Clause 13 - Appeals commissioners
Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill
2:45 pm
David Hanson (Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office; Delyn, Labour)
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his brevity. His amendment would inject a role for the Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission into the appointment of the appeals commissioners.
The commission’s role is to promote people to judicial posts; it is not concerned with the allocation of judges to certain courts or certain parts of the system. Furthermore, only one appeals commissioner needs to be a judge. If the amendment were accepted, the Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission would have a role in appointing non-judicial commissioners.
As hon. Members are aware, a retired judge will chair the appeals commissioners and it is not clear to me that the JAC should have a role in deciding how a retired judge would be employed.
The amendments tabled by the Democratic Unionist party would ensure that the appeals commissioners were representative of the community and sought wider community support. I agree with that, and I shall try to ensure that there is widespread acceptance of the appeals commissioners across the community at large.