Part of Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill – in a Public Bill Committee am 7:15 pm ar 20 Tachwedd 2007.
I am not in a position to put any boundary around what individual Members might ask in their parliamentary questions, but as a Minister, I certainly should not seek to have such a question asked. I hope the Committee heard the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice say earlier that he did not seek to question the sentencing or behaviour of individual judges as part of the way in which he does his job. The Secretary of State feels the same way, so I hope that I can give the hon. and learned Gentleman the assurance that Ministers in the Ministry of Justice would not seek to do such a thing. That is not to say that individual Members do not have a perfect right to put down any question to any Department. That is part of parliamentary scrutiny, and I hope that my answer satisfies the hon. and learned Gentleman.