I understand, and although two of us in this three-way exchange are lawyers, my right hon. Friend the Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Mr. Beith) is an academic, as well as an esteemed politician. I spend huge amounts of my constituency time rescuing people from lawyers, rather than sending them in the direction of lawyers, because often that is the last place that they ought to be and it gives them more problems than they need. There are some very good lawyers, but one does not always need a lawyer to solve the problem. I welcome what I think is the intention now: that in the upper level of tribunal, any hearing of a judicial review application will be before a High Court judge. I am clear that, if one asks somebody to assess whether the rights of a citizen have been upheld by the state, they need to be somebody with the proper authority.
Part 2 of the Bill is welcome. I put questions to the Minister and I was grateful for her replies. We need to broaden the base of our judicial system and the proposals go in the right direction. We have talked about parts 3, 4 and 5 the most. We all had a litany of concerns that we had encountered as constituency Members of Parliament. Those of us who have been engaged in these areas have had representations from people outside this place who are properly concerned about what the new proposals mean. They are concerned that, since the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 came into place, there has been a step too far in giving powers to bailiffs. I am a bit troubled because, although the Minister said that, as far as she was aware, the new powers have been used sparingly, I do not think that we have seen evidence of how many times that means. It would be helpful if the Under-Secretary of State for Wales could give us that information when he winds up. If that information has been given elsewhere and I have missed it, I apologise.
Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill [Lords]
Proceeding contribution from
Simon Hughes
(Liberal Democrat)
in the House of Commons on Monday, 5 March 2007.
It occurred during Debate on bills on Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill [HL].
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2006-07Chamber / Committee
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