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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

My Lords, we on these Benches support this amendment. The noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, referred to the meeting that we had with the noble and learned Baroness the Attorney-General. She was good enough to write to me on 14 March. I assume that she sent a copy to the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland. She set out in her letter the way in which designated caseworkers are trained at the present time. That training involves training courses, e-learning—which I take to mean dealing with various questionnaires put on the internet—observation of court procedures and a comprehensive resource pack. The candidates have a five-day foundation course, after which they are expected to take the e-learning module and attend a further one-day, face-to-face training course. Thereafter they have to do 16 CPD—continuing professional development—hours a year. Very properly, I have to do 12 hours of continuing professional development each year. I know nothing about the legislation that goes through this House, of course. That is about it: a five-day foundation course, a certain amount of experience in court watching what goes on for a period of time and a one-day further course. On that basis they are to be entitled to appear in court to carry out contested cases. I ask your Lordships to compare that with the course of training undertaken by a young barrister to reach the point at which he is able to go into court. He will need a law degree, of course; he will have to spend 12 months passing his Bar examinations; and he will have to spend 12 months in pupilage and will not be entitled to appear in court at all for the first six months. During that time he will be under the close supervision of his pupil master. It is only at that point that it is thought that he can appear in the most modest magistrates’ court in a contested hearing. Putting the two courses of training side by side, your Lordships can quickly perceive that there is absolutely no comparison. More importantly—this is the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland—a barrister is subject to regulation. There is a regulatory authority, a very strict code of conduct and a very considerable penalty should he breach that code of conduct in any way. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland. I was under the impression that if courses were provided by ILEX, they would lead to an ILEX qualification, which I would respect very much, and that ILEX would act as a regulatory body, but that does not appear to be the case. I hope that the noble and learned Baroness will be able to assure us that it is so, but as I understand her letter that is not intended. A further point made by the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, which I also refer to, is that this is essentially mission creep. In her letter to me the noble and learned Baroness refers to the fact that it may be some years before the CPS seeks to extend the designated case worker remit to summary-only offences where imprisonment is a sentencing option. At the moment the proposal is that a designated case worker should appear only in summary-only offences where prison is not an option. In a few years that will be proposed and no doubt we shall go on from there until, in the end, designated case workers with very limited training will be conducting trials in magistrates’ courts to the great detriment, I suggest, of the criminal justice system. The amendment proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, has our support. While we do not object in principle to designated case workers appearing in court, they must have proper training and they must be regulated. There must be a sanction to ensure that they carry out their functions in a way that is compatible with the principles of the way in which advocacy should be carried out in the courts of this country.