MPs could review private prosecutions after Horizon scandal – Bar Council chair
Sam Townend KC made the claim in his first speech leading the professional body for practising barristers.
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Your support makes all the difference.There is a case for Parliament to “review wholesale” the role of companies in bringing private prosecutions following the Post Office Horizon scandal, the new chairman of the Bar Council has said.
Sam Townend KC, in his first speech leading the professional body for practising barristers in England and Wales, said it was important that any proposed action gave victims “the proper exoneration to which they are surely entitled”.
His comments at an event in London on Tuesday night come after Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride said ministers were looking at changing the rules around private prosecutions by companies.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has also called for the Post Office to be stripped of its prosecutions powers.
Mr Townend told the gathering at the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn that barristers were grateful for the Justice Secretary’s “careful attention to the issues that arise in connection with the truly appalling Post Office Horizon miscarriages of justice”.
He added: “For our part we think there is a case for Parliament to review wholesale the role of corporates in bringing private prosecutions.
“So far as the immediate circumstances of the victims are concerned, it is important that any proposals are consistent with due process and the separation of powers, in particular, to give them the proper exoneration to which they are surely entitled.”
The criminal and family justice systems are at the point of structural failure
Mr Townend also used his inaugural speech to highlight the “lack of Government investment” in the justice system.
“I put it bluntly: The criminal and family justice systems are at the point of structural failure,” he said.
“The need for significant investment is great and it is urgent.”
“From front to end of the criminal justice system, the picture is bleak,” he continued, adding: “The court estate is dilapidated, and prisons are full.”
Mr Townend said crown court backlog was “the largest it has ever been” at around 66,500 outstanding cases at the end of September last year.
The average outstanding duration of criminal cases was “stuck” above 290 days, “the highest ever”.
He said that more than one in six trials were “ineffective”, with a major reason being the unavailability of barristers.
Mr Townend said a decline in guilty pleas was putting “unbearable pressure” on the justice system, while there was “no signs of improvement” in the number of junior barristers working in crime.
“The present financial settlement for the criminal justice system is like being asked to make two loaves of bread but having the ingredients for less than one,” he said.
The senior lawyer added that it was “utterly disappointing” that neither of the main political parties had “yet committed itself to applying, committing, the resources needed and yet each keeps identifying more new offences and proposing greater demands on the criminal justice system”.
“I have to say, frankly, if you wish the ends you have to provide the means.”
Mr Townend also spoke out against the “inappropriateness” of political “attacks” on lawyers.
He said: “In circumstances where the level of public legal education and understanding in this country remains so poor, we would welcome some public words by leading Conservative and Labour lawyer politicians to deprecate such attacks and to help to explain the role of lawyers, that would be extremely welcome.
“The Bar Council will continue to play its part, but the misapprehension about the role of lawyers reflected in some parts of the media, if left unchallenged, is corrosive of public perceptions of lawyers, the administration of justice and ultimately the rule of law.”