Speeches by Cox.

“Do you think that is ever going to happen?”

“On the question of integration of criminal justice data and systems, are there things that you think the CPS could be doing to assist? In many ways, you seem to be ahead of the curve.”

“I have a clarifying question. You mentioned the pilots, which sound very encouraging. How are they evaluated? Are they evaluated internally? Are they evaluated by consultants or academics? What is the relationship more generally between the CPS and academic research? I know that there have been national level studies o…”

“We would welcome that. Thank you.”

“Good afternoon. I am Pam Cox. My interests are as declared on the register.”

“In terms of other innovations in that space on the public law front, I know that people have different views on family, drug and alcohol courts. I will not ask you for your own views on them. In using the court as a problem-solving space for children, what might be the way forward with those?”

“Thank you for raising the possible connection with domestic violence cases. We are on day two of 16 days of international action against violence against women and girls. That might be a very interesting route to pursue. My final question is on the average length of a private family law case. In March 2024, it was abou…”

“Average case length in private family law is 43.9 weeks. How might we get that figure down, in your view?”

“Is there a plan to roll it out?”

“Thank you. We will move to family justice for my questions. I will start with public law and then go back to private law. You mentioned the Pathfinder courts earlier in your remarks. There is a pilot that I understand has been very successful. What are the plans to roll out Pathfinder courts?”

“I am pleased to hear that the judiciary are at the forefront of reform. It would be really interesting for the Committee to hear more about the work of the Crown court efficiency group. Maybe there are some reports or something that might be shared with us. That would be welcome.”

“Yes. Very quickly, on the very important matter of the Women’s Justice Board, the Government have said prisons are not working for women. What would you say are the alternatives?”

“On that point about technology, as a Committee we want to look at data and digital strategies across our work programme. Do you have a data and digital strategy currently?”

“We were in Brixton last week. Every record we saw was paper—a paper record and paper file for every prisoner. Every Government service is going through a digital transformation. I just wonder how we might work together on that.”

“Prisoners arrive in a reception centre and nobody has any information on them despite there being lots of information about them elsewhere.”

“Good afternoon. I am Pam Cox. My interests are declared on the register. I am a former professor of criminology at the University of Essex.”

“I will take you back to prison maintenance, if I may. In 2021, I understand there was a £1 billion backlog in terms of prison maintenance. Could you give us a sense of what the current figure is four years on?”

“Thank you very much. As a follow-up, what levels of autonomy do prison governors have in determining what is and is not essential, and in decision making around contractual arrangements and procuring and that kind of thing?”

“Do you think enough is being done on the management of those contracts in terms of the monitoring of effective performance? These contracts could be anything from replacing netting to running therapeutic services. It is a huge range of contracts for services. Are there mechanisms in place to ensure that their goal-orie…”

“My constituency is the proud home to the 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team, and the garrison and wider community are home to many serving personnel and their families. We know that the men and women in our armed services serve our nation proudly and put their lives at risk to defend the freedoms we all hold dear. I pa…”