Site news
Sign up to receive an
occasional bulletin about new content.
Sign up to receive an
occasional bulletin about new content.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
The main item of justice news in the Parliament last week was the Stage 3 debate of the Judiciary and Courts Bill. There were also a number of justice questions to Ministers.
The Justice Committee
The Committee did not meet this week; but they will be back in action again on the 30th of September when it will take evidence on the draft Budget Bill.
The Chamber
Judiciary and Courts Bill Stage 3 debate
Last Thursday the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Bill cleared its final Parliamentary hurdle with its Stage 3 debate in the Chamber. This Bill will modernise the structure and functioning of the judiciary and enshrine judicial independence in statute. The Bill will make the Lord President, (currently Lord Hamilton), the head of the Scottish Court Service (SCS), and give his office control over issues such as judicial training and discipline. It will also place the SCS under a statutory duty to take account of public and court users’ needs, and also place the Judicial Appointments Board on a statutory footing.
During previous stages of Parliamentary scrutiny, concerns had been raised that this legislation would place too much of an administrative burden on the Lord President’s office, and there were also concerns about a lack of accountability of the functioning of courts if the SCS were to become a non-Ministerial Department. There were also some robust debates in the Justice Committee about whether all aspects of judicial training should be mandatory or not. Some of these concerns were addressed prior to Stage 3: there was an independent evaluation which concluded that there would be no excessive administrative burden on the Lord President, and a Committee amendment also meant that every member of the judiciary must attend any training that the Lord President considers necessary.
The debate on Thursday began by debating the Stage 3 amendments to the Bill. The first major grouping of amendments concerned the possible lack of accountability of the functioning of the courts, now that their control lay in the hands of the Lord President and not the Government. Paul Martin (Lab), and Cathy Craigie (Lab), argued that the management of courts was a different from judicial independence, and the Lord President should therefore be compelled to come and answer questions in the Parliament if there were concerns about the functioning of the courts. However, the Justice Secretary was able to persuade them that there were already sufficient mechanisms in the Bill for ensuring accountability, and the amendments were withdrawn.
There were also a group of amendments lead by Bill Aitken (Con) about the Judicial Appointments Board (JAB), which would require it to inform possible candidates if they have been recommended for appointment, and also (if there are several potential candidates), any ranking they have been given. These amendments were voted down by the Government who were supported by the Liberal Democrats. Another group of amendments successfully put forward by Bill Aitken would allow anyone who was removed from the JAB for reasons of misconduct on incompetence, to be able to speak in their defence.
Following this, there was the final debate about the newly amended Bill, lead by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice. He said that although this piece of legislation ‘may not ignite the nation’s passions’, it was nonetheless of great constitutional importance. He acknowledged that the genesis for the Bill lay with the previous Administration, and he paid tribute to Cathy Jamieson in particular, for her role in its formulation. This point was followed up by Labour’s new justice spokesperson, Richard Baker. Bill Aitken for the Conservatives also highlighted the role of the Justice Committee and he welcomed what he called the ‘rare co-operative venture’ during the whole Parliamentary consideration of this Bill. Mike Pringle (LD) also mentioned the constitutional significance of this Bill, despite it uncontroversial nature, and speakers from across the Chamber welcomed the Bill in what were remarkably consensual contributions. At the end of the debate, the Bill was agreed without opposition.
You can read the full transcripts of this Bill in the Official Report, or watch it on Holyrood.TV for up to one month. You can also find out the details of the Bill on its homepage, and read the press coverage in the newsblog.
Questions
Alcohol Strategy
There was a question from David McLetchie (Con) which asked whether the law which permits alcohol to be sold at international rugby matches in Murrayfield, to be consistent with the Government’s alcohol strategy, which aims at reducing the irresponsible consumption of alcohol. He said it was inconsistent to endorse the consumption of alcohol for those between the ages of 18 and 21 in a sports stadium, but then forbid them to buy alcohol in an off-license to enjoy whilst watching the game on television at home. The Justice Secretary replied that this was not inconsistent, that the Government were opposed to alcohol misuse, which is different from being anti alcohol, and he said that the removal of the ban at Murrayfield had meant there was no longer public drinking in surrounding areas prior to big matches.
You can read this question in the Official Report.Sectarianism
There was a question from David Whitton (Lab) about sectarianism, in which he demanded assurances from the Government that they were addressing the issue of sectarianism, in the light of recent concern expressed by politicians in Ireland about songs sung by both Rangers and Celtic fans during football matches. The Minister for Community Safety, Fergus Ewing, replied that this issue was indeed taken very seriously by this Government, and he listed a range of events that have taken place and groups that have been convened, with the aim of addressing this issue.
And you can read this question in the Official Report. You can also watch these questions on Holyrood.TV.
The Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency
There was a question for the First Minister which gave him the opportunity to highlight the recently published annual report of the SCDEA, which said that class A drugs worth an estimated £16 million were seized in Scotland last year. Mr Salmond said that fighting organised crime was a large part of the fight against drugs, and he highlighted the work of the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce in this task. He also said that the forthcoming Criminal Justice and Licensing Bill will include new offences dealing with organised crime, including encouraging a greater use of financial reporting orders which require convicted offenders to report their finances to police for a period of time after their conviction. During supplementary questions, he also said that progress was being made in the completion of the Gartcosh campus, which is still aiming to be complete by 2011.
And you can read this question in the Official Report, or watch it on Holyrood.TV
Written Questions
There was a question about the number of cases of alcohol poisoning, and about the number of direct measures issued for crimes of indecency, and about Crown guidelines for the translation of English evidence into other languages. There were questions about dealing with drug addicts held in police cells, a question about whether reconviction statistics for individual prisons would be collated, and a question which confirmed that the re conviction rate for those released from custody in 2004 – 5 was 62%, and 55% for all those who were sentenced to a community sentence. There were a number of questions about convictions for selling alcohol to under-age people, and a question about the provision of ‘harm reduction packs’ for addicts in prison. There was a question about what the SPS is doing to combat the spread of drugs within prison, and about the number of sexual offences committed throughout Scotland. And finally, there was a question about the penalties imposed for terrorism offences in Scotland.
Posted by KM
on Tue 30th Sep 2008
at 9:30 am
• Permalink • Tell-a-Friend