3 Conclusion: impact
62. It is not always easy to distinguish the impact
of the activity of a select committee in any particular area of
work. Select committees often act as a focal point for gathering
concerns which are being put to Government from other quarters
of the public policy community; and on which the Government may
well itself be reflecting or examining other evidence. However,
as examples of where we perceive ourselves to have successfully
added value, or weight, to the consideration of issues of concern—with
an identifiable outcome emerging in 2008-09—we would point
to:
- the dropping of the specific
provisions within the Coroners and Justice Bill on secret coroners
inquests without juries and the deferral, pending re-examination
of safeguards, of broad data-sharing powers within Government;
- the abandonment of proposals to build three 2,500
place Titan prisons as part of the prison capacity programme;
- the revision of proposals to reform family legal
aid (a) to increase recognition of the varying complexity of family
law cases and (b) to preserve the ability of legal aid funding
to provide vulnerable children with separate representation (when
deemed necessary by a judge) in circumstances when the official
service cannot do so;
- the deferral of the full introduction of best
value tendering in criminal defence legal aid until after the
results of the relevant pilot schemes have been analysed and lessons
learned;
- the various changes to the Parliamentary Standards
Bill to protect freedom of speech in the Commons and the separation
of legislature and courts; and
- statutory provisions aimed at establishing greater
openness and transparency with respect to the administration of
justice conducted by the Family Court—balanced with the
need to preserve the privacy of vulnerable children and families—contained
in the Children, Schools and Families Bill introduced on 19 November
2009 which our predecessor committee first recommended in March
2005.[44]
63. Overall, we attach great value to a theme emerging
through our work on criminal justice issues around which significant
cross-party consensus has gathered within the committee. This
is that there is an urgent need for a new strategic aim for the
whole criminal justice system, and each of its constituent parts,
which is a focus on the prevention of offending and the reduction
of re-offending and that resources should be allocated, and performance
measured, within the overall system against contributions to that
goal. Our First Report of 2009-10, which rests on a great deal
of evidence-gathering and analysis undertaken in both 2007-08
and 2008-09, explains and expresses this theme in detail.[45]
44 Constitutional Affairs Committee, Fourth Report,
2004-05, Family justice: the operation of the family courts,
HC 116. The Government reply recognised: "a growing consensus
that the family courts lack transparency (Cm 6507, March 2005)
Our predecessor committee followed up the issues in its Sixth
Report of 2005-06, Family justice: the operation of the family
courts revisited, HC 1086. A Ministerial statement on 16 December
2008 announced the Government's decision to legislate and the
Children, Schools and Families Bill (2009-10, No. 8),fulfils that
commitment. Back
45
First Report, Justice Committee, 2009-10, Cutting crime: the
case for justice reinvestment, HC 94-I Back
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