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Review to examine impact of judiciary bill
14/05/2008
The possible impact on the judiciary's time of proposals in the Judiciary and Courts Bill is to be the subject of a short-life independent review.
Following concerns expressed by the Justice Committee in their stage one report, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has asked former Senior Chief Inspector of Education in Scotland Douglas Osler to carry out the review.
The proposed remit of the review is:
To reach an independent view on the extent to which new functions proposed for the judiciary in the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Bill will require the commitment of additional judicial time to administrative tasks, and to quantify that commitment of additional judicial time.
The Justice Committee's report, while calling for the review, also recommended that the Parliament should agree to the general principles of the bill.
Speaking during the Bill's stage one debate, Mr MacAskill said:
"The Scottish Government is committed to having a judiciary that is independent of both the legislative and executive branches of government.
"That is why we have brought forward this bill which will strengthen and modernise arrangements for the judiciary and the administration of the courts.
"However, during scrutiny of the bill, the Justice Committee expressed concerns that the new administrative tasks for judges in the bill would impact on their existing judicial duties.
"I have therefore asked Douglas Osler to carry out a short-life review to examine the extent of extra work that the changes will mean for the judiciary. His findings will help inform the ongoing work to develop the bill in the next few months.
"When the bill becomes law it will, along with our programme of summary justice reform, help improve the experience of the public and practitioners in our justice system."
The Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Bill was introduced to the Parliament on 30 January 2008. This followed earlier consultations about proposals to reform the arrangements for Scotland's judiciary [by the previous Administration] in February 2006 Strengthening Judicial Independence in a Modern Scotland and in a White Paper in February 2007 Proposals for a Scotland (Judiciary) Bill. The proposals were also the subject of close consultation with the judiciary and main stakeholder groups throughout their development.
The Justice Committee received 16 written responses to its call for written evidence and took oral evidence from ten sets of individuals/organisations. Respondents were generally very positive about the Bill. The Justice Committee published its report on May 2.
Douglas Osler CB KSG is well qualified to carry out this independent review having carried out the Agency Review of the Scottish Court Service that was published in January 2006. This review looked at the structure and governance of the Scottish Court Service, including aspects of judicial administration.
Douglas Osler's review will be carried out before the Bill returns to the Justice Committee for further scrutiny at stage two.