What is Chalk made of?

Alex Chalk has made no major announcements since his appointment two weeks ago. The parliamentary timetable has been kind to the new justice secretary, allowing him time to assess the legacy he inherited from Dominic Raab.

A few changes have been announced to prisons. Under new rules, convicted terrorists can no longer lead prayers or deliver sermons. Chalk visited a prison in south-east London and confirmed that body-worn cameras would be available for all staff. While there, he told the Telegraph he wanted to preserve and enhance access to justice and the rule of law.

On the same day, though, he had an opportunity to deal with what Sir Bob Neill – quoting the former judge Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood – described as a stain on the justice system. The Commons justice committee, which Neill chairs, had recommended a statutory resentencing exercise for prisoners serving indefinite IPP (imprisonment for public protection) sentences. Neill wanted Chalk to reconsider Raab’s ‘shoddy’ refusal to engage with the committee’s recommendation.

Chalk’s junior minister Damian Hinds had nothing new to offer. But perhaps that was understandable, given that Chalk had been in post for less than a week and the committee’s plan would require primary legislation.

Fortunately, the perfect vehicle for reform is just pulling into the station. Chalk will ask MPs to give Raab’s Victims and Prisoners Bill a second reading on 15 May. Parliamentary procedures do not allow ministers to make changes to a bill before its initial debate. But there will be every opportunity to do so during the bill’s committee stage.

Writing here two weeks ago, I argued that the new justice secretary should reconsider the proposed changes to the parole system. He should look particularly carefully at the bill’s human rights provisions.

Chalk (pictured) promised the Telegraph he would consider ‘every aspect’ of Raab’s Bill of Rights Bill ‘with very great care’ before deciding what to do. That bill is clearly going nowhere. Raab himself implicitly conceded that the game was up when he reintroduced some of its provisions in the Victims and Prisoners Bill – particularly the obligation to ‘read down’ prison-related legislation where that’s possible. There would be no need for these provisions if the Bill of Rights Bill had any chance of becoming law. But Chalk should consider them carefully. 

The main purpose of Chalk’s new bill is to increase support for victims of crime. This is an issue close to his heart. Asked by a local reporter two years ago to list his responsibilities as a junior minister in the Ministry of Justice, he mentioned victims first.

A draft victims bill was published for pre-legislative scrutiny last May. MPs on the Commons justice committee were distinctly unimpressed. ‘The government has committed to enshrining the rights of victims in law,’ they said in September. ‘We find that the draft bill does not appear to do any more to achieve this than is already provided for in existing legislation.’

To be fair, the government has taken on board some of the committee’s concerns, extending the definition of ‘victim’ to include people born of rape and close relatives of those who were unlawfully killed. But moves to strengthen the victims’ code were rejected by Raab.

Still, Chalk’s main priority must be to get the justice system working again. This is not just a question of money, although many of the current problems have been caused by past budget cuts.

The new justice secretary will have found a huge pile of appointments waiting to be signed off. His predecessor seemed unable to take decisions, preferring to extend existing appointments. Lord Kitchin announced at the beginning of February that he would be retiring in September as a justice of the Supreme Court. Steps to recruit a successor could not begin until the lord chancellor had convened a selection commission. That was not announced until a few days after Chalk had moved into the MoJ. The three-month delay means that the Court of Appeal is likely to be short-staffed in the autumn.

When the new lord chancellor takes his oath of office this month, wearing the full-bottomed wig of a KC, he will be warmly welcomed by the lord chief justice. But Lord Burnett of Maldon may well remind Chalk that he is the sixth lord chancellor Burnett has worked with in less than six years. By contrast, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, the last lord chancellor to have been appointed from the judiciary, served for an unbroken period of almost a decade.

Compared with the many who have followed Mackay over the past quarter-century, Chalk has a lot going for him. He is young (46), energetic (a keen cyclist), brainy (Winchester and Magdalen) and a successful barrister (14 years prosecuting and defending in terrorist bomb plots, international fraud, multi-handed rape cases and murder).

We’ll soon see what he’s made of.

joshua@rozenberg.net