ANNEX 2
Extract from oral evidence given to the House of
Commons' Constitutional Affairs Committee, 4 July 2006
Q250 Jeremy Wright: Although you are no longer head
of the judiciary, we know that you still have an interest in the
judiciary and are responsible for what happens there. We also
know that what has happened in the press recently has been a very
public and apparent argument between politicians and members of
the judiciary. Does it concern you that as a result of that very
public spat the public may take a different view of judges and
lose a degree of confidence in them?
Lord Falconer of Thoroton: I think you are wrong
to say that the problem was necessarily a spat between the Government
and judges. What has been happening over a period of time is that
a lot of people have been saying that part of the problem in relation
to sentencing is the judges. A variety of parts of the media has
been explicitly critical in blaming the judges for a number of
things that have happened in sentencing. I believe that that has
had an impact in undermining confidence in the judiciary. Separately
from that, there have been reports of rows between the judges
and the executive. I should make it clear that neither the judges
nor the executive wants such rows, nor do they believe that there
is any such row going on between them. They are both as concerned
as they could be to ensure that public confidence in the judiciary
is maintained. But it goes deeper than that. If people think there
are rows going on between different bits of the state that undermines
their confidence in the ability of the state as a whole to deal
with the problems that it has to face, for example terrorism and
crime.
Q251 Jeremy Wright: Do you accept that clearly the
judges are worried about this? Several senior judges have expressed
concerns about politicians—I do not refer specifically to
the Government but politicians generally—interfering in
judicial matters and making comments upon decisions in individual
cases. Do you not believe that that is causing a potential problem
of public confidence?
Lord Falconer of Thoroton: Judges have been careful
not to criticise politicians at any stage. I have made comments
to the effect that the judges should not be made the whipping
boys for various problems. For example, the other day there was
a rather graphic piece in either the Daily Telegraph or The Times
in which a judge said that it might be time for him to resign
and go off into the Thames or something like that. Earlier in
the same article it was said that an unnamed part-time judge was
thinking of resigning. I know of such judge. I know of no judges
who are thinking of resigning because of that. Everybody involved,
judges and executive alike, is concerned to ensure that confidence
is not lost but equally is aware that these events occur from
time to time and the important thing is to cool the temperature,
identify the policy issues and get on with solving them.
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