Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

Thank you for getting us out of a procedural conundrum in respect of exactly who should be speaking, Sir Michael. The point that I wish to raise on schedule 5—this may assist the Minister in collecting his thoughts—relates to the Government's response on the order-making power to exempt positions from the JAC's remit. In response to the Joint Committee's report, the Government said:""The Government remains convinced that the most appropriate way to resolve this issue is an order making power"," but they went on to say that the Government""no longer believes this Bill is the appropriate vehicle for such a change, and in the meantime will explore further non-statutory options available."" I would like to know precisely what that means. What are those "non-statutory options" that the Minister is exploring? When does he expect to bring forward more detailed proposals? What will they encompass? Schedule 5 removes magistrates from the JAC's remit by deleting them from schedule 14 to the 2005 Act. Presumably there is a good reason for that. The 2008 draft Bill also proposed an extremely broad order-making power allowing the Lord Chancellor to amend any part of schedule 14 to the 2005 Act to exempt candidates to certain offices from being selected by the JAC. I think that procedure was intended to allow redeployment, rather than appointment, and to facilitate matters within the field of judicial appointments. It would have been a sweeping power and, as such, it was not entirely surprising that it met with opposition from the JAC itself, the Lord Chief Justice, the House of Lords Constitution Committee and the Joint Committee. Although that proposal has now been dropped, we face the threat or promise of arriving at the same result by alternative means. We are entitled to know from the Minister exactly what those alternative means are and what the Government's intention is.