Clause 5 — Removal Or Suspension From Listed Judicial Offices

Part of Orders of the Day — Justice (Northern Ireland) Bill [Lords] – in the House of Commons at 6:15 pm on 26 April 2004.

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Photo of John Spellar John Spellar The Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office 6:15, 26 April 2004

Following the passage of that Act, we have reflected on the situation to see—as we are often pressed to do—whether matters are in accord with the criminal justice review and to examine whether the measures are appropriate. Here we have a situation in which senior members of the judiciary would be involved every inch of the way. I hope that the hon. and learned Gentleman will accept that we are dealing with a very unlikely set of circumstances. Given that that is the case, we are dealing with a situation in which the senior judiciary is involved right the way through the procedure. Would we therefore want to put the Lord Chief Justice in a position in which he effectively had a veto over the decisions of a tribunal in which he and the senior judiciary had been so involved? To some extent, the onus is on the hon. and learned Gentleman to argue why a single person as eminent as the Lord Chief Justice—any Lord Chief Justice—should have such a unilateral right of veto in those circumstances.