Speeches by Mullan.

“My interpretation was that the provision would not be able to be used to enable someone like a family member or friend to take part, but will the Government give us more insight on how they intend to define “independent supporter”, and whether alongside that definition there will be any requirement for vetting or train…”

“Have the Government committed to, or do they expect to commit to, any additional funding to the organisations that will fulfil this role? If we do not know who these people are, how they will be regulated and whether there are the necessary resources, the clause will have less impact. That is why I think it is importan…”

“I rise to speak in enthusiastic support of the clause. If we were starting from scratch, would we deal with this issue in primary legislation? I expect not. I do not know the history of why the approach of the time was followed, but it seems that the matter should be addressed flexibly via regulations. Members will hav…”

“I must address some of the evidence that the Government relied on. The Ministry of Justice published its review on the presumption of parental involvement in October last year. Both Parents Matter, the charity that has been working for some 52 years on shared parenting and that helpfully sat on the advisory group for t…”

“As the Minister points out, this clause interacts with the issue of transparency in the justice system. I recognise that the Minister thinks it attempts to strike a balance by clarifying the categories of people who may not be excluded, such as representatives of news organisations, witness supporters and approved rese…”

“The qualitative analysis involved 29 parents. I am sure that each of those parents gave us helpful and useful information, but that is a relatively small number of people to create a sample from which to draw conclusions. The review said that it could not determine how often the presumption was applied in judgments nor…”

“We now come to a series of considerably less contentious clauses, including clause 8, relating to the admissibility of evidence in our criminal courts. This area of the Bill deals with the sensitive and often contentious issue of sexual history evidence. Of course, we want victims of rape, sexual violence and domestic …”

““There is plenty of research showing that contact with both parents is beneficial.””

“and that her research warned only against 50:50 care under all circumstances. She was clear in her positioning but feels that the way in which it was reported in the Government’s review did not fairly reflect her ultimate conclusion. We received significant written evidence in support of maintaining presumption, but we…”

“Clause 12 addresses an important aspect of protection: the use of screens in the courtroom. We must start from the position that special measures are not a luxury or optional administrative add-on; they are often essential to ensuring that the justice system remains capable of hearing evidence properly. We want to enab…”

“I accept the Minister’s point that to insist on that being the remedy is not necessarily what the defendant would want. We absolutely want to support defendants who have been through the process of a trial and a successful appeal. Where they could have had a Crown court trial with a jury, prior to the Government’s refo…”

“On amendment 37, I have talked about the high rate of error and injustice that is being corrected by the current appeal mechanism, and I have talked about the unrepresented defendants who will have to navigate a more complex and subjective system, such as by reviewing transcripts. On the whole, we do not think that we …”

“If the defendant is successful at appeal, we might say that they are doubly aggrieved: they have gone through the process and it has not worked for them. Surely we should want to do everything we can to support that group of people, so that they have a route to the mode of trial that they think is fairest, considering …”

“In summary, clause 7 represents a substantial recasting of appellate rights that prioritises administrative throughput over the correction of error. We should not trade away, without any evidence of abuse and with little evidence of meaningful efficiency savings, a safeguard that is successfully correcting mistakes in …”

“Both Parents Matter also warned in its written evidence that repealing the presumption without a replacement framework risks”

“The harm caused to children by alienating behaviour is well documented. Children who are denied a relationship with a loving parent for reasons that have nothing to do with that parent’s conduct and everything to do with a conflict between two adults suffer real and lasting psychological harm. The Family Services Found…”

“The Family Services Foundation notes that, in its view, the presumption provides a “neutral reference point” that professionals can use to challenge inappropriate gatekeeping. It and Both Parents Matter note in their written evidence that removing the presumption risks creating a perverse incentive where there is no cl…”

“The presumption does not only operate in disputes between separated parents; it also operates as a protection against overbearing state intervention. I gave an example earlier of when someone, incorrectly in my view, was returned to their parents. That was the presumption operating in a way that I did not agree with; t…”

“As we have discussed in debates on previous amendments, the grounds of an appeal may very well relate to an allocation decision. Someone could successfully appeal on the basis that their trial should never have been heard by a magistrate and that they should have had a jury instead. Providing the option for a jury retr…”

““increasing uncertainty, delay, inconsistency and conflict”.”