Results 1-20 of 2,578 for speaker:Lord Goodhart

Crime and Courts Bill [HL]: Third Reading (18 December 2012)

Lord Goodhart: My Lords, I am going to take a rather unusual position on this and say that I am afraid I do not agree with Amendment 3. I was considerably involved in the drafting of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 and I had no objection at that time to Sections 48 and 49, which are now objected to in this amendment. The reason why I do not welcome this amendment is that the chief executive is an...

Crime and Courts Bill [HL]: Report (3rd Day) (10 December 2012)

Lord Goodhart: My Lords, I regret that I cannot support this new clause. I agree entirely with what the noble and learned Lords, Lord Woolf and Lord Lloyd of Berwick, and a number of other practising lawyers have said. I regard this matter as very unsatisfactory. I have not practised as a barrister in recent years but I practised in the past and this proposal is unsatisfactory.

Crime and Courts Bill [HL]: Committee (4th Day) (27 June 2012)

Lord Goodhart: My Lords, is it not more difficult for the Lord Chancellor to object to someone publicly rather than to discuss the appointment in a group of which he is a member? Does that not mean, therefore, that if the Minister tries to remove the person, he will do so only if there is very strong evidence to show that it is an unsatisfactory appointment, whereas if he is part of a group, the other...

Crime and Courts Bill [HL]: Committee (4th Day) (27 June 2012)

Lord Goodhart: My Lords, the role of the Lord Chancellor is very different from that which existed before the 2005 Act came into effect. We have no certainty at all that future Lord Chancellors will take an equivalent role to that of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, who was an outstandingly strong and determined Lord Chancellor. The role of Lord Chancellor is now entirely different...

Crime and Courts Bill [HL] — Committee (3rd Day) (Continued) (25 June 2012)

Lord Goodhart: My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble and learned Lord. That is exactly the view I have taken today.

Crime and Courts Bill [HL] — Committee (3rd Day) (Continued) (25 June 2012)

Lord Goodhart: My Lords, I have proposed the removal from the Bill of Clause 18 and Schedule 12. I make it clear that this is not done to abolish the provisions that are dealt with in Clause 18 and Schedule 12. Instead I intend to enable the Government to provide, in proceedings that are separate from the Bill, a better system for the extremely important issue of judicial appointments. The provisions...

Crime and Courts Bill [HL] — Committee (3rd Day) (Continued) (25 June 2012)

Lord Goodhart: I am sorry to interrupt, but it appears that in the order in which these matters are printed, I am the second and final person specifically connected with Clause 18 in this group, and it seems to me that this is the point at which I should be able to state my views on this matter.

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill: Report (5th Day) (20 March 2012)

Lord Goodhart: My Lords, I agree entirely with what the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, has just said. Referral fees have for some years been a serious problem in almost all circumstances and have caused a great deal of trouble and unnecessary expense. It is not a case where, as the Labour Party has just proposed, it should be treated just as a matter where two firms are in business. This is a matter that...

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill: Committee (9th Day) (Continued) (9 February 2012)

Lord Goodhart: My Lords, would it not be more expensive to keep in prison these people who should not be there rather than going through the relatively simple processes that would be required to stop them having to remain on an indeterminate sentence?

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill: Committee (9th Day) (Continued) (9 February 2012)

Lord Goodhart: My Lords, I was not involved in criminal law during my practice as a barrister, but I became very interested in IPPs in 2009 because we were then dealing with what became the Coroners and Justice Act. I became particularly concerned at this because Dame Anne Owers, who was then the Chief Inspector of Prisons, together with the Chief Inspector of Probation had written an absolutely devastating...

Welfare Reform Bill: Report (6th Day) (25 January 2012)

Lord Goodhart: My Lords, I do not often vote against coalition policy. I voted for the coalition on Monday, when the coalition was in fact defeated. I voted for the coalition policy then, not because I personally supported that policy but because it was something that I could and should accept as a member of my party and therefore the coalition. This occasion is entirely different. The draft that the...

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill: Committee (3rd Day) (16 January 2012)

Lord Goodhart: My Lords, the speech of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd, at the beginning of the debate was both thorough and persuasive. There is nothing that I wish-or would be able-to add to the basis of his arguments. It is widely believed, and I am one of the believers, that post-accident insurance premiums have been an unsatisfactory element of legal aid in the past. It is therefore very...

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill: Committee (3rd Day) (16 January 2012)

Lord Goodhart: My Lords, I entirely agree with what has been said by the noble Lord, Lord Faulks, and the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss. At present, as has already been pointed out, the Bill authorises the Lord Chancellor to omit the services under Schedule 1 but it does not permit him to extend his powers by adding to the services in Schedule 1. Any extension of the power would therefore...

Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Bill [HL]: Report (20 December 2011)

Lord Goodhart: My Lords, I would like to mention one matter as the noble Lord, Lord Eatwell, has referred to the amendments that I put forward in Committee. As I said then, there was basically a pedantic reason for what I did. I thought what I did was slightly better but, quite frankly, it was not a serious problem at all. As they were not automatically accepted in Committee, there is no point in raising...

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill: Committee (1st Day) (20 December 2011)

Lord Goodhart: My Lords-

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill: Committee (1st Day) (20 December 2011)

Lord Goodhart: My Lords, it is the turn of this side, but I wait with pleasure to hear what the noble and learned Lord has to say. When I started my career as a barrister in the late 1950s, we had started with legal aid for only a few years. Up until then, aid from lawyers to poor people who were prosecuted for criminal offences mostly came from a group of barristers of poor quality who spent their time...

Protection of Freedoms Bill: Committee (2nd Day) (6 December 2011)

Lord Goodhart: My Lords, what the noble Baroness has said is certainly a move in the right direction and that pleases me considerably. I hope that developments of the kind she has suggested will be brought about and that that will be done without undue delay. This is a serious problem, as the statement made by the Information Commission has shown, so I hope that things will go forward. I will withdraw the...

Protection of Freedoms Bill: Committee (2nd Day) (6 December 2011)

Lord Goodhart: My Lords, we have just heard one of the most remarkable statements that has been made in your Lordships' House that I can remember since being here. Now it is time to move to much more ordinary amendments. The amendments in this group are concerned with rehabilitation of offenders. The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act was enacted back in 1974. I have had an interest in this subject because I...

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill — Second Reading (21 November 2011)

Lord Goodhart: My Lords, in the last year of his life, Lord Bingham-the greatest judge, I believe, of my adult life-wrote and published a short but remarkable book called The Rule of Law. In Chapter 8, he wrote: "The pressure for reform culminated in the Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949 ... For half a century the legal aid scheme enabled those without means to sue and defend themselves in the courts ... But...

Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures Bill: Report (15 November 2011)

Lord Goodhart: My Lords, I have supported the statements of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd of Berwick, at Second Reading and in Committee. I will take the same position yet again on Report. I agree that terrorism is a great threat to the United Kingdom and that steps must be taken to prevent it. I agree that those steps may include civil penalties that restrict the activities of those who are...