Clause 3 - Judicial Appointments Commission
Justice (Northern Ireland) Bill
5:30 pm
Mr Lembit Öpik (Montgomeryshire, Liberal Democrat)
Life is a boomerang. My unkind remarks about the hon. Member for Reigate and the Tory party have caused a generous compensation to arise from the Government. I simply warn the Minister that he must brace himself for a more cautious approach before we support him, as I am abandoned on an island of integrity as the Government sway one way and the other. That is the price that I pay for unwittingly repeating the hon. Member for Reigate, and not in jest.
In that context and in the spirit of listening that the Government have adopted, I hope that the Minister will listen seriously to the reasons why we have introduced the amendments. The rationale for the amendments is straightforward, and they all relate to the Judicial Appointments Commission. I raised the issue on Second Reading and explained that the Liberal Democrats are unhappy that the Bill allows the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, acting jointly, to appoint the lay members of the commission. We are concerned that that contravenes the report's recommendation that the appointments process must clearly be seen to be insulated from political influence. Safeguarding the independence of the judiciary is of singular importance to the review of the criminal justice system; we discussed that at some length earlier. The lay members of the Judicial Appointments Commission cannot afford to be seen as political appointees.
We suggested two ways to get round the problem, although only one has been selected for debate. It is contained in amendments Nos. 140 and 141, which specify that the Lord Chief Justice would nominate five judicial members to the commission, and that the Bar Council and Law Society would each nominate a member. Those seven members will be appointed by the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, as provided for in the Bill. However, the Secretary of State would appoint the lay members. That is not ideal; it means that the appointment of lay members is slightly further removed from those who are directly elected by the people of Northern Ireland.
We recognise that the amendment is complicated, in that part of the commission would be appointed by the
First Minister and Deputy First Minister and the other part by the Secretary of State. We accept that the Minister and the Government may find a more elegant solution to the issue; nevertheless, there is an issue. We put forward a separate set of proposals in amendment No. 151, which has not been called, to exclude particular categories of people from selection on the basis of a potential conflict of interest. We made the proposal to illustrate that there is more than one way to resolve the problem.
Fundamentally, our concern harks back to the issue that we discussed at the beginning of the sitting about the independence of the judiciary. Incidentally, we are not sympathetic to amendment No. 3, which decreases the number of lay members from five to four, because we believe that that number would not adequately represent the various strands in the population of Northern Ireland. Almost by definition, it would be difficult to achieve a true cross-section. I would genuinely welcome comments on the amendments from other hon. Members.
I look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say about the amendments and, more fundamentally, the issue that they raise. I hope that the Government are willing to give it some consideration, either by accepting our amendments or by giving a reassurance that we will revisit it in the time available between now and Report.