Bill aims to strengthen judicial independence

Judiciary and Courts Bill gives Lord President overall responsibility for courts

News, 31 January 2008

A bill which aims to strengthen judges' independence and modernise the administration of Scotland's courts was published today.

The Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Bill gives formal recognition to the Lord President as head of the Scottish judiciary and transfers administrative and other responsibilities, currently held by the Scottish ministers, to the post.

The bill builds on previous consultations that began in February 2006, and continued with the white paper Proposals for a Judiciary (Scotland) Bill, published in February 2007.

It includes provisions to:

guarantee continued judicial independence, in statute;
make the Lord President the head of the Scottish judiciary, with overall responsibility for the disposal of business in all courts and for the training, welfare, deployment and conduct of the judiciary;
introduce new governance arrangements for the Scottish Court Service, making it a non-ministerial department;
standardise the current informal arrangements for dealing with any issue of conduct involving a sheriff or a judge, putting these arrangements on a statutory basis;
standardise the arrangements for considering fitness for office of judges and sheriffs;
introduce new arrangements for the deployment of retired judges and sheriffs to fill short-term gaps;
extend eligibility for appointment as a judge of the Court of Session to those who have practised as solicitor advocates in either the Court of Session or the High Court of Justiciary.

Cabinet Secretary for Justice Kenny MacAskill said: "This bill will strengthen and modernise arrangements for the Scottish judiciary and reform the administration of the courts.

"The legislation is one of constitutional significance which considers the relationship between the judiciary and the other branches of government. I look forward to further discussion and debate as it progresses through the parliament."

The bill can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/06-JudiciaryCourts/index.htm .