1964. They began sitting in metropolitan juvenile courts following the coming into force of the Juvenile Courts Metropolis Act 1920, originally with a stipendiary magistrate as chairman, but increasingly with lay justices as chairmen following the passage of the Children and Young Persons Act 1932.