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- Institution
- PEARSON (PEARSON)
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By: sjbinnington • 1 year ago
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Influence’s On ParliamentIn this assignment I will talk about the Royal Commission and how they run and
also how they affect parliament in what they do.
The Royal commission is an independent body which was made by the government
but it was appointed by the queen. The Royal Commission was first introduced in
1869. The members of the group are chosen due to their proficiency normally the
type of people who are selected are judges, academic lawyers and not qualified
people. The Royal Commission is not a government or a political party. The Royal
Commission has its chairperson and the memberships are set by the government.
The time it could take for the royal commission to develop a report could be between 2 and 4 years. It
isn’t always that the government adopts to what The Royal Commission does.
The Royal Commission job is to look at non-political issues. They don’t search political matters as it
would divide Members of Parliament and their party. Sometimes the government give cases to the
Royal Commission as they feel the subject is too controversial for them to investigate it themselves.
The Royal Commission will study a particular area of law an example of one area they have looked at
is the questioning of suspects.
Royal commission investigations can take from 2 and 4 years for them to complete. After the years a
report is made which is then put up before the parliament in the House of Commons. When it is put
forward to parliament only two thirds of the time parliament take on what conclusions the royal
commission has put forward, the other times the government will just ignore what the Royal
Commission has put forward.
One Royal commission which has influenced parliament is the ‘Runciman Commission’. Viscount
Runciman was the chairman who was in charge of this case. This Royal Commission by the end,
ended up making Parliament introduce an act of law which was ‘Criminal Act 1995’. The Royal
Commission had to investigate the effectiveness of the criminal justice system in securing the
conviction of the guilty and thee acquittal of the innocent. The Royal Commission had to reply to the
response of the case of the ‘Birmingham Six’. The Birmingham Six were people who were wrongly
charged with 2 pub bombings which claimed the life 21 people in 1974. The six were arrested in 1974
and in Police Custody they had signed the confession which means they accepted the responsibility of
the bombings. They later said in court that they only confessed as they were tortured by police.
Scientists said that the statements made by the six people were altered while they were in custody.
Scientists said the test confirmed that the six were in possession of a bomb, but later said they were
carrying cigarettes which made the test produce the result. After 17 years the Birmingham Six were
released from prison. In March 1991 they were dropped of any convictions and were freed from
prison as innocent men. The Royal Commission had presented the report to parliament in July 1993.
In the report the Royal Commission recommended an independent body to consider and view the
miscarriages of justice. So in 1995 the government passed the Criminal Appeal Act 1995. After this
in 1997 the establishment of criminal cases review commission on 1 January 1997. This shows that
parliament was influenced as they had to introduce a new act and create a new independent body.
Another Royal Commission example was the Philips Commission. The chairman of the Royal
Commission was Cyril Philips. The Royal Commission was in response to the murder of Maxwell
Confait. The Philips commission was set up in 1978. Maxwell Confait was a male prostitute who was
killed. 3 under 18 year olds were convicted of killing him. When in police custody the 3 boys were
not given access to an adult or they weren’t given access to legal guidance from a lawyer. They were
interrogated for a long time which later made them confess for the crime. New evidence had been
gathered which proved that the 3 boys were innocent. And a bit later the people had found out that the
Police had hidden the evidence of them being innocent. Then the Philips Commission was set up, to
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