Alex Norris’s oath-taking followed by wig-filled service at Westminster Abbey
Credit: Polly Botsford
Today, 1st October, marks the beginning of the legal year – and there is yet another Lord Chancellor (LC) at the helm, only a year after a new LC in 2025. Michaelmas term, the first of four terms into which the court year has been traditionally split, begins today and the UK’s high court judges, KCs and others, gathered at Westminster Abbey for a service to mark the moment.
Alex Norris, the current Justice Minister and Lord Chancellor, appointed in July replacing David Lammy after Andy Burnham took over as Prime Minister from Kier Starmer, and the tenth since 2016, led the occasion alongside the head of the judiciary, Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr.
It was also Norris’s swearing in as Lord Chancellor, a convention that reflects what Baroness Carr called “constitutional cooperation” between the political post and the judiciary, held at the Royal Courts of Justice just before the Abbey service. There he took the oath, a stern statutory reminder from the judicial bench to uphold the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary.
Norris has only been in post for a few months, and judges, barristers and the wider legal community at today’s ceremonies (and at the subsequent ‘Breakfast’ (aka lunch)) that followed) were doubtless keen to meet this latest LC.
In his speech at the swearing in, Norris emphasised he was a “strong believer in institutions” and was committed to “actively” defending the rule of law. The judiciary will be cautiously optimistic about that word given the very public attacks on judges of late, such as from former Shadow Lord Chancellor, Robert Jenrick, when he lambasted what he called “activist judges” in the tabloid press.
It’s been a busy start for Norris where he has had to focus his mind on overcrowded prisons and pressure from various sides not to release the most serious prisoners early. He has announced accelerated funding for prison building started under Starmer. He also wants to look at foreign offenders being deported to release prison places (estimating this would free up to 10,000 spaces).
Given that Norris was previously at the Home Office, these issues are fairly close to his previous beat. Perhaps more revealing will be how Norris handles hugely controversial proposed limits on juries in certain criminal cases to help with the backlog of cases. This issue comes back to parliament in the Courts and Tribunals Bill in October. So far, he has ducked discussing the issue.
The new legal year comes after the Labour Party Conference held earlier this week. On Monday there, the Justice Secretary called up the spirit of the Blair Government of the 1990s in citing the need to be ‘tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime’. As the conference was being held in Liverpool, he also gave a shout out to Labour’s commitment to get the ‘Hillsborough Law’ finally through parliament. It has passed in the House of Commons and is half-way through its legislative journey in the House of Lords. It was notable that he didn’t mention jury trials.
It is possible, however, that his mind is elsewhere completely given that he is a supporter of Manchester City FC. Tricky times indeed.
Norris was sworn in by Baroness Carr as was Ellie Reeves KC, the new Attorney General and Andy Slaughter, the new Solicitor General. Norris is the first non-lawyer LC in a Labour cabinet; there have been only four others who were not legally qualified, but they were Conservatives (because they have been the party in power since it became constitutionally possible in the modern era for the LC not to be a lawyer).
As the curtain is flung open on another hectic year in law, most lawyers contending with demanding, cost-conscious clients, clogged up courts and the spectre of AI chasing their jobs, will be hoping they can simply get through it.