It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Lewisham East (Janet Daby), who makes a very good point about diversity. The new recruitment campaign that we have launched for magistrates this week is very clearly focused on attracting a more diverse audience of potential participants to consider joining the bench.
In fact, the Chair of the Justice Committee, my hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Sir Robert Neill), said that the increase in sentencing powers must not just be a backlog measure—and it is not. I will give a good example of that: on the day that we announced the change, I am reliably informed that “How do you become a magistrate?” was one of the trending searches on Google. The serious point is that the very fact of raising those powers shows our commitment to the
magistracy and, in my view, will help to attract more people, because it shows how seriously the Government are taking it.
5.45 pm
I wish my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington South (Andy Carter) many happy returns. I am delighted that, for his birthday present, he had the chance to talk about the realisation of one of the main measures that he has been calling for, which is the extension of sentencing powers. I have very much appreciated my engagement with him and other MPs who are or have been magistrates, and with the Magistrates Association. I will continue to engage on the many aspects that he talked about in terms of recruitment and how we work with employers. They were all excellent points.
To turn to the specific amendments that have been tabled, I will begin with the new clauses and amendments to the online procedure rule committee. New clause 2 relates to those who are digitally excluded and sets out duties to provide assistance to litigants or prospective litigants. We recognise that some users may have problems accessing digital services and may need help in starting or progressing their case online. I am committed to ensuring that access to justice remains available to all.
The measures in the Bill aim to direct most users through digital channels in the first instance, but I recognise that some users may experience challenges with accessing and using digital services. Paper forms and offline routes will therefore remain available and HMCTS is undertaking work to review those routes.
Support will be provided through We Are Digital’s network of partners, through a range of channels, to provide digital support. Users can even attend in-person appointments, as well as receive in-home face-to-face support where a trainer in the relevant region can attend the applicant’s home with any relevant equipment. Support is also available over the phone, as well as remote video support. There are also one-to-one video appointments to give support with navigating services to those who already have online access to them. I appreciate the point about safeguards when bringing in new measures online. I have taken that to heart and we discussed it at length in Committee. I hope that that assures hon. Members that significant support is in place.
Amendments 41 and 42 are related to the membership of the online procedure rule committee and seek to require the appointment of a dedicated member of the committee with specific knowledge of the Scottish legal system to be appointed by the Lord President of the Court of Session. To be clear, in the event of it being deemed necessary to have a dedicated member of the committee who is experienced in Scots law, the power in clause 23 enables the Lord Chancellor to amend clause 21 to change the specified membership of the committee. That makes more sense than requiring a member who is experienced in Scots law from the beginning as, under current plans to devolve employment tribunals in Scotland, the OPRC may never actually need to make any rules that cover Scottish tribunals before they become devolved.
On the amendments to the measures on criminal courts, new clause 3 would require the Government to commission a review and publish a report on the effectiveness of the single justice procedure within two months of the Bill being passed. The hon. Member
for Stockton North (Alex Cunningham) has taken a great interest in that and I enjoyed meeting him to talk in detail about it.
The single justice procedure is a more proportionate way of dealing with straightforward uncontested summary-only non-imprisonable offences, which almost exclusively result in a financial penalty. It is a matter for prosecutors to decide whether it is appropriate to prosecute a defendant under this procedure and magistrates will have the option to refer a case to open court if they consider that it would be inappropriate to deal with it in this way.
The procedure is entirely optional: defendants can choose at any point prior to their case being considered by a magistrate to have their case heard in court instead. Defendants have an automatic right of appeal to the Crown court against conviction and sentence. We are consistently working to improve the service provided under the procedure. Following consultation with users, we recently revised the single justice procedure notice to better identify vulnerable users and make the process even clearer.
We also work with the media to ensure that the process is accessible and open. One could argue that there is greater transparency for cases dealt with under the SJP, because while the criminal procedure rules oblige courts to give certain additional information on cases on request from the media and other interested third parties, courts are obliged to give more information on SJP cases to the media. Given the safeguards in place and our ongoing commitment to continually review and improve the single justice procedure process, I believe that a formal review of its effectiveness is unnecessary.
