Speeches by Cox.

“I thank the Chair of the Select Committee for his remarks. As a member of the Committee, I can attest to our dismay at what we heard in those hearings. I ask the Chair to encourage Dame Vera Baird to take a robust approach to her review of the leadership of such an important public body.”

“In Colchester, this measure will benefit over 5,000 children, so it is wonderful news from a Government who are indeed determined to tackle child poverty. Would the Minister like to make a return visit to Colchester, this time to visit not a pioneering pre-school but a pioneering primary school—Unity primary academy in…”

“We will come on to works in a moment. Given that the Prison Service relies so heavily on contracts—we can all understand why—do you feel, as monitors and regulators, that you have access to the information you need to make judgments about the performance of those contracts?”

“Good afternoon. I am the Member of Parliament for Colchester, and my interests are as declared on the register.”

“How many suicides have there been in the last 12 months or 24 months?”

“Over what period of time are those 95 suicides?”

“Last year?”

“Charlie, you said something quite startling earlier. You said that prisons are failing in their public protection duty by—I am now paraphrasing—failing to provide adequate levels of purposeful activity. It is that serious: they are failing in their public protection duty, which is their primary purpose. Given that only…”

“You said there was a weak learning culture in the sector compared with other sectors. How do you think it is possible to incentivise the sharing of good practice?”

“Do our other panellists have anything to add?”

“I feel a letter to the Prison Service coming. We have heard from prison officers on our various visits, and from other people presenting to us, that there are a vast number of contracts operating in any given prison. How many different contracts are there in an average prison, to your knowledge?”

“As we reflect on this historic moment, the 80th anniversary of VE Day, we remember the significant contributions of our communities, our country and our Commonwealth. We have heard some very moving and powerful contributions today in this debate from across the Chamber. My own part of the country, Colchester, played a …”

“Thank you very much. Listening to this, reflecting on the brief that we have had and reading some of the press reports, over time it seems that the Criminal Cases Review Commission has lost its way if you take a 20-year view of how it was and how it operates today in terms of focused staff time, staff legal expertise, …”

“The organisation is doing critically important work for justice and democracy, and it is vital that it has public confidence. What do you feel needs to be done to repair the lack of public confidence that is currently exhibited around this organisation?”

“Thank you. I appreciate those answers. Colleagues have probed the role you have both played in trying to effect that change, but we are left with some questions as to how successful you may have been there. Let me turn to case review management work. Your most recent annual report says that you have a full complement o…”

“To whom do case review managers turn for advice and at what point? We have touched on some of that in previous questioning, but perhaps you could just set that out again.”

“I am sure everybody here appreciates the sensitive and complex nature of the work that is done and we should put that on record. In what proportion of cases are the CCRC’s supplementary powers used?”

“The range of supplementary powers involved.”

“You are making extensive use of those powers. My final questions are on remote working. We opened with that. Many of us were quite surprised by the extent of remote working. We understand the justifications you have given around recruitment and so on. But given the nature of the work and the distressing and sensitive n…”

“Do you both have backgrounds as lawyers?”