Speeches by Farnsworth.

“Good afternoon. I am the Member of Parliament for Amber Valley. My declaration is as per the website. I am a non-practising solicitor, formerly of the Crown Prosecution Service.”

“Should it be judge-led on a case-by-case basis?”

“How would we decide which cases were suitable and which cases were not suitable for certain types of resolution?”

“A moment ago you touched on the use of early neutral evaluation within the county court. I am really interested in that. Do you think that should be used more? If so, how should it be used? Would that in itself be a useful tool in terms of access to justice where somebody is not represented?”

“If it was to be expanded, would you want to see some safeguards for the sorts of cases that would be—”

“Do you have any concerns about the access to justice side of things if one party has had the benefit of legal advice before going into mediation and the other has not? If you do have concerns, are there any safeguards?”

“I want to move away from rules and back to humans, and talk to you about mediation and the alternative dispute resolution. Since you last appeared before the Committee in June 2023, there have been major developments in the use of mediation for civil justice in relation to the mandatory requirement for mediation for ci…”

“You have mentioned the recruitment campaign that you have running at the moment. You said that applications are starting to come in and you will know more by the end of the year. Are you optimistic? Do you think that that is going to reap some benefits and rewards?”

“What is it at the moment?”

“That is really interesting, thank you. My optimistic nature is hopeful from what you have just said about going forward. What is the appropriate balance that you would like to see between salaried and fee-paid judges?”

“You mentioned the issue in London and the south-east in terms of recruitment and that there is an application process at the moment. In previous evidence you said that because of the recruitment problem in those areas, there has been an over-reliance on fee-paid deputy judges. Will that still be the case until this iss…”

“My children will attest that digitalisation is not my forte, so I would like to talk about the human side of the court system, starting with judicial capacity. The recent judicial attitude survey produced by University College London concluded that the judiciary was facing, “A looming retention and recruitment crisis,”…”

“It seems like every week we are back here, dealing with culture wars—”

“I am very conscious that the Chair is glaring at me, so I will leave it there, if I may.”

“Thank you. I could talk to you for hours about libraries.”

“That is wonderful. Thank you, Victoria.”

“I have some questions about prison libraries. I was celebrating World Book Day with my children last week and having long conversations about reading for pleasure. I was heartened to read in our brief that the Prison Rules 1999 say that a library should be provided in every prison and, subject to the directions of the …”

“Dr Jo, you have hit on something that is really important to me and my colleagues in Derbyshire. Lee will know that Derbyshire county council and the ICB have recently failed quite dramatically an Ofsted report on their SEND provision, so I am really interested to hear what you say. MOJ data shows that 55% of prisoners…”

“I am the Member of Parliament for Amber Valley. I am a non-practising solicitor, formerly working at the Crown Prosecution Service, and my registration of interests is as on the website.”

“That is wonderful. Thank you, Victoria.”