Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Paula Barker and Liz Twist

Monday 7th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

6. What assessment he has made of the impact of reductions to local authority budgets on the Government’s levelling-up agenda.

[Paula Barker (Liverpool, Wavertree) (Lab)]

12. What assessment he has made of the impact of reductions to local authority budgets on the Government’s levelling-up agenda.

Judicial Review and Courts Bill (Second sitting)

Debate between Paula Barker and Liz Twist

Committee stage
Tuesday 2nd November 2021 Public Bill Committees

[Paula Barker]

Thank you, Chair. Ms Needleman, what are your views on the powers provided to the Lord Chancellor by the OPR provisions, and do you believe that they cause a democratic deficit?

Stephanie Needleman: The provisions relating to the online procedure rules give significant power to the Lord Chancellor. The Government have themselves recognised that the broad powers provided to the Lord Chancellor could have a significant impact on access to justice and that some of those powers should therefore be subject to a requirement to obtain the concurrence of the Lord Chief Justice. However, there is a slight lacuna in the Bill, in that two powers are not subject to the same concurrence requirement.

Those are the power to require the online procedure rule committee to make rules, and a broad Henry VIII power to make consequential amendments, the latter power being subject only to a consultation requirement and the former to no requirements at all. That undermines the point of having a concurrence requirement in the first place. As Lord Judge pointed out on Report of the Courts and Tribunals (Online Procedure) Bill—the previous iteration of these rules—taken together, those powers overrule the very rules that the Government themselves made subject to the concurrence requirement because of the wide-ranging impact the provisions can have on access to justice.

[Liz Twist]

Q Ms Needleman, do you have any concerns about the type of online convictions that might be used in future?

Stephanie Needleman: Absolutely. As I said before, we do not think this procedure, as it stands, should be introduced at all, because of the lack of evidence and the concerns around protections in relation to the identification of vulnerabilities and inequalities. However, if it is introduced, we at Justice are calling for it to be restricted to non-recordable offences only.

Currently, the Bill would allow the procedure to be used for a range of offences that would cause people to have a criminal record. That could impact parents when it comes to failing to provide for the safety of children at entertainments, for example, or it could impact pub-goers and pub owners in relation to the offences of being drunk in a public place or selling alcohol to a person who is drunk. If the procedure is to be introduced, we would call for it to be for non-recordable offences only, because the implications of being convicted of those are smaller.