(355)  SUPREME COURT ‘PUT ON ICE’?

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The Times for 17 May 2004 reports that the Supreme Court plans are to be ‘put on ice for up to ten years’ following the Government’s failure to find a suitable new building to accommodate the court.  The shortlist had come down to the Middlesex Guildhall in Parliament Square at Westminster, but Lord Bingham, the senior Law Lord, rejected this possibility because the court room (a listed building) was laid out as a criminal court, with a dock and tiered public benches.  Lord Bingham also refused to initiate the Supreme Court within the present quarters of the House of Lords.  Lord Falconer, it is further reported, is to move an amendment to the Constitutional Reform Bill, suspending the creation of the Supreme Court until appropriate accommodation is found.