Contributions
2,978 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDCourt BacklogMy hon. Friend is right to raise the prioritisation of urgent cases. Listing is a judicial function and is a matter for judges, but I know that judges do prioritise the most…02 Feb 2021HANSARDNightingale CourtsAs he is so often, my hon. Friend the Chair of the Justice Committee is correct. Often when a Nightingale court is set up, it does not have the required custody facilities, but it…02 Feb 2021HANSARDCourt BacklogIt is important that people to whom debts are owed can enforce those debts and get judgment; it is the foundation upon which commercial transactions are built. I am not sure that…02 Feb 2021HANSARDCourt BacklogI can most certainly offer my hon. Friend an assurance about the additional staff. We are in the process of hiring an extra 1,600 HMCTS staff. As I mentioned to the Justice…02 Feb 2021HANSARDCourt BacklogThe hon. Lady is right to draw the House’s attention to this very serious problem, which most certainly does need to be sorted out. Some steps have been taken already, such as the…02 Feb 2021HANSARDNightingale CourtsA range of other measures are being used, not least the roll-out of the cloud video platform, which led last week to more than 20,000 remote hearings across all jurisdictions,…02 Feb 2021HANSARDCovid-19: Court EstateWe take covid safety very seriously, and as I said earlier, we have invested £0.25 billion in making our courts covid-safe this year. That has involved the buildings and other…02 Feb 2021HANSARDExtradition Act 2003The argument that my right hon. Friend advances is essentially that the US justice system is inherently not fit for purpose. Of course, the rules that he describes apply as much…21 Jan 2021HANSARDExtradition Act 2003I thank my right hon. Friend for his intervention. The test is not that the justice systems are identical; it is that they are just. I do not think I would accept the argument…21 Jan 2021HANSARDExtradition Act 2003As my right hon. Friend the Member for Haltemprice and Howden (Mr Davis) said, I am here deputising for the Minister for Security, my right hon. Friend the Member for Old Bexley…21 Jan 2021HANSARDSerious Criminal Cases BacklogI do not accept the hon. Lady’s criticism. Travel times to courts before and after the programme that she mentions were very little different. As I said, due to the actions that…20 Jan 2021HANSARDSerious Criminal Cases BacklogDomestic violence most certainly is a very serious and very important matter. That is why, when the pandemic started, the senior judiciary sent directions to magistrates courts…20 Jan 2021HANSARDSerious Criminal Cases BacklogMy hon. Friend is right to raise this question. As I said in my opening remarks, the pandemic—the global pandemic—has had a huge impact on public services not just in this country…20 Jan 2021HANSARDSerious Criminal Cases BacklogThe shadow Justice Secretary referred to the number of cases outstanding in the magistrates courts: 460,000. What he neglected to mention to the House was that, after the first…20 Jan 2021HANSARDSerious Criminal Cases BacklogI thank my hon. Friend, the Chair of the Justice Committee, for his question. He is of course right: we need to have sustained levels of disposals exceeding receipts. We got there…20 Jan 2021HANSARDSerious Criminal Cases BacklogWe are as keen as the hon. and learned Member is and everyone is to make sure that these very sensitive cases involving rape or similar offences get heard quickly, but of course…20 Jan 2021HANSARDSerious Criminal Cases BacklogI would point to the quarter of a billion pounds that we have invested this year alone—extra money for making sure that our courts are covid safe and have the capacity needed to…20 Jan 2021HANSARDSerious Criminal Cases BacklogOn the safe working environment, I have already mentioned that Public Health England and Public Health Wales, which are the relevant bodies, find our courts to be safe…20 Jan 2021HANSARDSerious Criminal Cases BacklogMy hon. Friend can reassure her constituents who have been summoned for jury service that we have plexiglass screens in place to prevent the spread of any infection, distancing in…20 Jan 2021HANSARDSerious Criminal Cases BacklogSome local courts have been brought back into use in response to the pandemic. We have had to use Nightingale courts not because the current court estate is, in itself,…20 Jan 2021