Speeches by Farnsworth.

“I mentioned at the start that I was a Crown prosecutor for many years. Professor Lewis, I do not think you will be very surprised that I would like to ask you some questions about the contempt of court work that you have been doing. Your report was hot off the press yesterday or was published today, so it is very excit…”

“Good afternoon. I am Linsey Farnsworth, Member of Parliament for Amber Valley. My interests are as declared on the register, but one of note is that I was a Crown prosecutor for many years before entering Parliament.”

“That is very helpful—thank you. You mentioned the Southport attacks and concerns about what information can be published after an individual has been arrested. Your report looks at that and recommends changing the definition of when proceedings become active in comparison to the current situation. Could you please expl…”

“Given that a lot of reporting happens through social media now, what assessment was made in relation to the interplay of that with when proceedings are deemed to be active? Obviously, now, they are not going to be treated in the same way.”

“That leads on quite nicely to my next question about the Attorney General. The Attorney General has a role at the moment. Could you provide any further detail of recommendations relating to the Attorney General’s role in contempt proceedings? You mentioned that some work will be done on that in part 2, but is there any…”

“It is harder to control that with the current landscape with social media, compared with previously, under the original rules. I think a lot of people will be concerned about that with these potential changes.”

“Staying with the courts but pivoting to sexual offence prosecutions, if I may, the Law Commission’s report on evidence in sexual offence prosecutions makes a series of recommendations in relation to evidential thresholds. Could you provide a summary of the proposed changes and explain how they strike the balance betwee…”

“They have been around for quite some time now.”

“That is very useful. Thank you for your answers.”

“Excellent—thank you. Can I move on to the Sir Brian Leveson review, part 1 of which has been published recently? He proposes changes to the court structure and a substantial reduction of jury trials. You said that jury trials are important for sexual offences cases. What did the evidence you receive in this regard sugg…”

“You mentioned exceptionalism for sexual offences cases. You did not mention that your report recommends the introduction of specialist courts for serious sexual offences. I do not think that Sir Brian Leveson’s recommendations include such a court. Could you explain why you recommended that, and what that court would l…”

“How would the prioritised case listing work in practice?”

“So you would still like the Government to consider specialist serious sexual offences courts notwithstanding that it is not currently in the Leveson report.”

“Good. A last question from me, if I may; there are two parts to it. You mentioned special measures available at present. You are recommending a model of entitlement to standard measures to assist victims and witnesses in sexual prosecutions. Could you explain what you think the main benefits of that switch would be? Ar…”

“Reform-led Derbyshire county council has recently abolished its climate change committee and scrapped its aim to tackle the causes and impact of climate change. Will the Minister outline the steps that his Department is taking to ensure that local authorities continue to address climate change effectively and meet nati…”

“Q8. Prior to the general election, the Health Secretary visited Amber Valley and declared it an NHS dentistry desert. Since then, I have secured £240,000 of additional funding, encouraged my constituents to access the 16,300 emergency appointments in Derbyshire, and last week secured thousands of extra units of dental …”

“Could we write to Sir Brian about that?”

“You have talked a lot about deterrence and in terms of the sentencing range you have based this on average sentence lengths, but there are occasions when a much more serious offence within that definition of the offence has been committed. Do you accept that you would be reducing the possibility of somebody who has com…”

“I do not think there is. Thank you.”

“It is not just about deterrence, is it? It is about appropriate levels of punishment. The sentencing guidelines at the moment have been drawn up based on consultation with people within the criminal justice system, the public, outside agencies, charities, etc. Those guidelines have taken into account a lot of evidence,…”