Veils in courts 'has to be addressed', says Lord Chief Justice

 
5 November 2013

A public consultation on whether female defendants should be able to wear the niqab in court is to be launched by the country’s top judges.

The Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas said the wearing of veils in court was an “important issue” that many people “find divisive’ and “has to be addressed”.

He said the senior judiciary was responding by drawing up “clear” directions setting out the principles that should be applied by judges across the country when deciding whether veils should be allowed.

He declined to comment on what the new guidelines would say, but added that the public would also be asked for its views before final instructions were issued.

Lord Thomas’s comments, at his first press briefing since becoming Lord Chief Justice, follow a controversial ruling earlier this year at Blackfriars Crown Court on the case of a 22-year-old woman who was refusing to appear without a veil.

The judge told the woman, who is not being named for legal reasons, that she would have to remove her niqab when giving evidence, but would be allowed to keep it on during the remainder of her forthcoming trial.

A survey of barristers this week revealed that more than half thought she and other defendants should be forced to remove it throughout hearings.

Former justice secretary Ken Clarke has also criticised the use of the veil, saying that it was almost impossible to conduct hearings properly if the defendant was wearing a “kind of bag” over their head.

Responding to the concerns today, Lord Thomas said the senior judiciary was preparing a “practice direction” that would set a “clear” guidelines for judges to apply in individual cases.

He added: “It’s a problem that many people find divisive. It is an important issue that has to be addressed. I regard it as the responsibility of the senior judiciary to give guidance. It will be starting from a clear starting point giving fairly reasonable guidance as to what should happen. What we intend to do is put that out for public consultation and then finalise it.”

In a wide ranging briefing Lord Thomas also suggested that defendants could eventually appear in pre-trial hearings from their homes via Skype and FaceTime and indicated he would like to see reform of lawyers’ charging methods to ensure that bills that accurately reflected the work done were levied.

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