Food for thought

Truss must adapt quickly to her new role after her performance before the justice select committee left a lot to be desired, writes Matthew Rogers

What a difference 24 hours can make. The new Lord Chancellor and justice secretary, Liz Truss, stood confidently at the dispatch box on Tuesday as she faced oral questions in the House of Commons. On Wednesday morning, that confidence appeared to erode rapidly as she faced the justice select committee for the first time.

The third non-lawyer to assume the post, Truss was criticised on appointment for lacking the required experience to improve an ailing legal and justice system - and it showed last week.

Before the committee, Truss outlined prison reforms as one of her three priorities but rowed back on Michael Gove's Prison and Courts Reforms Bill by not committing to any specific pieces of legislation, just months after it was announced in the Queen's Speech.

The non-committal approach, which Truss acknowledged was frustrating for the committee, was a common theme. Second on the new Lord Chancellor's priority list is the British Bill of Rights.

She is 'still looking at the parameters' of what a consultation should consist of and rebuffed any talk of its substance for 'danger of discussing what the proposal might be'. Truss did confirm, however, that the Human Rights Act will be repealed and the UK will not be withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights.

The third priority for Truss is justice system reforms. Gove previously championed 'problem-solving' courts. However, Truss only told of how she was 'interested in trialling the approach' and refused to say whether her predecessor's planned pilots would go ahead.

A review into the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 is also unlikely with Truss stating how 'generously funded' the current system is. On the issue of employment tribunal fees, which the committee has previously said must be 'substantially reduced,' a review is to be published in due course.

Amidst the vague answers, there were glimmers of hope. Truss plans to meet senior judges, including Sir James Munby, over the next few weeks to discuss court reforms. She also pledged to watch out for threats to the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law in light of recent global events.

On diversity, Truss told the Commons that she wanted 'a legal services industry that uses all of the talents in our country' and spoke confidently about her conversations with the Lord Chief Justice about this, and of future meetings to be had with the Law Society and Bar Council.

This was not enough to stave off criticisms from the legal Twitterati though, who were damning of Truss's performance. 'Embarrassing', tweeted Stefan Cross QC; a 'dreadful performance,' added lawyer David Allen Green. Former government lawyer Carl Gardner said Truss was 'far from impressive' and 'seems pretty vague about what she's doing'.

The honeymoon period is now over. The fallout from Brexit has left Truss to pick up where Gove left off but she must be given time to stamp her own authority on the role. Truss admitted that she has a lot to look at and the justice select committee chair, Bob Neill - a critic of Truss's non-lawyer background - will be less forgiving of unsubstantiated answers in future sessions.

Truss's first committee meeting has given her food for thought. Going forward, a similar showing of the knowledge and passion she showed in her infamous cheese rant as environment secretary may go a little way to allaying some, if not all, of her sceptics' fears.

Matthew Rogers is a legal reporter at Solicitors Journal @sportslawmatt matthew.rogers@solicitorsjournal.co.uk