43. (1) The Council shall—

(a) establish a committee which shall be known as the Judicial Conduct Committee, and

(b) at the first meeting of the Council, specify the date upon which that Committee shall stand established which shall be a date not later than 6 months following that first meeting.

(2) The function of the Judicial Conduct Committee shall be to promote and maintain high standards of conduct among judges, having regard to the principles of judicial conduct requiring judges to uphold and exemplify judicial independence, impartiality, integrity, propriety (including the appearance of propriety), competence and diligence and to ensure equality of treatment to all persons before the courts.

(3) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (2), the Judicial Conduct Committee—

(a) shall consider complaints and refer them for resolution by informal means or undertake investigations into the conduct of individual judges in accordance with this Part,

(b) shall take such action, if any, in accordance with this Part as it considers necessary for the purposes of safeguarding the administration of justice whether as a result of its consideration of a complaint and its referral for resolution by informal means or the undertaking of an investigation under this Part or otherwise,

(c) shall prepare and publish guidelines providing for the resolution by informal means of complaints that are determined to be admissible under this Part,

(d) shall, not later than 12 months after its establishment, prepare and submit to the Board for its review draft guidelines concerning judicial conduct and ethics, which guidelines shall include guidance as to the matters a judge should consider when deciding whether he or she should recuse himself or herself from presiding over legal proceedings, for adoption by the Council,

(e) may of its own volition or, shall, on the request of the Board or the Council, prepare and submit to the Board for its review draft amendments to guidelines concerning judicial conduct and ethics adopted by the Council, and

(f) may provide such advice and recommendations to an individual judge or to judges generally on judicial conduct and ethics as it sees fit.

(4) The Judicial Conduct Committee shall, subject to this Act, be independent in the performance of its functions.

(5) The Judicial Conduct Committee shall have all such powers as are necessary or expedient for the performance of its functions.

(6) The Judicial Conduct Committee may obtain legal, medical or other advice in connection with the performance of any of its functions.

(7) The Judicial Conduct Committee shall, in relation to the functions conferred on it by this Act—

(a) bring or defend legal proceedings, or

(b) do any other act or thing that is necessary for the performance of those functions,

in the name of the Council.