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This parliamentary subterfuge shows quite clearly that Mr Grayling is unfit for the office of Lord Chancellor. It is quite clear that this is an attempt to persuade people to plead guilty.
Those who appear in the Criminal Courts are not volunteers they have no choice.
However Mr Grayling your desire to slip this in through the back door without consultation may backfire on you how are these payments to be enforced?
Do you really think that those appearing in your courts have the means or desire to pay?
Oh! Of course I hear you say we will enforce these payments through the courts, well how much will that cost? You and your advisors appear to have overlooked the fact that the only realistic sanction open to the courts is imprisonment.
We will therefore see greater costs being spent on enforcement and a vast increase in the prison population. Far from raising money you may well have aimed both barrels at your own feet or the feet of your advisors.
One last thought, who now wants to apply for one of your non coveted duty contracts, there previously were sound commercial and common sense reasons for not applying
1. No guarantee of work volume ( hardly helped yourself on that one with this piece of political shenanigans.
2. No guarantee on value to be received ( if you do this with court fees you will doubtless do the same with Legal Aid rates over the period of the contract which people will be locked into)