Mr John Wheatley: "Hear, hear," says the hon. and gallant Member. I should just like to test that. It is interesting to note that the counterpart measure for England, which is on exactly parallel terms, fitted to the structure of law in England with all the matters available to it that are available to our Bill, with the exception that it is the Lord Chancellor who will make the regulations and not the...
Mr John Wheatley: I was dealing with the hon. and gallant Gentleman's own views, in so far as he was capable of formulating them at all.
Mr John Wheatley: I ask Members opposite to face this question; Is it likely that a Measure which Sovietised the law would have the approval of the learned Members—and I mean "learned" in the best sense of the word—to whom I have referred? Are we Anglicising the law because we accepted the principles of a wide extension of legal aid and equiparated the financial positions? Some of the critics, friends of...
Mr John Wheatley: I cannot give way.
Mr John Wheatley: The principal feeling seems to be about Clause 11 (1) which empowers the Secretary of State to make regulations …for giving effect to this part of this Act or for preventing abuses thereof. What are these powers, and by whom should they be exercised. The framework of the Scheme provides regulations of two kinds—the first to increase the scope of the Bill, which are subject to affirmative...
Mr John Wheatley: The Bill does say so. I am reminded that the hon. Member prefaced his speech by saying he had not had time to read the Bill properly.
Mr John Wheatley: HANSARD will show tomorrow which of us is correct. Clause 7 (1) says: Subject to this Part of this Act, it shall be the responsibility of the Law Society to make arrangements, in accordance with a scheme made by them with the approval of the Secretary of State and with the concurrence of the Treasury, for securing that legal aid and legal advice are available as required by this Part of this...
Mr John Wheatley: It is difficult to, mix up the hon. and gallant Gentleman, with anybody else, but I accept his explanation. The next question referred to the-National Assistance Board. As I pointed: out in an intervention to the hon. Member for Dumfries (Mr. N. Macpherson), under the sheriff court procedure the investigating officer is the inspector for the poor. It is true that in the Court of Session it...
Mr John Wheatley: That is a Committee point and I should prefer to deal with it in Committee, as with the various points made by the hon. and gallant Member for West Edinburgh, and I hope my right hon. Friend will not regard it as discourteous if I do not go into that question at the present time. I am convinced that with that explanation the House will be satisfied that this is a Measure which has within its...
Mr John Wheatley: indicated dissent.
Mr John Wheatley: I was demurring only to the suggestion that I should go through the motions of negotiations. If I could not go through real negotiations, I should not go through any.
Mr John Wheatley: The Financial Memorandum appears in front of the Bill, if the hon. Member will look at it.
Mr John Wheatley: The salary of a lord ordinary or any other judge, exclusive of the Lord President and the Lord Justice Clerk is £3,600 per annum. They are entitled to a full pension of two-thirds of their salary on completing 15 years' service. They are entitled to a pension if they have to retire within the 15 years on account of physical or mental illness. The amount of pension in such cases varies...
Mr John Wheatley: The point raised by my hon. Friend the Member for North Edinburgh (Mr. Willis) seems to indicate that these appointments are merely for a transitory period and that when the volume of work which is now crowding out the courts has been dealt with there will be no further need for such judges. My hon. Friend trusted that in these circumstances the person or the persons appointed would not after...
Mr John Wheatley: I beg to move, in page 1, line 21, to leave out, passed in the month of July in each year. When the Clause was originally framed, and as it appears in the Bill, it provided that the Act of Sederunt fixing the session of the court should be passed in the month of July each year. From a practical viewpoint that would be very inconvenient, because, if the courts did not know until July of a...
Mr John Wheatley: As was explained on Second Reading, the purpose of this Clause was to rectify a drafting point in the 1907 Sheriff Courts (Scotland) Act in order to make it quite clear that a person with five years' standing could aggregate his period of standing in one branch of the profession with his period of standing in another branch of the profession. The 1907 Act, which was the basis from which we...
Mr John Wheatley: The Lord Advocate indicated dissent.
Mr John Wheatley: On a point of Order. As the hon. and gallant Member is prefacing his remarks by saying that he wishes to draw attention to an omission from the Bill, I respectfully submit that he is out of Order.
Mr John Wheatley: This Bill has been welcomed from all corners of the House. The principal part of it is contained in Clause 1, which gives the Government power to increase the number of judges in Court of Session. On Second Reading, I explained the justification for taking these powers, but I would point out to the hon. and gallant Member for Perth (Colonel Gomme-Duncan) that it is not an increase in the...
Mr John Wheatley: That is so. I think we have passed the peak. The hon. Member for West Aberdeen (Mr. Thornton-Kemsley) raised the question of the nomenclature of the sheriff-substitute. I find it very difficult to put my case without going outside the rules of Order. The whole question of nomenclature is inevitably linked up with the question of sheriff-principal and sheriff-substitute, which I cannot...