Including constitutional reform, national and
local elections, guidance on human rights and on freedom of information
issues, development of a Supreme Court and EU justice issues
access to justice
Including the administration of the courts, tribunals,
mediation, legal aid provision and the regulation of legal services
national offender management service
Comprising prisons and probation services and
partnerships for reducing re-offending and youth justice (jointly
with DCSF)
criminal justice
Implementation of strategy for an efficient and
effective criminal justice system (jointly with the Home Office
and the Attorney General's Office supported by the trilateral
Office for Criminal Justice Reform)[3]
5. A number of informal meetings were also held between
chairman, other members and a wide range of interlocutors on both
inquiry-related matters and other topics within the Committee's
remit. One example was a meeting with a delegation from the Isle
of Man parliament (Tynwald) on a range of matters arising from
the financial crisis in Iceland and ramifications for the financial
sector of the Isle of Man and the Ministry of Justice's overall
responsibility for representing the interests of the Crown dependencies
within government.
6. On-going work on the impact and implications of
devolution and examining the allocation of public expenditure
across the criminal justice system ('justice reinvestment') predominantly
occupied the formal proceedings of the Committee during this session.
In addition time has been devoted to preparing for further inquiries
into the role of the prison officer, the performance of the Crown
Prosecution Service and on other topics not announced at the time
of writing.[5]
7. Judging from feedback in the media, and from other
commentators, this initial approach of the Committee has been
successful. For example, Justice of the Peace publication described
the Committee as "a credit to the political process"with approval of the Committee's calm yet tenacious approach
to challenging the government with fair criticism when necessary.[6]