Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Lord Bellamy on 28 June (HL Deb, col 580), what plans the Attorney General has to meet the Chairman of the Bar Association to discuss delays in dealing with rape cases.
Answered by Lord Stewart of Dirleton - Advocate General for Scotland
A key part the Attorney General’s role as head of the profession is meeting regularly with the leaders of the Professional bodies to discuss matters of relevance within the criminal justice system including the Chair of the Bar Council, the Chair of the Criminal Bar Association, the President of the Law Society and the Bar Circuit Leaders. These valuable and productive meetings enable the Law Officers to understand the issues affecting front-line practitioners, so that they are able to articulate their concerns to ministerial colleagues to ensure that in the development of government policy, the views of the profession are reflected and understood.
Agendas for these meetings are prepared so as to allow flexibility, in order to allow for discussion of topical issues. Such issues include the views of practitioners on the Crown Court backlog, government initiatives such as the roll out of s.28 and how we are working together to improve the system performance in relation to rape cases.
The regular monthly meetings of the Bar Council are attended either by the Attorney or the Solicitor General, so as to allow the Law Officers a full understanding of the issues that are affecting front-line practitioners.
Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when the terms of reference for the UK COVID-19 public inquiry, chaired by Lady Hallett, will be published; and what are the reasons for the delay.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The final terms of reference for the UK COVID-19 inquiry were published on 28 June 2022. This followed a full and extensive public consultation process led by the inquiry’s independent chair, in addition to engagement with the devolved administrations as required by the Inquiries Act 2005.