§ 62. Mr. Royleasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will introduce legislation to make it compulsory for examining justices to hold committal hearings not in open court.
§ Mr. R. A. ButlerNo. Examining justices are not required to sit in public, and while they normally do so, it is open to them to sit in private if, for example, they believe that to sit in public in a particular case will prejudice the ends of justice. I appreciate that the publicity which proceedings before examining justices receive in certain cases may make it difficult to find twelve jurors who come to the case with fresh minds, but it is not necessarily impossible for them to consider the case, as they are required to do, solely on the evidence placed before them. My predecessors have taken the view that there are strong objections in principle to all proceedings before examining justices taking place in private, and I share that view.