Clause 11 - Resignation and removal of lay justices
Courts Bill [Lords]
10:00 am
Mr Christopher Leslie (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs; Shipley, Labour)
I do not. [Interruption.] I appreciate the succinct reply of my hon. Friend the Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston (Mr. Miller).
The amendments would pre-empt decisions based on the outcome of the consultation paper on the independent judicial appointments commission, with which members of the Committee will be intimately familiar and which was announced at the time of the Cabinet reshuffle. It will be issued on 14 July and will explore all the points that the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome raised, such as whether judicial office holders should be appointed by the commission. It would be premature for me to form views on the outcome of the consultation process in advance, although clearly the principle of reducing the level of political input into the selection process between candidates for the judiciary is an aim with which the hon. Gentleman agreed. I have not heard disagreement with that concept.