Contributions
747 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Eleventh sitting)Once again, I strongly reject that suggestion. The two things are not mutually exclusive: wanting to bring in measures that speed up justice for every victim in the criminal…28 Apr 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Eleventh sitting)I thank the hon. Member for that intervention. I will make two points in response. First, the full extent of the crisis in our criminal justice system was not apparent. It was not…28 Apr 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Eleventh sitting)I thank the hon. Member for Chichester for tabling new clauses 3 and 4, which seek to extend Crown court sitting hours, including the possibility of running two separate sessions…28 Apr 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Twelfth sitting)The hon. Lady makes a fair point. There is a mismatch between the performance data that PECS has recorded and the qualitative evidence that one hears from barristers and the…28 Apr 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Twelfth sitting)I do have confidence in the changes. Look at the levers in the Government’s gift: we can get more money for the system—tick. We can try to drive performance and govern the system…28 Apr 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Eleventh sitting)We heard evidence from Sir Brian Leveson about how in his earlier years sitting in the Crown court it was not unusual to hear a couple of trials in a day. One of his insights was…28 Apr 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Eleventh sitting)A juryless system?28 Apr 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Twelfth sitting)I entirely agree that training, in all the respects that the hon. Member for Chichester speaks about, is key, whether it is training on equal treatment or on a trauma-informed…28 Apr 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Twelfth sitting)We are not going to do a pilot, not because piloting is not a good idea per se, but because a pilot would necessitate legislation, which is why the hon. Lady has proposed it in…28 Apr 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Twelfth sitting)I absolutely recognise what the hon. Lady says. That is why I come back to this: swifter justice for victims is the guiding principle behind all these reforms. As she says, the…28 Apr 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Twelfth sitting)I do not accept that the vast majority of the changes we are introducing are unprecedented; in the main, we are shifting caseload from the Crown court to the magistrates court,…28 Apr 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Twelfth sitting)The hon. Member for Chichester rightly acknowledges the significant amount of work that the Government are currently undertaking in this space, and we had an opportunity to debate…28 Apr 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Twelfth sitting)I will take one short intervention.28 Apr 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Twelfth sitting)Let me begin, as we all have in this Committee, by acknowledging the challenges that victims face in accessing the information and support they need. We have talked about the…28 Apr 2026HANSARDCourts and Tribunals Bill (Eleventh sitting)The hon. Lady asks a really good question. The point about ineffective trials is one of the greatest sources of both delay and waste in the system. She is right that last year…28 Apr 2026HANSARDContingencies Fund AdvanceI hereby give notice of the Ministry of Justice’s intention to seek an advance from the Contingencies Fund totalling £1.7 million. This follows the introduction of the Public…28 Apr 2026HANSARDDraft First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) Fees (Amendment) Order 2026I am familiar with the argument raised by the Master of the Rolls; we discussed it during the passage of the Renters’ Rights Act, and I have discussed it with the relevant…27 Apr 2026HANSARDDraft First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) Fees (Amendment) Order 2026Indeed. The other thing to say—this relates to both sets of questions—is that the new Renters’ Rights Act introduces a series of new rights that we want people to take advantage…27 Apr 2026HANSARDDraft First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) Fees (Amendment) Order 2026That was exactly what I was going to suggest: I shall write to the right hon. Gentleman. I will write to him on his first question, which was about RDEL and the exact running…27 Apr 2026HANSARDDraft First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) Fees (Amendment) Order 2026I will endeavour to answer as many of the right hon. Gentleman’s questions as possible. Any that I do not answer—27 Apr 2026