Amendments 36, 20 and 21 all deal with the new automatic online procedure and standard statutory penalty, which I will call the automatic online procedure. I do appreciate that this is a very new type of procedure for dealing with certain minor offences, and I recognise that hon. Members are concerned that it should be used appropriately. We all agree on that, and this is why, as I have said before, we have built a number of safeguards into clause 3. For instance, it is an entirely optional procedure, and it will remain the defendant’s choice as to whether they wish to proceed with an automatic online conviction or opt for a traditional hearing in court, and they will be guided through the process so that they can make an informed decision.
Amendment 36 would require the Secretary of State to commission an independent review on the operation of clause 3 before it can be commenced. This report would need to address the potential impact, efficacy and operational issues of the new automatic procedure. As this is a new procedure, we cannot be certain of its impacts at this stage. That is why we are proceeding with caution and limiting its scope to three offences initially that clearly meet the criteria for eligibility.
Amendment 20 would require all defendants charged with an eligible offence, and considered appropriate to be offered the option to proceed with this new automatic online procedure, to first submit to an assessment of their physical and mental health. Only those defendants who do not have any vulnerabilities and disabilities would then be given the option of using this new procedure. It is worth mentioning that there is no requirement for a mental or health assessment under existing criminal court procedures such as the single justice procedure. As a result, the effect of this amendment
would be to considerably diminish the impact of this new procedure, which is intended to provide defendants with the option of having their case dealt with quickly online. There would be little or no reason for defendants to opt for this new procedure if the resolution of their case would be swifter under existing procedures.
Clause 3 already provides that only summary-only, non-imprisonable offences will be eligible under this new procedure. Amendment 21 would further restrict the use of this new procedure to non-recordable offences. Recordable offences are those for which the police are required to keep a record on their system. However, the vast majority of eligible offences in scope of this new procedure are non-recordable. Indeed, there are only two summary-only, non-imprisonable offences prosecuted under the single justice procedure that are recordable. As I have said, for an offence to be deemed eligible under this new procedure, it will have to be relatively straightforward and simple to prove, with no complex grounds and a high degree of consistency in sentencing.
I do recognise, however, that this is a novel approach for dealing with certain minor offences, which is why we are proceeding with caution and why we are committed to reviewing the operation of clause 3 before extending it any further to other similar non-recordable offences. Any such extension in the future would have to be done by regulations and would have to be debated and approved by Parliament.
Finally, amendment 22 seeks to prevent clause 9 from applying to criminal prosecutions against children. Subsection (5) has been specifically drafted for children in a way that recognises their increased vulnerability in the criminal justice system and provides additional safeguards for them. The clause creates one additional clearly defined set of circumstances in which it would be possible for the court to allocate a child’s case in their absence. The conditions that will need to be met will be more stringent than those prescribed for adults, even though children do not share the same right as adults to elect for a jury trial.
As an addition to the pre-existing power to proceed in a child’s absence due to their disorderly conduct in court, the clause will provide that the court can decide to proceed to allocate in absence where a child has been invited, but failed, to provide an online indication of plea, and either the court is satisfied they were served with a notice of the hearing or the child has already previously appeared at court to answer the charge. The court must then consider whether there is an acceptable reason for the child’s absence, and it must be satisfied that it would not be contrary to the interests of justice for the hearing to proceed in the child’s absence.
This provision must be viewed in the context of other existing safeguards in primary legislation that seek to ensure that child defendants and their parents have prior engagement with proceedings. We recognise that, in the majority of cases, the courts may not deem it appropriate to proceed with an allocation hearing in a child’s absence—that will be an informed decision for the court—but where a court does consider it appropriate and in the interests of justice, this clause provides an important means of progressing cases and avoiding unnecessary delays.
On the European convention on human rights, new clause 7 would require the Act to be compatible with article 6 of the ECHR, and if a court finds a provision
of the Act is not compatible, then the court can make an order to prevent that provision from having any effect. As I said in Committee, I assure all hon. Members that none of the measures in the Bill contravenes article 6. When the Bill was introduced, the previous Lord Chancellor signed a statement under section 19(1)(a) of the Human Rights Act 1998 to confirm his view that the provisions in the Bill are compatible with the convention rights.
On all these measures, I hope I have reassured hon. Members that other than those tabled by the Government, the amendments in this group are not necessary and I urge hon. Members not to press them.
Question put and agreed to.
New clause 1 accordingly read a Second time and added to the Bill.