Attempting to influence the report has played a major part in the first year of Mawdsley's chairmanship: "We've had numerous meetings both formally and on many informal occasions when we've been able to exchange views. I've been impressed with his willingness to give time. Yesterday he spent over an hour with a group of magistrates in Birmingham. This has been an open and transparent enquiry, where everyone wanting to contribute has been given the opportunity to do so." But not everything has gone smoothly; it came as a total surprise when the Justices' Clerks' Society (JCS) made a submission which was distinctly negative about the lay bench: "The hiccup with the JCS has been unfortunate and did cause a lot of concern amongst the lay magistracy. What we're trying to do is draw a line underneath it." Mawdsley has some grounds for optimism in Auld's latest progress report which suggests the retention of lay magistrates' jurisdiction for summary offences and proposes that criminal courts might be arranged in three tiers, with an intermediate jurisdiction for "either-way cases". The intermediate tier would consist of two lay magistrates sitting either side of a District Judge (known as stipendiary magistrates until last August). The idea would scupper the House of Lords' efforts to retain the right of jury trial for matters such as minor theft - so more fireworks in the upper chamber look likely: "The proposals will have to be costed and debated and then get over the legislative hurdles; there's an awful long way to go before we get onto the starting blocks." Should Auld's ideas come to fruition, magistrates will be extremely pleased in that he also proposes that they should no longer adjudicate in administrative cases, such as council tax arrears, TV and vehicle excise licences. "It's long been Association policy that TV licensing should be a civil matter; we're delighted to get rid of it." They may be less enthusiastic about Auld's attempts to tackle the amateurism of the lay bench, with a projected national training college for magistrates. As far as the Association is concerned, recent training initiatives demonstrate a commitment to professionalism. In preparation for implementation of the Human Rights Act, all magistrates went through a day's training and, for the last year, new magistrates have undergone a scheme known as MNTI (the magistrates' new training initiative). Mawdsley is confident: "We've proposed that the MNTI competences should have an NVQ attached to them so that magistrates would gain some sort of qualification." Retaining the lay bench in the way currently proposed would clearly save government money. Enhancing its training would go some way to answering claims about its amateurism. Can a sophisticated European country exist in the 21st century with over 90% of its criminal cases presided over by volunteer worthies? The jury is still out. (31/10/00) If you have any comments about this or any other news item or feature, please respond via e-mail to: newsroom@butterworths.com |
