Speeches by Mullan.

“It is another example of what we have talked about: the move away from what we would consider to be natural justice. The scenario the hon. Member points to is not bizarre; there are offenders who target elderly women, for example, and will use all sorts of different methods to abuse them, from financial to sexual. I ha…”

“rose—”

“The hon. Lady is absolutely right. The Minister is always keen to draw lessons from other jurisdictions, and as I said we have a clear lesson from another jurisdiction that is specific. In our system, my understanding is that the practice directions for complex cases are that the prosecution and defence should do every…”

“I just want to pick up on some points. The point about the scale of the issue was well made by my hon. Friend the Member for Reigate, who pointed to 200 sitting days. She highlighted the criticism from others suggesting that the list of offences was “the work of a moment”, which is probably a fair description of what i…”

“”

“My hon. Friend the Member for Reigate has given one example, but another, with which I expect people will be familiar, is the LIBOR trials. They were very complicated and sophisticated, and the appeals were successful because of a judge. It was the judge’s misdirection to the jury that led to the LIBOR trials becoming …”

“Amendment proposed: 48, in clause 4, page 13, line 11, at end insert—”

“If the schedule said complex and lengthy fraud cases, then the Minister might be able to argue that it is constrained, but the schedule is just “Trial on indictment without a jury: complex or lengthy cases”. It actually opens the door to any number of types of offence being added purely because they are complex and len…”

“Will the Minister give way?”

“The only point I would add is that, as the Minister has accepted, this is a relatively small number of cases, so the test of what is justifiable is actually disproportionately weighted against the Minister in these cases, in comparison with the earlier cases on clause 3. People’s rights and expectations remain the same…”

““(g) the interests of natural justice for the defendant.”—(Dr Mullan.)”

“We must ensure that the consultation is meaningful, and it must include those who rely on private prosecutions. Crucially, the House will expect to see how the Government respond to the evidence they gather. If this becomes just a paper exercise and the Government continue with what they always intended to do, it will …”

“Let me turn to controlling cost awards in private prosecutions. We will not be opposing Government amendment (a), which introduces a requirement for consultation and an impact assessment before those powers are exercised. That welcome step reflects concerns that have been raised consistently throughout the passage of t…”

“Private prosecutions are not a marginal feature of our justice system; they are relied on by charities, specialist organisations, and in cases where the state lacks the capacity or resources to act. Charities lose up to £849 million a year to fraud, and where the system does not act, private prosecutions step in. Macmi…”

“The same is true in other areas. Private prosecutions are used in intellectual property crime and shoplifting, where cases are not prioritised. In one example, public enforcement spent over £2 million and brought just a handful of charges, while private prosecutions secured over 100 convictions at a lower cost. If we m…”

“It is a pleasure to take part in this debate on the Lords message on the Victims and Courts Bill. The Bill has been debated extensively in the other place. I thank the Lords for their care and consideration in trying to improve it, as we tried to do in the Commons. Members will know that, when the Bill was last in this…”

“There will be some back and forth about who wants what elements of this scheme and in what ways, but I think the Minister was wrong to say that our focus was on it being for everybody. I have been clear from the start that our focus was also on extending the provision for victims and their families, and not for everybo…”

“I agree with both of them that this measure is welcome, but we should not overstate the extent to which we are delivering exactly what victims and their families asked for. As has been said, these steps forward are welcome, but in some ways they are not exactly what families asked for. Tracey’s key point throughout has…”

“Similarly, we must understand what the “interests of justice” means in reality. In what sorts of scenario does the Minister expect people to be able to apply successfully? She helpfully pointed out that there is clearly a difference in the obligations towards an ordinary member of the public, or even an MP making use o…”

“Where we have complete agreement—this was Tracey’s original campaign, supported by Victims For Justice—is on the idea of statutory notification, which is a welcome change. I will continue to work with any and all victims, even when they do not universally agree. People working in the justice arena are used to recognisi…”