Crime and Courts Bill [HL]

Lord Dholakia Excerpts

Monday 28th May 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Dholakia]

My Lords, the best thing about the Crime and Courts Bill is that it is being introduced in your Lordships’ House. Between now and Third Reading, we will have the unique opportunity to scrutinise its contents. I have no doubt that it will be a better Bill than those which we normally receive from the other end. There are measures in this Bill which I welcome and there are issues on which we expect the Minister to provide further explanation during its passage.

I wish to concentrate on Part 2, which contains various provisions in respect of modernising courts and the tribunal system. Reading carefully between the lines, it seems that apart from the establishment of the National Crime Agency in Part 1, we are dealing with a number of matters that surfaced during the LASPO Bill in the last Session of Parliament. I received further proof of this when my noble friend Lady Linklater started where she left off last time, particularly on matters of sentencing and restorative justice.

Many of the issues were highlighted at the time, but we now have greater clarity about the Government’s intentions, and I thank them for that. The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 made substantial changes to the process of selecting and appointing various judicial officeholders. We had the Judicial Appointments Commission and a separate process for appointing the Justices of the Supreme Court. The Ministry of Justice’s consultation document entitled Appointments and Diversity, and its own response to it, now forms the basis of Part 2; it intends to achieve a proper balance between executive, judicial and independent responsibilities. I fully subscribe to the Minister’s view that this will bring clarity, transparency and openness to the judicial process.

Our system of justice is at the heart of the democratic process and I trust that these objectives will further cement the confidence of the community in our judicial system. I also welcome the emphasis on diversity. Britain’s minority ethnic population stands at between 8% and 10%, and while quotas are wrong in principle and in law, there is nothing wrong with setting targets that, over a period of time, could achieve a fair balance in our judiciary. My friend the noble Baroness, Lady Prashar, as the first chair of the Judicial Appointments Commission, has laid a sound foundation on which we need to build.

However, there is a distinct omission. Is there any reason why the appointment of magistrates should be excluded from this process? The Ministry of Justice has made great strides in ensuring that the magistracy is reflective of the society it serves, but it would be helpful if the Minister would revisit the clause to ensure that the measures to promote diversity in the appointments process apply to magistrates as well.

I recently chaired a public engagement programme run by the Magistrates’ Association in order to gain a greater understanding of people’s views on the future of summary justice and the role of magistrates. The evidence included contributions from the local police, local victims of crime, local magistrates, professionals from intervention agencies, ex-offenders, local legal practitioners and the audience, which included the general public.

During our evidence-gathering session, we expected criticism but instead found a good deal of understanding of the way magistrates perform their duties. Two common facts emerged from every consultation held in the country. The first was that local justice should remain local within a magistracy that is representative of our diverse society, and a lot needs to be done in this respect. The second was that the magistracy is not reflective of class in society, and one of the biggest barriers to overcoming this lies in the recruitment of people who hold down ordinary jobs. However, we need to exercise care, since appointment is only a small part of the process. It is not simply selection and recruitment that are important; retention is a vital element, and that comes about only when effective training is part of the retention programme.

I said earlier that there are some good measures in the Bill. An example is the single family court for England and Wales. Care needs to be exercised in how this is to be implemented, and I ask the Minister to ensure that family court magistrates continue to play a significant role in this respect.

An area of considerable interest in the Bill relates to community and other non-custodial sentences for adults. My noble friend Lord McNally can take great credit for rescuing the Youth Justice Board in the last Session of Parliament. The board has reduced youth crime and continues to do so, but now we need to push my noble friend even further. The Ministry of Justice consultation paper, entitled Punishment and Reform: Effective Community Sentences, is most welcome. We look forward to the Government’s response when the consultation concludes on 26 June 2012. I do not subscribe to the pessimistic view of the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Basildon. The consultation is a serious exercise and the Government’s response may not be available until around the Summer Recess, but that is no reason not to set out some of the parameters of the policies that we would like to see introduced. All I ask of the Minister is that he will ensure that we have ample opportunity to question him, as we would normally do in Committee, if that stage is missed out.

I have repeatedly stressed the more effective use of community sentences instead of short-term prison sentences for low-level offences. The incidence and nature of crime varies from place to place and from generation to generation, and it is obvious that crime is something that all societies have to come to terms with in their own way. We can debate the underlying causes of crime, but most research and consultations have tended to refute rather than confirm the causes of crime and the effectiveness of punishment and treatment. Magistrates tread delicately but effectively, particularly when the public and political mood continues to be conditioned more by tabloid reporting than the considered way in which magistrates reach their decisions.

Prison is expensive, and reoffending rates are frightening. Roma Hooper, director of Make Justice Work, says that community sentences have lowered levels of reoffending and are better value for taxpayers, yet we are not advocating tending gardens, painting walls or putting up fences, as seems to be the perception in the minds of both sentencers and the general public. Community sentences need to be robust and demanding in order both to challenge offenders and to gain the confidence of the public. There are many good examples that we can look at, particularly when we consider the international dimension. The probation service should also be equipped with adequate resources to ensure that this happens. We also need to look at the role of the voluntary and private sectors in providing innovative approaches and building programmes tailored to the individual needs of each offender.

Punishment on its own has a very limited impact on offenders. In our nationwide consultation, it became clear that the public, including many victims, expect to see punishment as part of a sentence but that the priority is for the offender to stop offending. The public do not want what happened to them to happen to others, or to themselves again. I commend my noble friend Lady Linklater’s contribution on this subject. I trust that the end product of the Government’s consultation will clearly demonstrate that it is possible for restoration and rehabilitation to be a fundamental part of the process in our courts.

I will certainly have more to say when the Government’s response is available. I conclude by saying that it is for us to lead public opinion and not simply follow it. For too long, public policies have had the imprint of media pressure. It is time to change this political emphasis. With all the expertise available in your Lordships’ House, this will be a better Bill when it reaches the Commons.