HC Deb 22 July 2004 vol 424 c533W
Mr. Djanogly

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the qualifications for serving on the Judicial Appointments Commission will be. [185883]

Mr. Leslie

Schedule 12 of the Constitutional Reform Bill provides that the Commission will consist of a lay chairman, five further lay members, five judicial members, two professional members (a barrister and a solicitor), a tribunal member and a lay justice.

Of the Commissioners appointed as judicial members, one must be a Lord Justice of Appeal; one a High Court judge; one either a Lord Justice of Appeal or a High Court judge; one a circuit judge and one a district judge.

Of the others: the professional members must be a practising barrister and a practising solicitor; the lay members must never have held a listed judicial office or been a practising lawyer; the tribunal member must be the holder of an office listed in Part 3 of Schedule 14 of the Bill; and the lay justice must be a justice of the peace.

None of the members may be a member of either the House of Lords or the House of Commons, or a civil servant.