Martin Partington: Spotlight on the Justice System

One of the first new Bills to be introduced into Parliament, following the Queens Speech, is the Crime and Courts Bill. In relation to judicial appointments it includes measures to:

• Have an independent lay person as chair of the selection panels for both the Lord Chief Justice and President of the UK Supreme Court, rather than a judge
• Increase Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) involvement in the selection and appointment of the judges who are authorised to sit as Deputy High Court Judges
• Provide the Lord Chancellor with an increased and more effective role in appointing the most senior judges – through the use of pre-selection consultation in appointments to the Court of Appeal and Heads of Division and sitting on the selection commission for the appointment of the Lord Chief Justice and President of the UK Supreme Court
• Reduce the role of the Lord Chancellor in the appointment of less senior judges, by transferring his powers for judicial appointments below the High Court and Court of Appeal to the Lord Chief Justice
• Introduce flexible deployment so judges can move between working in the courts and tribunals systems, to help judicial career development. (This was seen as a key step in the report published by the Advisory Panel on Judicial Diversity.)

Obviously these changes will not come into effect until the Bill has become law. Developments will be jept under review here.