Clause 3 - Judicial Appointments Commission
Justice (Northern Ireland) Bill
6:15 pm
Mr Crispin Blunt (Reigate, Conservative)
I am concerned that the Minister has been educated too long in the school of the block vote. There should be no suggestion that the judicial members of the commission will vote as a block. They will surely take decisions as individuals on the
merit of the cases that come in front of them, and according to their work within the commission. The issue of whether the judicial members should have a majority cannot be presented in such terms. It is much more about where the balance of skills should lie on the Judicial Appointments Commission, and I believe that that balance should give a slightly greater weighting to members of the judiciary.