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The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (2005 c. 4) is an Act of Parliament passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in 2005. It provides for a Supreme Court of the United Kingdom to take over the existing role of the Law Lords and some powers of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and remove the functions of Speaker of the House of Lords and Head of the Judiciary of England and Wales from the office of Lord Chancellor.
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The long title of the Act is:
The Bill was originally introduced in the House of Lords on 24 February 2004, and proposed the following, much broader, changes:
The Bill caused much controversy and the Lords made amendments to it. The final Act keeps the post of Lord Chancellor, though its role in relation to the judiciary is greatly reduced and the office holder is no longer automatically Speaker of the House of Lords. Another major change is that the Lord Chancellor can now be from either the House of Commons or the House of Lords. Other measures remain generally the same as stated above.
The newly created Cabinet position of Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs (originally created to wholly replace the Lord Chancellor's executive function) will continue, although the holder of that Cabinet post - renamed Secretary of State for Justice in 2007 - also holds the office of Lord Chancellor too. The Lord Chancellor will remain as the custodian of the Great Seal (the Bill originally intended to put this into commission).
The Bill was approved by both Houses on 21 March 2005, and received Royal Assent on 24 March.
The Act contains provisions which reform several institutions of the United Kingdom. The document is divided into three parts: the first concerns the reform of the office of Lord Chancellor, the second is about the new Supreme Court, and the third regulates the appointment of judges.
The establishment of a new Supreme Court is the main subject of the Act and it had consequences for the House of Lords and the office of Lord Chancellor. The sections contained in Part 3 prescribe that the Supreme Court will be composed of 12 judges (s.23) and that the first judges will be the current twelve Lords of Appeal in Ordinary (s.24). The following sections (ss. 26-31) set out the rules for the appointment of future members of the Court. A selection commission headed by the President of the Supreme Court (schedule 8) will propose one name to the Lord Chancellor who can reject that name only one time. Sections 32 to 37 are entitled Terms of Appointment and deal with issues such as tenure, salaries and allowances, resignation and retirement, and pensions. Section 37 additionally sets out that the new Court will assume the jurisdiction of the House of Lords and the jurisdiction in matters of devolution of the Privy Council.
The following sections deal with practical matters such as procedures, staff, and resources of the new Court and the fees of the judges. The Chief Executive of the Supreme Court must prepare an annual report on the work and it must be presented to both Houses of Parliament (s.51).
In the third part of the Act there are provisions in regard to the appointment of judges. In 1991 the Law Society had criticized the old system (the Queen appointing judges on the advice of the Lord Chancellor), emphasizing its defects and recommending the establishment of an independent body responsible for appointing judges. The Constitutional Reform Act realized the hopes of the Law Society. Section 61 prescribes the creation of a Judicial Appointments Commission, which is now responsible for the appointment of judges for English and Welsh courts. The following sections regulate the structure and the procedures of the Commission.
Although the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords will be abolished, the current Law Lords will keep their role into the new Supreme Court. The new members of the Court will not take the peerage and will be called Justices of the Supreme Court. The Lord Chief Justice replaces the Lord Chancellor as head of the English judiciary.
The new Supreme Court will need a new building, separate from the Houses of Parliament where the House of Lords currently sits, to exercise its judicial functions. After a lengthy survey of suitable sites, including Somerset House, it was decided that the location for the new court will be Middlesex Guildhall, in Parliament Square, Westminster, which was formerly a Crown court building. Lord Foster was chosen to make the necessary alterations. The building is expected to reopen in 2009 after renovations in 2008.
The office of Lord Chancellor was reformed to remove his ability to act as both a government minister and a judge. This arrangement ran contrary to the idea of separation of powers. The reform was motivated by concerns that the historical admixture of legislative, judicial, and executive power might not be in conformance with the requirements of the European Convention on Human Rights, because a judicial officer, having legislative or executive power, is likely not to be considered sufficiently impartial to provide a fair trial.
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