Recommendation 2

Given the constitutional significance of the bill, it would have been proportionate for the government to have facilitated more meaningful parliamentary scrutiny, in particular, by allowing the Justice Committee to conduct pre-legislative scrutiny. The Impact Assessment states that the provisions in the bill will not be implemented until March 2028 at the earliest. It is therefore difficult to understand why the government has not sought to achieve a broader consensus on these proposals, both within Parliament and outside, before pushing ahead with them. (Conclusion, Paragraph 9) The magistrates’ court