The Association of Chief Police Officers - Parliament

Bar Council –Written evidenceBar Council –Written evidence1. This is the response of the General Council of the Bar of England and Wales (the BarCouncil) to the House of Lords’ Select Committee on the European Union, Sub-CommitteeE (Justice, Institutions and Consumer Protection) Sub-Committee F (Home Affairs, Healthand Education) Call for Evidence on the UK’s 2014 Opt out decision (Protocol 36).2. The Bar Council represents over 15,000 barristers in England and Wales. It promotesthe Bar’s high quality specialist advocacy and advisory services; fair access to justice for all;the highest standards of ethics, equality and diversity across the profession; and thedevelopment of business opportunities for barristers at home and abroad.3. A strong and independent Bar exists to serve the public and is crucial to theadministration of justice. As specialist, independent advocates, barristers enable people touphold their legal rights and duties, often acting on behalf of the most vulnerable members ofsociety. The Bar makes a vital contribution to the efficient operation of criminal and civilcourts. It provides a pool of talented men and women from increasingly diverse backgroundsfrom which a significant proportion of the judiciary is drawn, on whose independence theRule of Law and our democratic way of life depend. The Bar Council is the ApprovedRegulator for the Bar of England and Wales. It discharges its regulatory functions throughthe independent Bar Standards Board.4. The Bar Council’s EU Law Committee held a debate on the issue of the UK 2014 optoutdecision, as part of its workshop at the Annual Bar Conference in November 2012. Thedecision to devote the majority of the workshop to the opt-out decision was taken manymonths ago, and reflects the Bar’s concern that any opt-out decision should be taken on aninformed basis. To that end, we are among the stakeholders that have called for a full publicconsultation to be undertaken prior to the Government’s decision on the opt-out, and anypossible consequent decisions to opt-back in.5. We thus welcome the initiative taken by this Committee to issue a call for evidence,and are delighted to contribute to the debate by means of written and oral evidence. In theinterests of exploring thoroughly the issues within the Bar’s expertise and experience, thispaper is slightly longer than requested. If we may, rather than add further to its length, werefer you to our answer to question 1 below, which serves also as a summary of our views.6. In preparing this response, the Bar Council has benefited from attendance atconferences on the topic throughout 2012, and from reference to various papers. We wouldwish to highlight in particular the authoritative paper produced in September 2012 by theCentre for European Legal Studies in Cambridge, entitled “Opting out of EU Criminal law:What is actually involved?” 4 . The Bar expressly endorses that paper.The 2014 opt-out decisionQuestion 1: Should the Government exercise its block opt-out?4 http://www.cels.law.cam.ac.uk/Media/working_papers/Optout%20text%20final.pdf36