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The government responds on secret prisoners

We see the difficulty of the operation of the British Constitution with the government writing to Munby P about the Court of Protection. In my view James Munby is one of the better judges. However, there are issues that cannot simply be left to the judges. Yes, the judiciary should be consulted, but in the end parliament writes the laws not the judiciary.

The problems in the Family Division (and I include the Court of Protection in this) have arisen because individual judges have been left to just get on with it. Some do a good job and others do a dreadful job (and of course there are those in between). The Rule of Law is supposed to mean that it should not matter which judge a case is heard by. However, things don't work like that in practise.

The biggest issue for the court of protection is actually the question as to how reliable the assessments of capacity are. It is driven by this.

Alistair Pitblado (the Official Solicitor) has also managed to escape scrutiny. His office have a responsibility of protecting the interests of contemnors. He won't answer any questions I ask him about individual cases, but I wonder what his office did about the jailing of Wanda Maddocks.

Comments

Allen said…
It is because the OS is not a government department and, therefore, does not fall under the FOI. It is a disgrace and can, and does, lead to corruption.
6:24 pm
Jake Maverick said…
it's not corruption in the same way that nazi's weren't corrupt, they are what they are...

...telling them what they are isn't going to make them remove themslves...so what's that leave you with?
10:38 pm
Unknown said…
The reliability of assessments is as critical as the 'best interest determination' for children!

When Ed Timpson thinks that the number of children who die in care is 'low', this seems like an outrageous belittlement to me. 50 children dying per year is 50 too many!

If parents lose their child, their other kids would be taken!

Please do something about what he said in response to Madeleine Moon MP's question:

"typically around 50 children per year. Due to these low numbers and to protect their identities, figures cannot be provided for each individual local authority."

http://bit.ly/114Ez1S
8:20 am
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