Jonathan Jones

Secret justice concessions won’t silence its critics

Two U-turns in 12 hours — even for this government that’s some going. Following George Osborne’s watering down of his VAT changes, Ken Clarke has rowed back some of his ‘secret justice’ proposals. Specifically, the Justice and Security Bill — published today — does not extend closed hearings to inquests, as previously planned. It will still allow Closed Material Procedures to be used in civil cases, but only on ‘national security’ grounds rather than ‘public interest’ ones, and only when a judge — not just a minister — decides that it is necessary.

These concessions are being touted as Lib Dem victories, after Nick Clegg and his party vigorously opposed the original plans. But it’s not as big a victory as opponents of the ‘secret justice’ plans wanted: Liberty’s Shami Chakrabarti called them just ‘slight concessions designed to sweeten the bitter and unnecessary pill’.

And, as Adam Wagner has said at the UK Human Rights Blog, even after these concessions ‘the central criticisms of the Justice and Security Green Paper remain unanswered’. 57 of the 69 Special Advocates who are a crucial part of Closed Material Procedures have dismissed them as ‘fundamentally unfair’ and ‘a departure from the foundational principle of natural justice’. That sort of opposition is not going to be assuaged by today’s U-turn.

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