§ Mr. BoatengTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what representation he has received, and whether he has taken legal advice, as to whether some of the functions to be carried out by the local county court system are judicial in nature within the terms of schedule 16(2) to the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994. [35775]
Mr. John M. TaylorThe question concerns a specific operational matter on which the chief executive of the Court Service is best placed to provide an answer and I have accordingly asked the chief executive to reply direct.
Letter from M. D. Huebner to Mr. Paul Boateng, dated 19 July 1995:
The Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, has asked me to reply to your Question about the functions to be carried out by the Local County Court Systems (LOCCS).The development of the system has not reached the point at which it covers any function which might be defined as judicial, under the terms of the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994. This would become an issue only if the system was developed to cover such functions and if its operation were to be considered for contracting out, for example in the context of the Private Finance procurement exercise which is currently under way. In that event legal advice would be taken before any decision was made.