Speeches by Farnsworth.

“Q Thank you so much for being here today. I am really interested in the victim’s perspective on fairness, the treatment of victims within the current criminal justice system and the changes being made. As a former Crown prosecutor, one aspect of the criminal justice system that concerned me was the appeals process from…”

“Q It is fair to say that the CPS’s breadth of experience across the criminal justice system is unparalleled, given that it takes cases through the system, from advising the police at charge through to the magistrates court, the Crown court and the appeals court. Is it right that it is in a good position to understand t…”

“I am getting to my point; I am very conscious of time. It is fair to say that the CPS has a good overview of the system. Caroline Goodwin: Yes.”

“Q Thank you. Tom Guest, one of the directors at the CPS, recently gave evidence to the Justice Committee. He said: “Our view is that we have gone far beyond the point where piecemeal or non-legislative solutions will suffice.” He went on to say that the official view of the CPS is that the 20% time-saving projection re…”

“Q Indeed. I think part of the CPS’s role is to look at the impact of the court backlog on the system as a whole, and jury trials are a part of that. A big part of the work of the CPS is in the court back office, in relation to other aspects of juries that create time pressures on the system: preparation of jury bundles…”

“Having been a Crown prosecutor for 21 years, I find it very disturbing that you take that view.”

“Is it not the case that magistrates courts can be more agile in terms of court listing and picking up cases, like we heard from the Canadian—”

“Q You said that your preference would be for two magistrates and a judge to sit together, and I understand your views on that. There are already examples in our criminal justice system of where a judge sits alone in the magistrates court. We have district judges, which I am old enough to remember as stipendiary magistr…”

“Q On the practicalities of jury trials, you talked about the time savings of having judge-only trials over jury trials. I want to talk about other potential savings in terms of the backlog generally through jury trials. Personally, I think that a judge-only trial would make listing more agile. If a witness becomes ill,…”

“Q So potentially there would be less repetitive listing of the same trial over and over again through those issues. Clement Goldstone: You would have one trial listed once, hopefully.”

“Q My last question is about the allocation process. In previous debates, we have heard concern that the judge’s allocation decision about whether it is the Crown court bench division or a jury trial would be a very long process. There would be a lot of work and a lot of written submissions, and it would take the judge …”

“I want to declare that, as Crown prosecutor, I was assigned to the team that looked at the Insulate Britain campaign and reviewed the evidence as to whether charges should be brought. I want to make that clear and put it out in the open. Tim Crosland: Thank you.”

“Q I serve on the Justice Committee and am a former Crown prosecutor, so I have an interest in the Crown prosecutions aspect of this. On 17 March, we heard evidence on the Justice Committee from Tom Guest, the director of policy at the Crown Prosecution Service. He talked about the CPS being supportive of the structural…”

“I want to ask each of you the same question, but specifically in relation to your region. What do you believe is a key strength of your region in how it promotes rehabilitation?”

“Good afternoon. I am Linsey Farnsworth, the Member of Parliament for Amber Valley and a former Crown prosecutor. My interests are as declared on the register, but of significance for today, I am the co-chair of the APPG on legal and constitutional affairs and a member of the APPG on access to justice.”

“Martin, you mentioned, almost in passing, the youth justice service—the arm of the Probation Service that supports young people. I think it performs far better than its adult counterpart. Could you give us your insight into why that might be?”

“Good afternoon. I am Linsey Farnsworth, the Member of Parliament for Amber Valley and a former Crown prosecutor. My interests are as declared on the register, but of significance for today, I am the co-chair of the APPG on legal and constitutional affairs and a member of the APPG on access to justice.”

“Nicola, I have a quick follow-up question regarding electronic monitoring. You did not mention anything about monitoring alcohol levels, which I know involves pretty new technology. Is any work going on in relation to that within the Probation Service?”

“Thank you; that is very useful.”

“That is great. I am old enough to remember the community justice initiative under the last Labour Government. That is all really interesting to me, so thank you for that. Chris, could you answer the same question?”