Coroners and Justice Bill

Amendments 187AB and 187BC in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Henley, refer to the judicial membership of the council and suggest that we should add two more magistrates to the membership, which would increase the judicial membership from eight to 10 members and the overall membership from 14 to 16. The noble Lord would not have had the benefit of seeing the government amendments to which I have spoken today, which were tabled at approximately the same time as his. They will remove the requirements for a set number of members at each level of the judiciary while ensuring that there is at least one magistrate, one district judge and one circuit judge. Of course, under our amendments it is open to the Lord Chief Justice to nominate the judicial members in the balance of numbers that he thinks is appropriate for the council. In this way, the overall membership of the council remains at 14 and the balance between the judicial and non-judicial membership—8:6—remains the same, with a small judicial majority. The Government are aware of the important role that lay magistrates play in our criminal justice system. Of course magistrates should be represented on the council. Under our amendments, there must be at least one magistrate, with an option open to the Lord Chief Justice to appoint more. We believe that conferring the discretion on the Lord Chief Justice is a better approach, on balance, than prescribing a set number of magistrates and judges at each level of the judiciary to sit on the council. Before I turn to the other amendments, I thank all noble Lords for their general support for the approach that we have adopted in this part of the Bill regarding the make-up of the council. Not least, I thank the noble and learned Lord, Lord Woolf, with his experience in this field for what he had to say about the role of the Lord Chief Justice in the sentencing council. What I am going to say is similar to what my noble friend Lord Borrie suggested a few minutes ago. We accept Amendment 188, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Dholakia, which seeks to add to the skills that the Justice Secretary considers in appointing non-judicial members of the council experience of the rehabilitation of offenders. The importance of placing emphasis on the rehabilitation of offenders has been raised on both sides of the Committee, not least by the noble Baroness, Lady Linklater, in our debates two days ago. The Government recognise the importance of rehabilitation and reducing reoffending and agree that skills in that field should be considered in the appointment of non-judicial members of the council. So we welcome and support Amendment 188. We are not unsympathetic to the other amendments, but we do not think that the case is really made in either of the two fields that the noble Baroness refers to. Let me try briefly to explain why. Amendment 188A would add to the skills non-judicial members’ experience of the media. While I recognise that it is important for a body such as the council to communicate well with the public and the media, we do not think it necessary to include a representative of the media among the non-judicial members of the council. There is a need for public debate on sentencing and how sentences are reported, but we are not persuaded that a media representative on the council is the way to address this. First, the council itself will need specialist media staff to deal with media interest in this field. Secondly, many of the non-judicial members in their own right, by virtue of their current positions, will have considerable media experience. So we do not feel it necessary to put that in the Bill. As far as youth offending is concerned, no one doubts the importance of dealing with young offenders, but the list of skills of non-judicial members, as my noble friend indicated, already includes experience of youth offending. I will give two examples. The member with experience of policing will surely have experience of youth offending. Also, I would expect the member with experience of sentencing policy and the administration of justice to have experience of sentencing youths. While recognising the good intent behind the amendment, we do not think that it is necessary, given the range and depth of experience that we would expect from the non-judicial members of the council. We are happy to accept Amendment 188 but I ask other noble Lords not to press their amendments.