---

Supreme Court

asked Her Majesty’s Government what progress they are making in moving the Supreme Court to the Middlesex Guildhall. The noble and learned Lord said: My Lords, your Lordships will have noticed that the noble Baroness, Lady Ashton, was due to reply to this short debate, but since she has been called to higher things, I am very pleased that her place has been taken by the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath. It is not my purpose to go over old ground tonight. In the short time available I shall concentrate on one single issue. For better or worse, Parliament has decided that we should have a Supreme Court. I accept that decision although I did not, and do not, agree with it. Parliament has also decided that the present Law Lords, who will be the first members of the Supreme Court, should no longer be entitled to take part in legislative business of this House. I accept that decision too, although again I do not agree with it. What I do not accept, and what I ask the House to consider tonight, is whether in order to achieve those two ends, whether laudable or not, it is necessary to move the new Supreme Court into the Middlesex Guildhall. That is the question I raise. The principal reason for doing so is that it would symbolise, "““the separation of powers between the judiciary and legislature””.—[Official Report, 14/6/07; col. WS 125.]" That is a direct quotation from the most recent Written Statement dated 14 June this year. The second reason given is that it would breathe new life into a fine historic building. I am all for cleaning up the Middlesex Guildhall, which has been allowed to become disgracefully drab and dingy both inside and out, due no doubt to a shortage of money, but when that task has been completed I see no reason at all why the Crown Courts should not return to the Guildhall where they have been for the past 100 years. I come now to what it will all cost. We did not have the full costs when we debated these matters in 2005, but now that the contract has been let we are told that the total cost of setting up the Supreme Court in the Guildhall will be £57 million. However, the Ministry of Justice does not have £57 million to hand, so most of that cost will be met on what I might call the ““never never”” system. Thus the contractor’s costs of £36 million will be met by leasing the Guildhall to the contractor and then entering into a sub-lease under which the Ministry of Justice will pay rent of £2.1 million a year for 30 years, increasing at a rate of 2.5 per cent per annum. That may seem an odd set-up for our prestigious new Supreme Court, but there it is. However, it is not the end of it. The great bulk of the £2.1 million which will be required annually will be met not out of the existing resources of the Ministry of Justice but by increasing the fees payable by civil litigants in the lower courts. That cannot be right. Why should litigants in the lower courts pay for the new Supreme Court? Of what conceivable interest is it to them? Looking at costs the other way round, the cost of servicing the Law Lords where they are at present is very modest indeed. The additional cost of moving them to the Guildhall was estimated in 2004 at £5.2 million a year. It is now estimated at £9.7 million a year—nearly double, and far in excess of the current cost. So far I have mentioned only the cost of setting up the Supreme Court in the Guildhall, but there is also the cost of creating seven new courtrooms to replace those which were used daily in the Guildhall until March this year. The plan was to create seven new courtrooms somewhere in the centre of London. That is where they are needed, especially since Knightsbridge Crown Court no longer exists. As I understood it, that was the plan in 2005, but it is now proposed to build five new courts at Isleworth—six new courts less one old court which has to be demolished—at a cost of £18.2 million. However, Isleworth is nowhere near the centre of London and is not where new courts are needed. The total cost of this whole unnecessary operation will be £75 million—£57 million plus £18 million—and all to symbolise, as we have been told, the physical separation of the Supreme Court from the legislature. I emphasise the word ““symbolise””. These are very large sums of money, and no doubt they will be a great deal larger by the time the final bill is paid, for any good that will ensue. However, they must also be looked at in the context of the economies that are currently being forced on the Courts Service—economies which I believe are unprecedented. On the previous occasion that we discussed these matters, the noble Viscount, Lord Bledisloe, mentioned that magistrates face cuts of 3.5 per cent in each of the next three years. However, that is only the tip of the iceberg. The Courts Service as a whole has suffered a cutback of 5.4 or 5.6 per cent in the current year. No doubt that cut will be even greater next year when the Ministry of Justice has to find money for prisons as well as funding the black hole in legal aid. In the face of these severe and painful cutbacks, what must ordinary people who work in the Courts Service think when they read that £75 million is being spent on moving the Law Lords to the Guildhall, where, incidentally, they will perform exactly the same function as they do in the Palace of Westminster? They will surely regard it as a complete waste of public money which could be much better spent elsewhere. What is to be done? As we all know, the Ministry of Justice is under new management. I hope that it will be less concerned with symbolism and more concerned with value for money. The Government could have the Supreme Court they want, exactly as they want it, tomorrow if only they would abandon the idea of moving it to the Guildhall. It would require only a very simple amendment to Section 148 of the Constitutional Reform Act, and Part 3 creating the Supreme Court could be brought into force now instead of having to wait until October 2009. Surely that would be symbolism enough. It is not too late for the Ministry of Justice to take that course and I urge it to do so. If we are serious about value for money, it is the only sensible course. Then, when the necessary refurbishment of the Guildhall is complete, at comparatively little cost, the Crown Courts could return to the Guildhall where they belong and the Law Lords could remain as the new Supreme Court where they are—here in the Palace of Westminster.