Contributions
466 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Second sitting)Q That is helpful. What sentence can a judge sitting alone give, and are there particular cases that will be heard with a jury? Doug Downey: It is a great range. Let me answer…25 Mar 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Second sitting)Q I have a quick follow-up question, based on your earlier comments. Do you believe that a large part of the confidence in the Canadian model is the right to elect? Doug Downey: I…25 Mar 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Second sitting)Q Thank you for being here. Your police officers are at the coalface. They often experience these adjournments and see victims let down at the final hurdle when they are about to…25 Mar 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Second sitting)Q Thank you all for being here. Mr Goldstone, Liverpool is often held as a bastion of good practice in the criminal justice system, but Sir Brian Leveson said this morning that we…25 Mar 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Second sitting)Q Thank you; that is helpful. This is a question for all of you: what risks do you perceive arising from the proposed removal of the automatic right to appeal from the magistrates…25 Mar 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Second sitting)Lord Burnett, would you say the same? Lord Burnett of Maldon: I was going to make the observation that Sir Richard just made about the very low level of appeals from the…25 Mar 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Second sitting)Q I have a quick question for Cassia. The Government proposals rely on the magistrates court taking on a significant amount of additional work and, importantly, sentencing powers.…25 Mar 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Second sitting)Q Thank you all for being here. It is very helpful to have your views as part of today’s evidence gathering. Do any of you share concerns that there is a lower level of legal aid…25 Mar 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Second sitting)Q Thank you. I have a question for Emma about appeals. Excuse my ignorance, but my understanding is that, if you are appealing from a magistrates court, you already have to have…25 Mar 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Second sitting)Q Thank you, Mr Downey, for your time today. I profess my ignorance of the Canadian justice system—it will stay with me forever that I do not know exactly how it works. Is the lay…25 Mar 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Second sitting)Q I have one more question. Has the IfG ever done any modelling around the efficiency savings that could be made by introducing the RASSO courts, as per as the Labour manifesto,…25 Mar 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Second sitting)Q I have a very simple question: what are the risks of ignoring campaigners like you when we talk about fundamentally changing the way we do jury trials? Tim Crosland: The risk is…25 Mar 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Second sitting)Q Finally—I will be very quick—you spoke about making the system fairer, and I think that it is shared across all parties that we would like to see that. Will you be looking to…25 Mar 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Second sitting)Q Thank you both very much for being here—we really appreciate your time. What effect could the Bill’s proposed changes to jury trials have on newly qualified legal professionals,…25 Mar 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Second sitting)Q Do you share my discomfort that we have no pilot to refer to, to see if the proposed measures would work? Sarah Sackman: The difficulty is that any pilot where you are testing…25 Mar 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Second sitting)Q On pilots, I agree that something needs to be done now. A pilot ran during the pandemic that looked at dual court sitting days. That pilot showed that courtrooms were able to…25 Mar 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Second sitting)Q If I can ask my question again to clarify, have you as the Minister had any conversations with any officials in the MOJ about the pilot that happened in the pandemic,…25 Mar 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (First sitting)Q Thank you all for being here; I am very grateful to you for coming to give evidence to the Committee. Farah, you mentioned the presumption against parental responsibility. I…25 Mar 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Second sitting)I am happy to send you the Government link to that. Sarah Sackman: I would appreciate that, thank you.25 Mar 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Second sitting)Q Sir Richard Henriques, who we heard from earlier, said that if we were not facing such a huge backlog we would not be here at all. I may have bastardised his language slightly,…25 Mar 2026