Role of judges in politics to be reviewed by panel of experts

A FORMER Conservative justice minister will head a major review into the role of judges in politics.

Lord Faulks, who is currently chairman of the Independent Press Standards Organisation, will head an expert panel to examine if judicial reviews need to be reformed.

It follows concerns by Boris Johnson that courts are becoming increasingly politicised and are being used to “conduct politics by another means” after judicial reviews were successfully used to overturn his decision to prorogue Parliament last year.

The Prime Minister wants to define in law what judicial reviews can and cannot be used to challenge.

Lord Faulks said the six-strong panel would “examine judicial review and the need to strike a balance between the right of citizens to challenge government through the courts and the elected government’s right to govern”.

Lord Faulks sits as an unaffiliated peer in the Lords. He quit as minister of state for justice after Liz Truss became the third consecutive MP without a legal background to be made Lord Chancellor. He said at the time that although he had “nothing against Ms Truss personally”, he felt the appointment of another non-lawyer put the justice system at risk at a time of cost-cutting.

The Conservative Party’s last manifesto promised to set up a Constitution, Democracy and Human Rights Commission by December to examine “in depth” issues ranging from judicial reviews to the Human Rights Act.

However, Mr Johnson has decided to speed up the process by setting up small, expert panels to deal with each element individually. It is expected to report in about four months.