Judicial Review and Courts Bill

Baroness Laing of Elderslie Excerpts

Report stage
Tuesday 25th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[James Cartlidge]

I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

With this it will be convenient to discuss the following:

New clause 2—Online Procedural Assistance—

‘(1) Online Procedural Assistance, must be made available and accessible to any party or potential party to proceedings governed by Online Procedure Rules that requires it. In delivering this duty, the Lord Chancellor must have due regard to the intersection of digital exclusion with other factors, such as age, poverty, disability and geography and deliver support services accordingly.

(2) It must include assistance to enable such a party or potential party to have a reasonable understanding of the nature of the proceedings, the procedure applicable under Online Procedure Rules and of how to access and navigate such procedure. To this effect, it will provide both advice and technical hardware, as appropriate, and will provide assistance to such individuals throughout the course of their proceedings.

(3) Anyone who requires Online Procedural Assistance must have the option of receiving it either via remote appointments or in-person appointments at a site local to them.

(4) Online Procedural Assistance must include, for a party or potential party whose first language is not English, assistance, by interpretation or translation as appropriate, in a language that is familiar to the party or potential party.

(5) The delivery of Online Procedural Assistance must be evaluated at yearly intervals by an independent evaluation team. To assist in these evaluations, data must be routinely collected relating to the protected characteristics of those using the service, outcomes of cases that used Online Procedural Assistance and the frequency and location of the appointments provided. This must also be made publicly available.’

This new clause clarifies the nature of online procedural assistance.

New clause 3—Review of the single justice procedure—

‘(1) Within two months beginning with the day on which this Act is passed, the Secretary of State must commission a review of and publish a report on the effectiveness of the single justice procedure.

(2) A review under subsection (1) must consider—

(a) the transparency of the single justice procedure in line with the principle of open justice,

(b) the suitability of the use of the single justice procedure for Covid-19 offences, and

(c) prosecution errors for Covid-19 offences under the single justice procedure and what redress victims of errors have.

(3) The Secretary of State must lay a copy of the report before Parliament.’

New clause 7—Compatibility with Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights—

‘(1) This Act must be construed in accordance with Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

(2) If a court or tribunal has found a provision of this Act to be incompatible with Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, it may, on application, make an order to that effect and that provision shall cease to have effect.’

This new clause would ensure the compatibility of the Act with Article 6 of the ECHR (right to a fair trial).

Amendment 36, clause 3, page 4, line 28, at end insert—

‘(1) Before this section may come into force, the Secretary of State must—

(a) commission an independent review of the potential impact, efficacy, and operational issues on defendants and the criminal justice system of the automatic online conviction and penalty for certain summary offences;

(b) lay before Parliament the report and findings of this independent review; and

(c) provide a response explaining whether and how such issues which have been identified will be mitigated.’

This amendment would require a review of clause 3 before it can come into force.

Amendment 20, page 5, line 34, at end insert—

‘(e) the prosecutor is satisfied that the accused does not have any vulnerabilities and disabilities that impede the ability of the accused to understand or effectively participate in proceedings, having undertaken a physical and mental health assessment.’

This amendment would require that all accused persons considered for automatic online convictions are subject to a health assessment, and that only those who do not have any vulnerabilities or disabilities are given the option of being convicted online.

Amendment 21, page 5, leave out lines 35 to 37 and insert—

‘(4) An offence may not be specified in regulations under subsection (3)(a) unless it is—

(a) a summary offence that is not punishable with imprisonment; and

(b) a non-recordable offence, which excludes any offence set out in the Schedule to the National Police Records (Recordable Offences) Regulations 2000/1139 (as amended).’

This amendment would exclude any offences which are recordable from the automatic online conviction option.

Amendment 22, clause 9, page 26, line 1, leave out subsection (5).

This amendment would remove cases involving children and young people from the provisions of clause 9.

Amendment 40, clause 21, page 39, line 13, leave out “(3) and (4)” and insert “(3), (4) and (4A)”.

This amendment is consequential on Amendment 41.

Amendment 41, page 39, line 30, at end insert—

‘(4A) The Lord President of the Court of Session is to appoint one person with experience in and knowledge of the Scottish legal system.’

This amendment would require the Online Procedure Committee to include a person with experience in and knowledge of the Scottish legal system, appointed by the Lord President of the Court of Session.

Government amendments 7 to 19.

[James Cartlidge]

The Government’s new clause 1 will provide powers to vary the maximum prison sentence that magistrates courts can give for a single offence. Court recovery remains a top priority for the Government. We have considered all options to support recovery in the criminal courts and have already taken several steps, such as investing £250 million in court recovery in the last financial year. The most recent spending review settlement provides £477 million to improve waiting times for victims and to reduce Crown court backlogs caused by the pandemic.