Conservative proposals to bring in the Big Society are very much at the forefront of our plans for reform of legal aid and our court service, which I have been working on since the General Election.
Of course, the Ministry of Justice budgets are subject to the same scrutiny and cost reduction demands that other non ring fenced government budgets are being subjected to.
However, this presents us with a unique opportunity to readdress our administration of Justice – not only to take out waste from the system, but also to realign the relationship and expectation between the individual and the state in the context of civil, criminal and family law in a way which is tune with our Conservative values.
So, in the areas of civil and family law we want to see individuals taking more responsibility for resolving matters themselves. This means that the court system is used as a last rather than first resort, so that public funding can focus help on the most vulnerable. Too often the adversarial nature of court proceedings enflames the complex nature of disputes which would be more efficiently and cost effectively dealt with through mediation.
Likewise, we are consulting on the closure of inefficient courts. We see this as an opportunity to exploit the use of technology to speed up justice, reduce bureaucracy and to streamline and modernise frontline court services – not least for the benefit for the victims and witnesses.
The history of law reform under the last Labour government was one of constant prevarication, external reviews, reactive measures and uncoordinated piecemeal policy. In contrast, we are committed to reviewing justice in a coordinated and timely fashion. With this in mind we are simultaneously reviewing court re-organisation, the provision of legal aid, civil law reform, family law and sentencing and rehabilitation policies.
Given that we are proposing to announce consultations on all of these areas before the year end, it would be fair to say that the Justice team is going to be kept very busy over the coming months!
( 4 comments ) Tags: Big Society, civil law, court service, family law, legal aid, rehabilitation, sentencing
Comment by Jon Harvey on September 9, 2010 at 3:46 pm
May I add my two pennyworth:
1) Joined up Justice has surely to be the way ahead – the inefficiencies that must come from having police, CPS, courts, youth offending, probation, victim support all working out of different buildings on different IT systems (etc.) must be huge. I hope the team gets the chance to visit the new Warwickshire services based on joined up justice – lots to learn from there!
2) Currently the Judiciary and Magistracy get no feedback on their sentencing. So they cannot know whether the intentions behind their sentences are ever fulfilled with the offenders in question. I believe that such feedback would help with offender management. Evidence based practice is critically important in this field – the Government must do what works!
3) In my view the internal market in the National Offender Management Service will only work when their is spare capacity in the prison & probation system – so that the purchasers have some choices. What does the team think?
4) The way in which Magistrates are paid for their time seems to mean that they do not reflect a good cross section of society. Am I right? Does something different need to be done here?
5) What about specialist courts like they have in the USA? (see http://www.courtinnovation.org for more info) – there have been experiments in this country – will we be seeing more?
I look forward to the green papers.
Comment by Steve on September 10, 2010 at 2:48 am
The British Justice System has been in need of review for many years. We the public feel let down by the minimal custodial sentences handed down by the Magistrates who appear to be out of touch with the rest of society.
Lets start again and get real justice back onto our streets, a justice that protects the innocent and condemns the offender in real time.
Comment by Nish on September 10, 2010 at 12:02 pm
Absolutely! It’s a must to Involve Nick Herbert in this debate, in a word he is simply BRILLIANT!
The UK doesn’t need a culture of suing each other for the sake of it or for profit either as the US has…
The British need to devise its own fit for purpose systems for home office, justice, court, crime, immigration and policing matters. Nick Herbert is most certainly the man that can…and what can I say, yet again he is a Conservative MP! What EXCELLENT performance at parliament re. the crime and policing motion. Scrap the idea of bail hostels in any area. Why should private landlords, private companies have the right to profit and work with local authorities/councils to authorise such pain of bail hostels on local communities and residents? A couple of years ago a Labour council wanted to authorise one in our area using a privately owned piece of real estate without any proper consultation with the community, referring here to the appalling clear springs projects…after community involvement, the press, canvassing and correspondence with the ministry of justice we stopped it from occurring…never should any residents or communities in ANY area be threatened with the concept of having bail hostels…
Comment by Jack Enright on October 22, 2010 at 4:10 am
It seems to me that all this re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic is overlooking a point which should be glaringly obvious; that, in Britain, the punishment comes nowhere near fitting the crime.
For example, try watching this video. If it doesn’t turn your stomach, it damn well should. And yet, in this supposedly civilised country, these vermin are given a slap on the wrist and let out on the street – as though what they’d done was no more than a childish prank.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8068020/Three-escape-jail-for-high-five-Tube-attack.html
Ministry of Justice? Ministry of Injustice, more like. And I’m not the least surprised that my e-mail to the said Ministry, asking for their justification for this grossly offensive miscarriage of justice, has not even been acknowledged, let alone answered.
Jack Enright
Buxton, Derbyshire