Clause 10 - Appointment of lay justices etc.
Courts Bill [Lords]
9:45 am
Mr Christopher Leslie (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs; Shipley, Labour)
As I get older and wiser about these matters, I realise and appreciate the benefits that can come from age and experience. I have had about 15 or 16 days' experience in the field of courts and the wonderful world of the Lord Chancellor, and I feel that great experience should never be thrown away lightly. I will look at whether there are any bars to training that unnecessarily discard experience. I am sure that the system does not do that, but I hear what the hon. Lady says.
There needs to be a degree of independence in the training process. The Judicial Studies Board manages the training of lay justices on behalf of the Lord Chancellor, and it does so well. It is an important aspect of the magistracy's judicial independence that such training should be seen to be free from outside—and particularly political—interference.
Certain training courses need to be prepared quickly—perhaps in response to legislative change—and the amendment would delay or fetter the process of changing or preparing them: their content would need to be laid before Parliament on every such occasion. I am not aware of the contents of training courses in any other field of public life needing to be laid before Parliament.
The hon. Member for Surrey Heath says that he does not wish to interfere with the content of such courses, but if we were to have a provision stating that their contents should be laid before Parliament, that would implicitly suggest that Parliament may wish to debate the contents, or even to give approval of them, and that would be the wrong avenue to go down. Because of those concerns, I hope that the hon. Gentleman will withdraw the amendment.