A.D. 1924. any other officer of a prison or any officer having the custody of an appellant, shall for validity require the assent of the Secretary for Scotland.

Provisions
relating
to the

(2) Acts of Adjournal so passed may make provision with respect to any matter for which provision is to be 5 made under this Act by Acts of Adjournal, and may regulate generally the practice and procedure under this Act, and the officers of any court before whom an appellant has been convicted, and the governor or other officers of any prison or other officer having the custody of an 10 appellant, and any other officers or persons, shall comply with any requirements of such Acts of Adjournal so far as they affect those officers or persons, and such compliance may be enforced by order of the Court of Criminal Appeal.

(3) Every such Act of Adjournal shall, as soon as may be, be laid before both Houses of Parliament.

PART IV.

SUPPLEMENTAL.

15

18. Nothing in this Act shall affect His Majesty's 20 prerogative of mercy, but the Secretary for Scotland on the consideration of any petition for the exercise of that prerogative prerogative, having reference to the conviction of a person on indictment or to the sentence (other than a sentence fixed by law) passed on a person so convicted, 25 may, if he thinks fit, at any time either

of mercy.

(a) refer the whole case to the Court of Criminal

Appeal, and the case shall then be heard and
determined by the Court of Criminal Appeal as
in the case of an appeal by a convicted person; 30

or

(b) if he desires the assistance of the Court of Criminal Appeal on any point arising in the case with a view to the determination of the petition, refer that point to the Court of Criminal Appeal 35 for their opinion thereon, and the Court shall consider the point so referred and furnish the Secretary for Scotland with their opinion thereon accordingly.

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

19. In this Act, except the context otherwise A.D. 1924. requires,

(a) The expression "appellant " includes a person
who has been convicted and desires to appeal
under this Act;

(b) The expression "judge," when used in relation to
the court of trial, includes the sheriff;
(c) The expression sentence" includes an order of

Definitions.

the court of trial made on conviction with
reference to the person convicted or his wife
or children, and any recommendation of the
court as to the making of an expulsion order
in the case of a person convicted, and the power
of the Court of Criminal Appeal to pass a
sentence includes a power to make any such
order of the court of trial or recommendation,
and a recommendation so made by the Court
of Criminal Appeal shall have the same effect
for the purposes of section three of the Aliens 5 Edw. 7
Act, 1905, as the certificate and recommendation c. 13.
of the court of trial.

20. Subsection (5) of section seventeen of the Repeal. Prevention of Crime Act, 1908, is hereby repealed.

21. This Act shall extend to Scotland only.

8 Edw. 7. c. 59. Restriction

on extent.

22. This Act shall apply to all persons convicted Application on or after the first day of January, nineteen hundred and of Act. twenty-five:

Provided that this Act

(a) shall not affect the rights as respects appeal

of any persons convicted before that date:
and

(b) shall not apply in the case of convictions
on indictment or inquisitions charging any
peer or peeress, or other person claiming
the privilege of peerage, with any offence not
now lawfully triable by the High Court
of Justiciary.

23. This Act may be cited as the Criminal Appeal Short title.

BILL

To establish a Court of Criminal Appeal
in Scotland, and to amend the
Scottish law relating to appeals in
criminal cases, and for purposes
connected with the matters afore-
said.

Presented by Mr. Dickson, supported by

Mr. Maxton and Mr. Clark.

Ordered, by The House of Commons, to be Printed, 7 April 1924.

To be purchased directly from

H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE at the following addresses:
Imperial House, Kingsway, London, W.C. 2; 28, Abingdon
Street, London, S. W. 1; York Street, Manchester;

1, St. Andrew's Crescent, Cardiff; or 120, George Street, Edinburgh;
or through any Bookseller.)

MEMORANDUM.

Part I. of this Bill amends the law on the subject of the Probation of Offenders which is contained in the Probation of Offenders Act, 1907, as amended by the Criminal Justice Administration Act, 1914. The main object of the amendment is to encourage the development of the probation system in the light of experience especially by providing for the appointment of probation officers in each petty sessional division, by promoting the combination of petty sessional divisions for this purpose, and by improving the methods of supervising and paying probation officers.

The remainder of the Bill is mainly founded upon the Reports of three Committees appointed by Lord Birkenhead when Lord Chancellor, namely :

(1) A Committee on the detention in custody of prisoners committed for trial presided over by Mr. Justice Horridge [1922, Cd. 1574];

(2) A Committee on the responsibility of a wife for crimes committed under the coercion of her husband, over which Mr. Justice Avory presided [1922, Cd. 1677]; and

(3) A Committee on alterations in Criminal Procedure (Indictable Offences), of which the Director of Public Prosecutions was the Chairman [1923, Cd. 1813].

Some of the proposals for the amendment of procedure in criminal cases are of a technical nature, and it appears unnecessary to deal with them at length; but the following clauses may be specially referred to:-

Clause 9, enabling certain offences which are now triable only at assizes to be tried at quarter sessions.

Clause 10, enabling certain offences which are now triable only at assizes or quarter sessions to be dealt with summarily by magistrates,

Clause 15, enabling justices before whom a person is
charged, instead of committing him for trial at the
assizes or quarter sessions for the county or
borough, to commit him to be tried at any other
convenient assizes or quarter sessions with a view
either to expediting his trial or saving expense.
Clause 19, prescribing the procedure to be followed
in the case of a corporation charged with an
offence.

It is considered that the above provisions and others contained in the Bill will have the effect of saving expense and delay in trial, or will otherwise assist in bringing offenders to justice.

It is further proposed (Clause 11) to abolish grand juries at quarter sessions. During the war grand juries were suspended both at assizes and quarter sessions. At the end of the war the opinion of the Judges of the High Court was taken as to the expediency of abolishing grand juries, but the opinion of the majority of them was against the course. The Bill accordingly does not deal with grand juries at assizes; but it is considered that as regards cases investigated by the justices at petty sessions and by them committed for trial at quarter sessions, the summoning of a grand jury causes unnecessary expense to the county and loss of time to the jurors summoned. The right to present a bill of indictment without previous committal by justices is preserved, but it is provided that such a bill must be presented to a grand jury at the assizes.

Clause 20 gives a right of appeal against a sentence imposed on a person pleading "guilty," and Clause 38 proposes to abolish the rule by which a wife who commits an offence in the presence of her husband is presumed to have committed it under coercion by him; no such rule obtains in the Dominions.

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