Coroners and Justice Bill

I follow what the noble Lord, Lord Borrie, said. He pointed out that, in the selection of people eligible for appointment as non-judicial members, not all the members from those disciplines have to be represented. It strikes me that people who have experience in the use of statistics, or are concerned with academic study or research relating to criminal law or criminology, are the sort of people who could give evidence to the Sentencing Council and help it in its task. I would have thought that that was much less significant in the formation of policy, providing that they were there as advisers, than having people with experience of rehabilitation of offenders, youth offending and the media. It would be highly desirable to try to tie in the media to what the Sentencing Council is doing, and to try to end the desperate division that currently exists between the media’s perception of what happens in court and what actually happens.