Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Bill

Speech delivered on Thu 25th Sep 2008

Mike Pringle (Edinburgh South) (LD): As we have heard, the bill is important. Work on it was started in the previous parliamentary session by the Scottish Executive, and the Liberal Democrats are pleased that it is reaching its conclusion. In the previous two sessions, the Scottish Parliament passed a range of bills on the justice system in Scotland. The bill follows on from those important changes and deals with new issues that needed to be addressed.

The Liberal Democrats believe that the independence of the judiciary is the foundation on which our legal system is built. The bill will set out in statute for the first time in Scotland a guarantee of judicial independence, which is important symbolically and sends out the right message. The bill will unify the judiciary under the Lord President

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and, according to him, it presents an opportunity for the Scottish Parliament to make a law of considerable constitutional significance that will place the relationship of the judiciary with the Scottish Government and the Parliament on a completely new footing. The bill will strengthen the independence of the judiciary by placing an obligation on the First Minister, the Lord Advocate, the Scottish ministers and all those with responsibility for matters relating to the judiciary to uphold its continued independence. I reiterate that that is particularly welcomed by the Liberal Democrats.

The bill also establishes a Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland by putting the existing board on a statutory footing. We welcome that, as it will enable processes and procedures to be developed and built on. The board was established in June 2002 on a non-statutory basis. Its creation was intended by the then Scottish Executive to ensure that the way in which judges are appointed is seen to be entirely free from inappropriate influence. The board appoints individuals to all Scottish courts. The Scottish Government can make a judicial appointment only if the board has recommended the individual for appointment.

When the committee agreed to the general principles of the bill, members addressed a number of points, one of which was the question of making judicial training mandatory. I am sure that, in the past, all judges and sheriffs more than adequately kept up with changes in legislation. However, the fact that they were not required to undergo any judicial training has been addressed in the bill. The Government believes that the Lord President should be responsible for judicial training, but I am pleased that it accepted Margaret Smith's stage 2 amendment whereby

"the Lord President must require any judicial office holder ... to attend such training as the Lord President determines."

We believe that more should and must be done to help victims of crime. That work will be enhanced by providing judges with adequate training on the needs of vulnerable people, particularly with reference to the limits of acceptable examination and judicial intervention.

Training seemed to be a difficult issue, and it also seems strange that it has been so difficult to remove somebody who sits in the High Court, the sheriff court or even the district court. Chapter 5 of the bill deals with the subject of removal from office: sections 33 to 37 deals with judges; section 38 deals with sheriffs; and section 38A deals with justices of the peace. The bill provides for the establishment of a tribunal to consider the fitness of all judicial office-holders, and proposes that the Lord President be given unqualified power to suspend and that the First Minister be given the

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power to suspend on the recommendation of the tribunal. Again, I believe that that will enhance the public's confidence in the judicial system.

My colleague Margaret Smith lodged an amendment at stage 2, which was not agreed to, which proposed that responsibility for decisions about boundaries and the location of sheriff courts remain with Scottish ministers rather than being transferred to the Lord President. I am pleased that the stage 3 amendments that the cabinet secretary lodged in that regard were agreed earlier this afternoon.

I congratulate the Justice Committee on getting the bill to this stage. I would have been interested to serve on the committee during the passage of the bill, as I am sure that its debates were interesting. If passed at decision time, the bill will make important changes to the justice system that should make it more accountable and more open. I am sure that those in the justice system will welcome the bill as a positive and important way forward. The Liberal Democrats will be happy to support the bill at decision time.

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