§ Mr. VazTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, how many representations the Lord Chancellor has received concerning the(a) conduct of judges and (b) operation of the Legal Services Commission since 1997. [62779]
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§ Ms Rosie Winterton(a) The principle of judicial independence means that it is not open to the Lord Chancellor or his Department to entertain complaints about judicial decisions. However, as Head of the Judiciary, the Lord Chancellor does consider complaints about the personal conduct of individual judges and other judicial office holders and is able to reprimand or rebuke judges who have behaved inappropriately. In the most extreme cases the Lord Chancellor, with the consent of the Lord Chief Justice, can remove a judge below the level of the High Court from office.
No figures for complaints about judges' conduct are available for the period before August 1998, when the Lord Chancellor established a team of officials dedicated to make thorough inquiries on his behalf into all complaints about judicial conduct. Between August 1998 and 31 May 2002, the Lord Chancellor received 1,351 complaints which appeared to relate to judges' personal conduct. In 1,089 cases the complainant agreed that the Lord Chancellor could investigate the complaint by asking the judge for his or her comments. The Lord Chancellor then considered the complaint and the response, and informed the complainant of the judge's comments and his own conclusion. The great majority of these complaints were from disappointed litigants and were found to be without foundation. However, on 23 occasions, the Lord Chancellor thought it appropriate to rebuke or reprimand the judge concerned in relation to conduct.
(b) The Legal Services Commission was established by the Access to Justice Act 1999, and came into being on 1 April 2000 to replace the Legal Aid Board. Since that date 67 representations have been received (although some of these will relate to the old Legal Aid Board). Of these, 17 were from politicians and 50 from the public.
Overall figures on representations about the two bodies received by the Lord Chancellor's Department are unavailable for 1997. Since 1 January 1998, the Department has received 238 separate representations, relating to either the Legal Aid Board or the Legal Services Commission. Of these, 155 have come from members of the public, with the remaining 83 from MPs and peers.