Speeches by Mullan.

“As I understand it, we are removing a presumption; we are not, in law at least, seeking to put in something more nuanced and balanced. I will come on to talk about some of the suggestions that have been made to us in evidence about what we might do. If there is no clear statutory starting point, courts may need to gath…”

“As I said at the outset, I take seriously the concerns of survivors—I want to be clear about that again. We had written evidence, including from Arajpreet Kaur, setting out how the presumption can be experienced by survivors as a pressure to accept contact arrangements that feel unsafe. That concern is absolutely legit…”

“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…”

“Both Parents Matter also proposes what it calls a parental relationship test to be embedded in the welfare checklist, requiring the courts to consider the”

“I understand the Minister’s criticism that the defendant making the appeal may be perfectly content to have their case reheard in the magistrates, and insisting that an appeal be reheard in a jury trial gives no flexibility in that direction—that is a fair point. In response, we will not press amendments 55 to 57 to a …”

“and”

“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 …”

“It notes that those factors are already considered informally, but consistently codifying them would improve the quality of decision making without removing the principle of parental responsibility. On hearing those factors, I think all of us would say that, if a court went through that process properly, credibly and w…”

“The suggested amendment wording that was submitted in evidence by Both Parents Matter would be a new paragraph (h) in section 1(3) of the Children Act 1989, reading:”

““the quality and sustainability of his relationships with each parent, the nature of the relationship between the parents insofar as it affects him and the capacity and willingness of each parent to support his relationship with the other parent, insofar as this is likely to further his welfare now and in the future.””

“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…”

““power is also never concentrated in the hands of one individual.””

“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 …”

“As we have heard, clause 15 clarifies the use of pre-recorded evidence for cross-examination and re-examination, which is often referred to as section 28 evidence. Our courts frequently rely on recorded testimony to spare witnesses the trauma of a live trial, so the rules governing the editing and presentation of that …”

“In the family courts, and indeed in society at large, it should not be controversial to say, “Where a child has two parents, I think the involvement of both those parents in that child’s life would normally further the welfare of that child, unless shown to be to the contrary.” My point is that the presumption in itsel…”

“If people end up being seen in the magistrates court when under the old measures they would have been in the Crown court, there will be lengthier trials and, potentially, a more expensive legal aid bill. It may not necessarily even be an issue of resource; it is just about making sure that legal aid follows the cases w…”

““For example, without appeals, the ‘public interest’ test will be left to the discretion of individual judges, with no judicial guidance on relevant factors to consider and irrelevant factors to ignore. The same risks attach to the concepts of ‘lengthy’ and ‘complex’. There is a significant risk of inconsistent and arb…”

“I oppose clause 6, which, as we have discussed, grants the Lord Chancellor the power to increase the maximum sentencing limit in magistrates courts from the current 12 months to 18 or even 24 months. While the Government present that as a necessary measure to relieve the backlog in the Crown court, we must look closely…”

“Dr Hodgson and Dr Thomason go on to say:”

“Further to that point of order, Ms Jardine. I seek your guidance. We are discussing issues on which amendments were tabled, but we were unsuccessful with those amendments, so is it not perfectly legitimate for us to discuss all the consequences for the Bill that flow from the fact that the amendments were denied? The M…”