The Lord Chancellor is to establish and maintain an advisory body, to be known as the Civil Justice Council.
The Council must include—
members of the judiciary,
members of the legal professions,
civil servants concerned with the administration of the courts,
persons with experience in and knowledge of consumer affairs,
persons with experience in and knowledge of the lay advice sector, and
persons able to represent the interests of particular kinds of litigants (for example, businesses or employees).
The Lord Chancellor must decide the following questions, after consulting the Lord Chief Justice—
how many members of the Council are to be drawn from each of the groups mentioned in subsection (2);
how many other members the Council is to have.
It is for—
the Lord Chief Justice to appoint members of the judiciary to the Council, after consulting the Lord Chancellor;
the Lord Chancellor to appoint other persons to the Council.
The functions of the Council are to include—
keeping the civil justice system under review,
considering how to make the civil justice system more accessible, fair and efficient,
advising the Lord Chancellor and the judiciary on the development of the civil justice system,
referring proposals for changes in the civil justice system to the Lord Chancellor and the Civil Procedure Rule Committee, and
making proposals for research.
The Lord Chancellor may reimburse the members of the Council their travelling and out-of-pocket expenses.
The Lord Chief Justice may nominate a judicial office holder (as defined in section 109(4) of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005) to exercise his functions under this section.