Law Society Gazette
Concerns about judicial security are at an ‘all-time high’, the lady chief justice told journalists today – while also condemning as ‘unacceptable’ the prime minister and leader of the opposition’s comments about a court ruling last week.
At her annual press conference, Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill also spoke of a renewed focus on judicial diversity and recruiting more black judges to the bench.
Asked about security, she added: ‘Judicial security has been an issue ever since I took up office. It really came to a very dramatic and concerning head with the very serious physical attack on [His Honour Judge] Patrick Perusko at Milton Keynes where the assailant was convicted in due course, but it was a very serious attack.
‘The silver lining of a very dark cloud was it made everybody really sit up and make sure we were doing everything with HMCTS to ensure that their responsibility to preserve the safety of judges in courts and tribunals was being met.
‘Since the assault on Patrick, we have seen a rolling national programme of improvements to courts. It is sometimes as simple as moving a witness box from left to right so the witness isn’t blocking the judge’s exit, making sure the wooden barrier is working. We have much more regular tests of panic alarms, we have blind tests, we have a new potentially violent person protocol, we have better engagement with local police stations.
‘All of that I am really engaging with and trying to get judges to realise many of them do have a police station next door, make contact with the chief constable, make contact with your local police officer so it all comes to life a bit.’
Baroness Carr added that she is trying to make judges understand that, despite their desire to ‘just get on with it’ that ‘against their better nature, they have got to be safe and have to make a fuss if they need to because it is so important.’
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