I read what Alisdair and my good friend James Turner have already had to say and yet I worry that if the former’s view that we scrap and start again would result in no improvement UNLESS AND UNTIL (with rare exceptions) Parliamentarians generally and Justice Secretaries specifically should be prepared to give this or any replacement final resort body prominence AND anywhere remotely near to ample funding for it and its recruitment strategies. Both before, during and after my chairmanship of the Law Society’s Criminal Law Committee I had a LOT to do with the Commission and its Commissioners, got to know, like and admire a number of them and undertook some (voluntary on my part) work with them.
Alisdair is right about the in my view over-robust line taken too often by the Court of Appeal where I have no doubt that that understandably dampened down the Commissioners’ ardour.
My (other) good friend (I still have a number!) Glyn Maddocks KC (Hons) knows far more than me about this and he has told me of such issues as limited contracts of employment and troubling examples of working from home.
Principally, it needs to be said that I tried every time MPs and Ministers vectored anywhere near Brum to persuade them to spare time to visit and publicly support the Commission and at least to take SOME interest in what it was doing. All to no avail with the government of the day having resolutely adopted the line over miscarriages that it had “been there, done that” and then shunted the CCRC off into a railway siding like an dotty, embarrassing uncle reminding the public at large of serious and too common misfirings in the system.
I write this in some distress as a solicitor advocate (now retired) with 47 years of cjs experience under my belt and well over 50 years of residence in our second city.
I am not a great fan of deckchair rearranging, but I do believe that there is a case now for the CCRC to be put to bed and a new body created. Morale is non-existent, they can't get leadership and the Malkinson report showed that there were very poor practices, notwithstanding some staff will have done their best. Brining in new leadership won't prevent the "this is how we do things" or "this is how we normally do things".
I must say having read the (redacted) report, I agree that the CEO was untenable, not just the chair. For several years they did not have the right number of commissioners, then moved to fee-based commissioners and it is far from clear what the governance of the CCRC was.
That said, we must be clear that there are long-standing political problems around underfunding and not having a clear role. The CACD used to criticise the CCRC for referring too many cases they thought were weak and commentators would criticise them for not referring enough. Politicians are hardly going to get behind a body that some victims see as trying to go against their wishes and interests. So, it's always a "big ask" but I think even accounting for that, the CCRC is now too damaged to continue.
I can't help feeling sorry for public servants who are given what even in ideal circumstances would be a very difficult job to do, are deprived by central government of the resources with which to carry it out, and are then pilloried by MPs when they fall short (however justified those criticisms may be).
James, I hope I made it clear that she was being criticised for what she said — and didn’t say — to the committee as much as she was for the way she has behaved. Joshua
I read what Alisdair and my good friend James Turner have already had to say and yet I worry that if the former’s view that we scrap and start again would result in no improvement UNLESS AND UNTIL (with rare exceptions) Parliamentarians generally and Justice Secretaries specifically should be prepared to give this or any replacement final resort body prominence AND anywhere remotely near to ample funding for it and its recruitment strategies. Both before, during and after my chairmanship of the Law Society’s Criminal Law Committee I had a LOT to do with the Commission and its Commissioners, got to know, like and admire a number of them and undertook some (voluntary on my part) work with them.
Alisdair is right about the in my view over-robust line taken too often by the Court of Appeal where I have no doubt that that understandably dampened down the Commissioners’ ardour.
My (other) good friend (I still have a number!) Glyn Maddocks KC (Hons) knows far more than me about this and he has told me of such issues as limited contracts of employment and troubling examples of working from home.
Principally, it needs to be said that I tried every time MPs and Ministers vectored anywhere near Brum to persuade them to spare time to visit and publicly support the Commission and at least to take SOME interest in what it was doing. All to no avail with the government of the day having resolutely adopted the line over miscarriages that it had “been there, done that” and then shunted the CCRC off into a railway siding like an dotty, embarrassing uncle reminding the public at large of serious and too common misfirings in the system.
I write this in some distress as a solicitor advocate (now retired) with 47 years of cjs experience under my belt and well over 50 years of residence in our second city.
I am not a great fan of deckchair rearranging, but I do believe that there is a case now for the CCRC to be put to bed and a new body created. Morale is non-existent, they can't get leadership and the Malkinson report showed that there were very poor practices, notwithstanding some staff will have done their best. Brining in new leadership won't prevent the "this is how we do things" or "this is how we normally do things".
I must say having read the (redacted) report, I agree that the CEO was untenable, not just the chair. For several years they did not have the right number of commissioners, then moved to fee-based commissioners and it is far from clear what the governance of the CCRC was.
That said, we must be clear that there are long-standing political problems around underfunding and not having a clear role. The CACD used to criticise the CCRC for referring too many cases they thought were weak and commentators would criticise them for not referring enough. Politicians are hardly going to get behind a body that some victims see as trying to go against their wishes and interests. So, it's always a "big ask" but I think even accounting for that, the CCRC is now too damaged to continue.
I can't help feeling sorry for public servants who are given what even in ideal circumstances would be a very difficult job to do, are deprived by central government of the resources with which to carry it out, and are then pilloried by MPs when they fall short (however justified those criticisms may be).
James, I hope I made it clear that she was being criticised for what she said — and didn’t say — to the committee as much as she was for the way she has behaved. Joshua
You did, Joshua, yes. And I was not trying to justify either!
"Kneller has not responded to the committee’s conclusion that her position is no longer tenable."
Probably hasn't read it yet.