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Coroners and Justice Bill

My Lords, I am most grateful for that reply. I take issue with the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, about the involvement of judges in campaigning. That is not the issue. The point is that judges need to have contact with public opinion. How do they do that? They would get a very distorted view if they did that through reading newspapers. Or do they do that through the sort of exercises that my noble friend Lady Linklater has been carrying out all over Britain on behalf of the Esmée Fairbairn trust? I know that your Lordships are aware of the trust’s work and the reports that it has produced, in which the judiciary are exposed to the way that prisons work, the way that the public are thinking and so forth. We cannot lose sight of the fact that there is no God-given tariff for prison sentences. They must reflect the confidence of the community and what the community expects. The public need to be informed of what the council is saying, but the council also needs to engage with the public to find reactions. It is a question of two-way communication. That, I am sure, is what lies behind the amendment in my name and that of the noble Baroness. However, I can see that at this time there is no point in dividing the House. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 89A withdrawn. Clause 120 : Resources: effect of sentencing practice Clause 120 : Resources: effect of sentencing practice Amendment 89B had been withdrawn from the Marshalled List. Amendment 89BA Moved by