Don’t be distracted, Burnett tells Chalk

Chief justice says magistrates were sentencing too quickly for prisons to cope

Court-related issues risk being downgraded because they form only a small part of what the Ministry of Justice currently does, the lord chief justice of England and Wales said last week.

Lord Burnett of Maldon added that the department needed to be headed by a person of substance — in effect, I suppose, someone that others can look up to.

John Cleese, Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbett in the Class sketch (1966); Alex Chalk, Lord Burnett of Maldon, Sir Geoffrey Vos at the Royal Courts of Justice (last month).

When Alex Chalk was sworn in as justice secretary and lord chancellor last month, Burnett suggested that his responsibilities should no longer include the prison service.