Speeches by Dixon.

“Can I follow up? Thank you for that very comprehensive answer. In terms of the provider market, it sounds like you have identified some of the inefficiencies and wasted bureaucracy in the process, and it is good that you have got more flexible procurement in place. How is that actually translating into net capacity to …”

“So your point is that everybody can get access, albeit remotely. The gaps are in providing face-to-face for certain types of legal aid in certain geographies, and you are now taking a much more proactive approach to market development to close those gaps.”

“It would be extremely helpful, in due course, to get more information about how many of those gaps still exist and what your mitigations are, as well as the progress you are making on closing those gaps in access to legal aid.”

“Have you identified other areas where you think fees also need reviewing?”

“I would be grateful for a specific response.”

“And that should hopefully reduce the costs to any claimant of accessing the transcripts, because at the moment it can stretch into the tens of thousands if it is a long case.”

“Thank you, Chair, and welcome witnesses. I will allow you to choose who answers this question, but I think it may be most relevant to Ms Hewison. I have been made aware of an employment tribunal case in which the claimant has requested access to the court record in order to pursue an appeal on the basis of judicial mis…”

“I am sorry, but can I just probe that? The point is about having access to a record of proceedings, particularly in the case of employment tribunals where there has been a reliance on judges’ notes and difficulty in getting transcripts of the proceedings in a timely way so that people can make appeals to the JCIO. It i…”

“The right hon. Gentleman is making a passionate and principled speech about punishment, but we are dealing here with practicalities. The Public Accounts Committee, of which I am a member, has looked at the prison estate capacity. There was a pledge under the previous Government for 20,000 additional prison places; just…”

“My hon. Friend is making a very strong argument, drawing parallels between gambling addiction and drug and alcohol abuse. Earlier this year, as a member of the Public Accounts Committee, I questioned Government officials about the endemic use of drugs in prisons. The Carol Black report looked at this back in 2020—”

“A lot of drug users are repeat offenders, as my hon. Friend was saying about those with a gambling addiction. Does she agree that a shift to community provision might enable people to get the rehabilitation they need for their addiction, whether it be drugs, alcohol or gambling?”

“I welcome my right hon. Friend’s clarification that charities would still be able to provide these placements. I have a fantastic charity in my constituency, upCYCLE, which teaches bike maintenance skills to help rehabilitate people. Currently, that is done in prisons, but when there are more community sentences, that …”

“Referring to my earlier comments, the data show that one in four prisoners are drug users and have a drug and alcohol problem, and they constitute many of the reoffenders. Given that data, does the right hon. Member not agree with me that we should be rehabilitating and medically treating those addictions, so that they…”

“No, I have not just walked in. This is the third speech I have listened to.”

“It was just a follow-up to Conrad’s point about the NHS and service line accounting. This issue is decades long. I remember when Monitor was first introduced to get NHS trusts to have the basic information to benchmark costs. Could you give a use case of how, when that data is available, as it is in the NHS, it has res…”

“I did not think I was down to ask any questions in this session.”

“It is an element of the visa fees. This is why they stand at 211% of cost recovery.”

“In making that decision to permit that, it is specific about where that overallocation then goes in terms of it being, basically, to top up general revenues raised from taxes. I am just trying to get that clear.”

“Effectively, it is a taking something out of a fee and putting it in with other general taxes. This is what I am trying to understand.”

“We could have two hypotheticals. If there was a policy objective to try to recoup some of the costs of gambling harm for gambling addiction services in the NHS, would it be possible, for example, to levy that on to gambling licences, or on, for example, driving licence fees to ameliorate some of the enforcement costs o…”