asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if, in view of the prevalence of organised, big-scale crime, and the difficulty experienced in detecting the authors of such crime, he will investigate the possibility of introducing legislation to empower him to introduce a system of examining magistrates into the central London area as an experiment, with a view to extending the system to the whole of the country if the experiment is found to be a success.

My right hon. and learned Friend would need more evidence of the advantages of inquisitorial magistrates over the present system before contemplating so fundamental a change.