Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Bill
The Bill
The Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Bill intends to modernise the organisation and leadership of Scotland's judiciary, giving them greater authority over the Scottish Court Service. The Bill will also put the arrangements for the Judicial Appointments Board on a statutory footing.
It will:
- Create a unified judiciary presided over by a Lord President with responsibilities and powers concerning the disposal of business in both the inferior and superior courts and the training, welfare, deployment and conduct of the judiciary
- Introduce revised governance arrangements for the Scottish Court Service centred on a statutory board, chaired by the Lord President
- Provide a statutory basis for the Judicial Appointments Board
- Introduce revised arrangements for the removal of judges and sheriffs
- Introduce a scheme to deal with issues of judicial conduct
- Introduce arrangements for the appointment of retired and temporary judicial office holders
- Expand the grounds of eligibility for appointment as a judge of the Court of Session
The draft Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on the 30 January 2008, and is available to download from the Scottish Parliaments website. A news release was also issued.
Research
The research publication Matters of Judicial Appointments, Conduct and Revovals in Commonwealth Juridictions has been published on research findings which describes how matters of judicial appointments, conduct and removal are conduced in four comparable jurisdictions; England and Wales, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Consultation and Analysis Process
Proposals to reform the arrangements for Scotland's judiciary were first consulted upon in the paper Strengthening Judicial Independence in a Modern Scotland published in February 2006. Sixty repsonses were received, non-confidential responses are available to read. An analysis of the responses has since been published; Analysis of Written Consultation Responses.
Plans for the creation of a unified judiciary and the related broader reforms were refined in light of the 2006 consultation, and were set out for further comment in the second part of the white paper Proposals for a Judiciary (Scotland) Bill which was published in February 2007. No formal analysis has been carried out, however 25 responses are available to view.