Clause 14 — Lord Chancellor's Oath

Part of Orders of the Day — Constitutional Reform Bill [Lords] — [3rd Allotted Day] – in the House of Commons at 3:30 pm on 1 March 2005.

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Photo of Bill Cash Bill Cash Conservative, Stone 3:30, 1 March 2005

I just say that the issue that arose in that instance involved a dispute between Lord Mackay of Clashfern and others. A debate took place on the relationship between the Executive and judges in the House of Lords. As Lord Lester of Herne Hill pointed out, the Lord Chancellor will command the confidence of his judicial colleagues only if he "will protect the judges" and that included independence from any improper interference. I do not need to go into the details of that case but its significance is that, in relation to the swearing of an oath to maintain judicial independence—as you have indicated, Sir Alan, we do not need to go into what that would involve because we have already discussed it on clause 4—the question of what the consequences would be if the Lord Chancellor were to behave in a manner that involved improper interference with the judiciary remains important. That would also apply to the category of activity in relation to the judiciary within the general remit of the definition of international court, which again I do not need to go into because we have covered that already.