No. 10’s latest effort to convince Tory rebels to vote for its Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill has collided with that regular ministerial inconvenience, the independence of the judiciary.
According to a report in Tuesday’s Times, ministers plan ‘to move 150 judges from the first-tier tribunal to the upper tribunal, the body that will hear appeals under the new legislation’. The newspaper said there would be additional training and extra pay for judges sitting on evenings and weekends. ‘This is designed to fast-track the process of considering individual legal appeals lodged by migrants,’ the paper explained.
But there are judges in London and the Judicial Office speaks for them. The Law Society Gazette reports that the Judicial Office has issued ‘an unusually forthright statement’ reminding the government that the assignment of judges is a matter for the Lady Chief Justice and senior tribunals president.
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