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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

My Lords, I have listened with enormous interest to this debate. It seems that much the most important thing was said by my noble and learned friend Lord Mayhew when he asked about the magistrates’ view. The most important thing that the noble and learned Baroness has said to us is that the magistrates have said that they are happier, but not yet happy. She was unable to tell us the precise areas in which they are not happy because they have not yet written to her. Speaking as somebody who sat not as a magistrate but as the Scottish equivalent, an honorary sheriff, I think that the whole question hangs on whether the magistrates feel that cases will be put properly before them and they will get the help they need in making decisions. I suspect that magistrates need that help more than other judges do, and it is important that they get it. That seems the overwhelming problem. It is a complicated matter, but if the magistrates are not yet happy with the arrangement, the House ought not to reject the amendment.