My Lords, the amendments in this group, Amendments 30, 37 and 54, all deal with reviews of the criminal justice system or criminal court procedure. I will take them in turn.
Amendment 30 would require the Secretary of State to commission a review and publish a report on the effectiveness of the single justice procedure. The review would consider the transparency of the procedure and its use in the prosecution of Covid-19 offences. Let me begin by allying myself to the comments of the noble Baroness, Lady Chakrabarti, and thanking the noble Lord, Lord Ponsonby, for his service as a magistrate, and for what that service gives us in these debates: a real, from-the-front-line addition on how things are going. Since that has been raised, I also thank more generally all magistrates. As the noble Lord, Lord Marks, said, they are the backbone of our criminal justice system. During the pandemic, they went above and beyond to keep the wheels of justice turning.
On the substance of the single justice procedure, I should first make it clear that a case dealt with under the single justice procedure is dealt with in the same way as any other case, except that a single magistrate can deal with it and, as we have heard, the hearing need not be in public. The magistrate must comply with the same legislative safeguards as all other proceedings, and the Sentencing Council’s sentencing guidelines apply in the same way. Importantly, as with the previous group, the single justice procedure is entirely optional. Also, all processes are reviewed regularly to ensure that it is easy to navigate and accessible. Following consultation, the single justice procedure notice has recently been revised to make it even clearer for users.
We have also worked closely with the media to ensure that this procedure is accessible and open, because justice in this country is public justice. While the criminal procedure rules require all courts to give certain additional information on individual cases upon request from the media and other interested third parties, courts are currently obliged to give more information on cases prosecuted under the single justice
procedure. That would include the prosecution’s statement of facts and the defendant’s statement in mitigation if there was one.
In addition, a list of pending single justice procedure cases is published each day online and is available to the public. The media also receive a more detailed list of these cases so that they can report on them if they so wish. So, actually, the media receive more information about cases dealt with under this procedure than traditional proceedings, where they get the information only if they actually turn up to the hearing. As I am sure the noble Lord, Lord Ponsonby, would confirm, it is now quite rare that local newspapers turn up. So, far from reducing transparency, the online procedure actually increases it, and I am sure that everyone in the Committee would agree that that is a very good thing.
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On the suitability of the single justice procedure, I am not aware of any evidence to suggest that the error rate is higher under the single justice procedure than under traditional court proceedings. Of course there is an error rate, but the question is whether it is higher. As with all cases dealt with by the magistrates’ courts, safeguards are in place to address errors where they occur—people are human, and there will always be errors, I am afraid. If an error is made by the court, whether upon conviction or upon sentencing, the court will always reopen the case, notify the defendant and correct the error as quickly as possible. I know that work was done at speed with both police forces and court staff to reduce error rates in Covid-19 prosecutions.
Amendment 54, on the local justice review, would require the Lord Chancellor to undertake a consultation on the proposed removal of local justice areas,
“considering in particular the impact on the principle of local justice,”
and lay a report before Parliament. There are currently 75 local justice areas, and we think that these restrict efficient operation of the criminal justice system because work and magistrates cannot be easily moved between them.
Therefore, the removal of local justice areas will ensure that magistrates’ courts have the flexibility to assign cases and magistrates in a way that best meets local needs. But I underline “local”, because the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, and the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, made some very valid points about the importance of the local magistracy, which my noble and learned friend Lord Mackay of Clashfern echoed. I confirm that magistrates will still be assigned to a home court, which will ensure that there is a close nexus between the magistrate and the locality.
The change will give magistrates the flexibility to work in other courts, should they wish to do so. But, so far as listening is concerned, proximity between the courthouse and the offence will continue to be the primary consideration for where the trial will take place. But the change will allow for other factors to be taken into account where it is appropriate to do so; for example, the relative speed at which a trial could be arranged or the convenience of the location for other court users.
There will be full consultation with HMCTS, magistrates and other relevant criminal justice and local authority partnerships to discuss and agree new arrangements that are specific to local areas and better suited to local needs. Indeed, HMCTS is already discussing this with the Magistrates’ Liaison Group. The changes will not be enacted until that consultation has taken place.
Ultimately, it will be for the Lord Chief Justice and the judiciary to determine what new arrangements are to be put in place and to what extent they will differ, if at all, from the current arrangements. Under Section 21 of the Courts Act 2003, the Lord Chief Justice and the Lord Chancellor already have a statutory duty to ascertain the views of lay magistrates on matters affecting them.
Without unduly delaying the Committee, I will say a word about the magistracy. On recruitment, I hope that noble Lords have seen a recent campaign, this year, to recruit magistrates, trying to dispel preconceptions about what a magistrate does and, I respectfully say, what one looks like. People have a preconception about what magistrates look like; they should look like the people in this country. We have sought to recruit 4,000 more magistrates, which would be the largest recruitment in the 650-year history of the magistracy. We have also increased their retirement age so that, if they want, they can sit up to 75.
We think that these measures provide the opportunity to improve and enhance the magistracy and its leadership structures, which will now more closely align with the Crown Court. There will still be local training, but, where appropriate, we may have national training as well. But magistrates will be involved in the development of all these areas—