Contact

ADDRESS

Constituency address:
472 Green Lanes, Palmers Green, London, N13 5PA

PHONE

Constituency:
0208 882 0088

EMAIL

bambos.charalambous.mp@parliament.uk

Constituency Advice Surgeries

Bambos holds advice surgeries across the constituency each week. Locations and times cannot be published for security reasons.

Please note slots are booked on a first come first served basis and must be pre-booked. Please contact Bambos’ office to arrange an appointment.

Tel: 020 8882 0088
Email: bambos.charalambous.mp@parliament.uk

Legal Issues

As your Member of Parliament, I am not permitted to either offer legal advice or  interfere in legal proceedings.

To explain why this is the case I will outline the basic principle of the separation of powers.  Due to the fundamental constitutional principle of the separation of powers, the judiciary must be independent of the executive and Parliament, and its officers must be seen to be independent when carrying out judicial functions.

The Lord Chancellor is under a statutory duty to uphold the judiciary’s independence, as are other Ministers of the Crown and all those with responsibility for matters relating to the judiciary or to the administration of justice (s3 Constitutional Reform Act 2005).

It may be helpful for the Member to know that the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Daniel Greenberg CB, has written an Advice Note, MPs Writing to Judges (PDF) (revised 8 August 2024). An excerpt from judicial guidance on correspondence from MPs, quoted at paragraph 12 of the Advice Note, emphasises the significance of upholding the separation of powers:

As part of the separation of powers, MPs should not seek to influence legal proceedings by writing to a judge on behalf of a constituent. This is because judges are required to act with independence and determine issues that come before them on their intrinsic merits, unaffected by personal opinions or external pressure.

As such, and as enunciated in the Advice Note, “an MP should not write to a judge in terms that might appear to be using their status as an MP to attempt to interfere with the process of justice or with judicial independence”. The Note sets out (at paragraph 3) that this would include writing to judges [emphasis added]:

1. asking them to consider specified matters in relation to proceedings before them;
2. asking them to accelerate proceedings; or
3. complaining or making observations about timing, listing or other administrative matters in connection with proceedings.

The advice note goes on to state, at paragraph 16 [again – emphasis added]: “A letter that should not be sent to a judge, should not be sent to court staff (who are responsible to the judges).”

Listing issues:

This includes such matters as when a hearing might take place, the listing of hearings is a judicial function and encompasses matters such as deciding that a hearing is necessary, the duration of a hearing and where a hearing should take place.  Civil courts also often have a listing office and listing officers who assist judges with the administration of listing. Listing officers are responsible for arranging court hearings, taking into consideration factors including the availability of judges (or a particular judge), parties, counsel and witnesses, and the proposed length of a hearing.