UK Law Articles
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The Times
August 29 2000
Ministers 'committed' to jury trials Bill
BY JAMES LANDALE, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
MINISTERS admitted yesterday that the parliamentary timetable in the House of Lords was "tight" after failing to guarantee a safe passage for the Bill curbing access to jury trials.
Lord Bassam, the Home Office Minister, said the Government was committed to getting the legislation on the statute book, despite the logjam of Bills in the second chamber, but he said this was only the Government's "expectation" and did not give any categoric assurance that the measure would survive.
The peer was speaking after The Times reported that the Criminal Justice (Mode of Trial) (No 2) Bill was under threat from the legislative chaos in the Lords. Speaking on the BBC's Today programme, Lord Bassam said: "We are still very committed to the Bill. It is of course true that all parliamentary time is tight and there are always tight timetables to match, but we expect to put this legislation through towards the end of the spill-over session."
Peers are being brought back early, on September 27, to clear up the remaining business before the Queen's Speech launches the new annual parliamentary session.
Lord Bassam , dismissing The Times report as "speculation and summer froth", said he "profoundly rejected" claims by the Commission for Racial Equality that the Bill would lead to discrimination against minorities. "We think the legislation is sensible. It will curb abuses in the system and ensure that trials are held in the court where it is most appropriate."
But Robert Marshall-Andrews, Labour MP for Medway and a vociferous opponent of the Bill, said that he would congratulate "a wise and sagacious Government" if it scrapped the plans.
"Now that so much support has been withdrawn from the Bill, it would be a sign of good government, and not weak government, if the Government reassessed its priorities," he said.
