Should a parliamentary committee with responsibility for oversight of judiciary related matters be established?
408. If the bill is enacted three channels of communication between the judiciary and Parliament will be abolished; namely the Lord Chancellor, the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary and other senior judiciary who have seats in the House. There would be “no direct channel between the Judiciary and Parliament” (General Council of the Bar; p 162). It has been suggested that it may therefore be appropriate to establish a parliamentary committee with responsibility for the oversight of judiciary related matters through which the judiciary could communicate with Parliament and through which the Lord Chief Justice could have a voice to Parliament. 409. The Lord Chancellor supports some “identifiable channel to Parliament” through which the representative voice of the professional judiciary could be expressed: “I think it is for Parliament to decide what they think the best structure to allow that voice to be expressed is. It could be a Select Committee, it could be a Joint Committee, it might be ot
