Judicial Appointments Order 2008

My Lords, I shall be very brief but I wish to make one or two small points. I have no problem of substance with the order; it is merely a question of process. First, I commend the Ministry of Justice for the Explanatory Memorandum that accompanies the order. Some Explanatory Memoranda are not that helpful or revealing. I thought that the explanation in this document was extremely clear and extremely well done, so I should like to place on record that this represents, in effect, best practice. I wish to make a very minor point with regard to process. As the Explanatory Memorandum makes clear and as the Minister has touched upon, the process of consultation with affected groups seems to have been well done and it is well explained. My only query concerns paragraph 7.6, which says: "““The level of public interest in the policy has been minimal””." The way that that is expressed is refreshing, but it goes on to say: "““No individual members of the public responded””." That may be partly due to the mode of publication, which is principally the website. Even if there had been more widespread dissemination, I suspect that public interest would still have been minimal, but it raises an important point of principle. One needs to reflect on how one goes beyond the affected interests to let people know what is going on and at least give them an opportunity to comment if they wish. That is the only real point that I wish to pick up on but I do so in the context that I find this a very good Explanatory Memorandum.