Speeches by Babarinde.

“I am Josh Babarinde, the MP for Eastbourne, and folks will be able to find my interests declared on the register.”

“I have been privy to some correspondence from judges and court workers who are deeply concerned about the reduction in sitting days. It would be good to get an idea from you of the extent to which the judiciary, and indeed court workers, were consulted about that decision.”

“Are you able to expand on that?”

“I agree that the work of those justice and court workers, in the context of an environment that was not of their shaping, must be commended. To clarify, you and the rest of the judiciary were not consulted, by the sound of it. You were informed and you personally—”

“To what extent do you feel that you were listened to?”

“We have spoken a lot about the Crown court backlog and reform. When you were last here in January, you spoke about the need for radical reform to take place, which might involve things like fewer either-way cases or the establishment of an intermediate court that involved a blend of judges and lay magistrates. Are you …”

“I am proud that the Liberal Democrats were the first UK-wide major party to call for an immediate bilateral ceasefire between Israel and Gaza, and we continue to push the Prime Minister to honour that position. I am also proud that many Eastbourne campaigners have been calling for that from the get-go, and have come ou…”

“The safety and condition of our roads are hugely dependent on those who drive on them, but too many vehicles illegally use our roads without tax, without registering their details with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, and without their MOT. I thank Jamie from Seven Sisters garage for sorting my MOT out last wee…”

“Organisations such as TechResort in my constituency support people who are digitally excluded to become digitally included. The Minister has a long list of meetings to go to, so instead, can the Secretary of State come along the coast to the sunniest town in the UK to visit TechResort and hear more about the funding it…”

“What plans are there to do a re-procurement?”

“I am pleased you are looking at that. I grew up in a home where domestic violence was pretty rife, so it is particularly close to my heart. I am pleased you are serious about looking to curb some of these challenges, should there be another early release come the autumn, or beyond.”

“I will ask one final question before wrapping up, and that is on the victim contact scheme. Ms Rees, you spoke about that in answering one of the questions I just asked. From speaking with organisations like Refuge, it is clear that there are a number of victims and survivors who would have expected to be contacted and…”

“To what extent have the Government explored what Mr Gribbin mentioned—the prospect of changing primary legislation to, I guess, close this loophole for the future?”

“How many of the Victorian prisons do you think are beyond maintenance? We heard lots about rat infestations and things like that that are almost impossible, or have proven impossible so far, to root out. We have seen and heard not dissimilar stories from other prisons. I appreciate there might be some solid leadership …”

“On the subject of risk, it has been super-clear, as I know you are also aware—whether it is the Domestic Abuse Commissioner or charities like Refuge, which I met with earlier today—that there is significant concern from survivors. Although a number of domestic abuse-aligned offences were excluded from early release, th…”

“Thank you so much, Chair. Thanks for bearing with us. I would like to ask a bit more about the risk assessment process that you went through to ascertain which offenders to release early, and which not. Can you tell us about how extensive that was, what tests you undertook and so on?”

“And next autumn, all other things being equal, is the time you expect this reprieve to last until, before prisons reach capacity?”

“So do you have a ballpark? You mentioned the phrase “decent amount of time”. What is that?”

“I think it was the Prison Governors Association that said shortly after the first tranche of releases that within a year we were going to be back to square one. Are you able to share with us when you would expect prisons to reach capacity again?”

“Thank you, Chair. Welcome and thank you for joining us. It is good to see you again. I wanted to ask about the early release scheme SDS40, which saw a number of ex-offenders released 40% into their sentence as opposed to 50%. Are you able to share with us how many available places there were in prisons before that sche…”