I am grateful for this opportunity to raise a matter which is of great importance to the efficient working of magistrates' courts throughout the country and to the Uxbridge Petty Sessional Division in particular. I refer to the acute shortage of court clerks, which is hampering the work of courts today to such an extent that in my Constituency the number of courts has had to be reduced from four to three per day. In addition, Uxbridge court has had to sit on Saturdays to dispose of the work coming before it, which is particularly heavy, as it has to deal with all those cases arising from prosecutions connected with offences at London Airport.

The House will be aware that magistrates deal with the bulk of criminal cases, that only about two out of every 1,000 criminal prosecutions get beyond the magistrates' courts, and that in discharging their judicial duties lay magistrates are entitled to legal advice of a high order. A considerable proportion of the advice comes from court clerks, who are neither the clerks nor the deputy clerks, and are neither solicitors nor barristers. In practice, they emerge from the staff and their ability is based almost exclusively on experience. The few courses of instruction that exist for them are the result of the efforts of the National Association of Justices Clerks Assistants.

I have discovered that my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has not yet prescribed the qualifications for a court clerk as he is enabled to do under Section 5(2) of the Justices of the Peace Act 1968. Although I believe that my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary may now be genuinely anxious to press forward with arrangements for increasing the number of polytechnic courses available, I fear that he may have decided that it will be unwise to move further until he receives from the magistrates' courts committees an estimate, of the number of court clerks required. I am told that the whole question is now awaiting the appointment of the Shadow magistrates' courts committees, who will be able to supply the answer to this question. As I understand the position, my right hon. Friend would then make firm rules prescribing the qualifications of court clerks, but the rules would not immediately become effective. It would be provided that they were to come into effect in 1980.

In concluding this debate, therefore, my hon. Friend may care to give the House some indication when my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary expects to prescribe these qualifications and to clarify the situation. A specified qualification for a court clerk would, of course, have to be a high one to be acceptable. The position of existing non-qualified court clerks would also have to be protected if magistrates' courts were to continue to function efficiently until newly qualified clerks began to enter the service. There would also be a need for a nationally organised recruitment and training scheme, a career structure, and salaries which compared favourably with competition from outside.

None of these desirable features exists at present. Even if such arrangements were miraculously to come into being forthwith it would be unlikely that a competent court clerk would emerge in less than three years. It is therefore quite clear that until proper recruitment and training schemes are available in the longer term the courts will be compelled to cope with an increasing amount of work with an inadequate complement of court clerks.

That situation is quite unacceptable. Urgent remedial action in the short term is therefore essential. The central problem is that the supply of court clerks has dried up because of the poor salary structure. In addition, the magisterial service does not offer career prospects which are attractive to the type of young man or woman it is hoped to recruit. There should be an attraction to persons wanting articles of clerkship to seek them with a solicitor justices' clerk. Many of them do so, but then find that their prospects compare unfavourably with opportunities in private practice. In 1971 there were 54 professionally qualified assistants in the magisterial service. Twenty-seven—exactly 50 per cent.—have left that service, and there can be little doubt that the service is therefore deteriorating and, with it, the standard of British justice of which we are so proud.

The only solution in the short term is for the courts to be able to offer realistic salaries and prospects to attract the right people. In addition, it is vital that the status of those involved in the administration of the criminal law is vastly improved. Status starts with public respect for the justices' clerk and it percolates down the chain of command to the junior court clerk. When justices' clerks' salaries are today little above those of assistant solicitors in private practice and junior clerks' salaries are below the national average wage it is hardly surprising that the younger man and woman with ability and a desire to enter public service are disinclined to do so. I therefore ask my hon. and learned Friend to consider whether he can take action now to ensure that this once proud and efficient service is restored to its rightful place in society, so that the administration of the criminal law may once again be as efficient as the public expect it to be.

I know that my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Ruislip—North-wood (Mr. Crowder) wishes to speak, and I shall finish now, to give him a chance to do so. However, I must explain that the hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (Mr. Sandelson), who is unfortunately unable to be here tonight, has asked me to say that he wishes to be associated with my remarks.