Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 19 November 1964.
Mr Cyril Osborne
, Louth Borough
12:00,
19 November 1964
asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the policy of Her Majesty's Government towards the Commonwealth Immigrants Act; and if he will make a statement.
Sir Frank Soskice
, Newport (Monmouthshire/Gwent)
I have nothing at present to add to what I said in the debate on the Expiring Laws Continuance Bill on Tuesday.
Mr Cyril Osborne
, Louth Borough
May I ask the right hon. and learned Gentleman how many Commonwealth immigrants he thinks this country can comfortably absorb?
Sir Frank Soskice
, Newport (Monmouthshire/Gwent)
Those that are here and are admitted by voucher perform an extremely useful purpose. We could ill afford to do without the help which they give us in the running of our economy and many of our services. I have no reason to think that we have reached the limit of our absorptive capacity as far as they are concerned. I am not saying this with regard to those who avoid the control but about those who come here with vouchers.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Laws are the rules by which a country is governed. Britain has a long history of law making and the laws of this country can be divided into three types:- 1) Statute Laws are the laws that have been made by Parliament. 2) Case Law is law that has been established from cases tried in the courts - the laws arise from test cases. The result of the test case creates a precedent on which future cases are judged. 3) Common Law is a part of English Law, which has not come from Parliament. It consists of rules of law which have developed from customs or judgements made in courts over hundreds of years. For example until 1861 Parliament had never passed a law saying that murder was an offence. From the earliest times courts had judged that murder was a crime so there was no need to make a law.
