The art of spin and the unlawful actions of the MOJ
Chris Grayling has announced that he does not want Scottish
MPs with their crazed socialist ways having a say in the administration of
Justice in England. To be honest most of us would be far happier if Mr Grayling
did not have a say in delivering justice in England.
On Friday 19th September the High Court was asked to consider two aspects of the draconian reform project embarked upon by the Government since 2011 which bore poisoned fruit last year with the introduction of LASPO in April and the summer and autumn Consultations on cuts and restructuring in the criminal justice system.
It was Black Friday for the MOJ. In the morning the High
Court granted permission to campaigning group Rights of Women challenging the
legality (post LASPO) of the way legal aid in the Family Court is restrictively
granted to women who have experienced or are experiencing domestic violence. In
the afternoon, seemingly to the surprise of the Ministry, the Honourable Mr
Justice Burnett quashed the Ministry’s decision to reduce the number of
criminal defence contracts available in their tendering process ruling that the
consultation process did not “enable consultees
meaningfully to respond” and that the “failure
was so unfair as to result in illegality.”
The unfairness pivoted on the Ministry’s decision to supress
two reports on the nature and substance of the proposed new arrangements. In
Court the Ministry tried out two different explanations for its failure.
Firstly, that releasing the reports to the profession would have resulted in
delay, an excuse arrived at on the back of the currently popular fag packet, as
it neither appeared in legal pleadings nor was supported by any evidence.
Secondly, that releasing the reports would have made no difference as the
Ministry could both predict all possible objections and had unanswerable
responses to every permutation of complaint. This is ministerial hutzpah as imagined
by a Soviet Commissariat. The flimsiness of the official line exposed when the
Lord Chancellor backed away from explanation two saying that was merely the
personal opinion of the senior civil servant who was the MOJ’s ill starred star
witness.
After such a clear judgement which in measured tones
described what many believed to be a rigged process leading to defective
decision making so serious as to be illegal it might have been expected that
the Ministry charged with administering the Justice system would respond in a
way that at the very least indicated it respected the decision of the Court and
the seriousness of its failure. Instead the Press Office via Twitter said that
the ruling raised “some technical issues which we’re considering.” Using the same
medium, leading legal commentator David Allen Green described the Ministry as
being in “bewildered denial” while
Dinah Rose QC lamented the “corrosive
lack of respect for the judicial system” demonstrated by the MOJ.
The messages coming out of the Ministry of Justice are
injudicious and leave the impression, hopefully wrongly, that the Ministry will
go into a huddle to work out how they can give the impression of procedural
fairness whilst as before running a consultation whose outcome is predetermined.
At least this time respondents will have a chance to consider the two reports
which the MOJ acknowledged although suppressed. The bonus prize is the eagerly
awaited perusal of a third entirely secret report (only revealed in Court) by an outfit called PA Consulting Group which
amongst others things has recently developed a revolutionary paper towel and
overhauled Danish air traffic control. Their take on the criminal justice
system will be fascinating as spills and near misses are now every day occurrences.
No wonder the Lord Chancellor wants to restrict access to
Judicial Review. He does not want forensic scrutiny of his loaded dice approach
to law making and reform. The ducking and diving taints most MOJ releases on
the criminal justice system. Journalists
asking for a Ministry response to the latest controversy over the scorched
earth policy of fee cuts and restructuring are subjected to the same endlessly
recycled sound bite “At £2bn we have one of the most generous justice systems
in the world”. This is now the incredible shrinking budget as the latest
version of the press mantra puts the figure at £1.5bn, a reduction of 25% in
under two years. The system is on its
knees and the “crisis what crisis” approach is becoming increasingly untenable as
more and more people inside and outside the profession see through the posturing
and spin.
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