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Supreme Court

My Lords, I thought it appropriate that one of those who is to work in the building that we are discussing should contribute to this debate. My qualification for doing so is that for the past three years I have been chairman of a Law Lords’ sub-committee, of which the other members are my noble and learned friends Lady Hale of Richmond and Lord Mance. We have been working with civil servants on the implementation programme team on the plans for the building and on a large variety of other matters that need to be attended to in connection with the creation of the new court. As I am sure your Lordships will appreciate, this is a very detailed and time-consuming exercise. We have monthly committee meetings with the programme team. Each of us, as well as a number of other Law Lords, has individual tasks which are required to be dealt with separately. I pay tribute to the contributions that all my colleagues are making to this work and especially to the Principal Clerk in the Judicial Office, who bears an even greater burden and contributes many hours of his own time to the enterprise. We are, of course, wholly committed to the project which has been set before us. Our main aim in the short term is to achieve a transfer of the business of the House’s Appellate Committee to the new court as seamlessly as possible. But we are determined also to ensure that the new court will be accommodated and resourced in a manner that fits its status as the country’s Supreme Court. In welcoming the Minister to his new responsibilities, I confess that I feel a bit like a baby who, having been abandoned in his pram by one parent, has found another. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, whose project this truly was, after all, has left us. He was deeply interested in its success and his door was always open when there were problems that needed to be discussed at his level—as indeed there were from time to time. I hope that this will continue to be the case with the Minister and the Lord Chancellor in another place. The project is not without its problems. We need your help and your support. There are three problems in particular that I should mention. The first relates to timetable. The plan is that the Supreme Court should commence its operations on 1 October 2009, but the timetable is already very tight and there may be delays. I wish to stress that we cannot be expected to move into a building that is not yet fit for purpose—that is not proper, as the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, mentioned, for a Supreme Court, and that is incomplete. There must be no shortcuts and no undue pressure just to meet the timetable. I stress that this is not to suit our own wishes. It is essential if we are to give the public the service that they require. The second point relates to staff; it is the other side of the coin referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart. The key to a seamless and successful transfer lies in our staff’s experience and in their commitment and loyalty to the project. But the implications for them of transferring to the Civil Service from employment here in the Palace of Westminster are very serious. That subject has not been addressed in this House so far as I can recall. The new court will be a tiny enterprise in the context of the Ministry of Justice as a whole, and unless some weighting is given in recognition of the court’s importance in matters such as grading, this will have adverse consequences. The grading which our staff will receive under current Civil Service rules is well below the equivalent in this building. This means a standstill on salary increases for several years for those who choose to move. The conditions of service, too, are much less attractive. I am not convinced that enough has been done to address this problem. We may need some political muscle to address it. The third matter relates to finance, the point raised by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Howe of Aberavon. The funding arrangements for the new court are novel and complex and, in important respects, are still unknown. There is no doubt that the court’s removal from the protective umbrella of Parliament will expose it to the risk of undue pressure on its funding, and on its resources generally, by the Executive. The Executive will have to bear part—perhaps a substantial part—of the running costs, due to the nature of the business that we conduct. This is not a criticism of the present Government, but we cannot predict the future. Safeguards absent from the Act must be put in place. Progress cannot be made until the identities are known of the first President of the Court and of the chief executive. I hope that the Minister can give us his assurance that this vital matter will receive his attention, and that of the Lord Chancellor, in discussion with those individuals once that stage is reached.