WORKLOAD OF THE LORD CHANCELLOR

Early day motion 729, tabled 12 February 2003 by Austin Mitchell (Labour). Signed by 33 members.

That this House, seeing that the office of the Lord Chancellor requires the incumbent to function under strain with too heavy a work burden and perform too many roles and carry out too many jobs for any one person, however hard working, brilliant or highly paid, urges the Government to lighten the enormous load by creating a Ministry of Justice with a Minister in the Commons to modernise justice and make the legal system answerable to Parliament, by setting up a new Supreme Court and an independent Judical Appointment Commission to appoint all members of the judiciary, and by making the Lord Chief Justice the non-political head of the judiciary, thus setting the Lord Chancellor free to perform the most demanding job, that of presiding over the House of Lords.

Signatures by party: Labour 25, Liberal Democrat 4, Labour/Co-operative 2, Plaid Cymru 1, Scottish National Party 1.