Ken Clarke’s “Secret Justice” Proposals Ripped Apart by JCHR

JCHR’s report has picked apart the flawed Green Paper exposing the threat to open justice and fairness it poses, particularly through its advocacy of extending closed material procedures to all civil proceedings and inquests.

Committee chair Hywel Francis questioned Ken Clarke’s proposals, showing concern that he “did not seem to think that the proposals in the Green Paper were as radical a departure from our longstanding traditions of open justice and fairness as I, the committee and many others believe them to be.”

He argued: “Closed material procedures are inherently unfair and the Government has failed to show that extending their use might in some instances contribute to greater fairness.”

Ken Clarke has leapt to defend the proposals arguing that the secret courts would mean that evidence could be heard from the secret service that wouldn’t be heard under normal circumstances.

You can read the original green paper here and the JCHR report here.