Speeches by Paul.

“and:”

““more likely to want a jury””

““cannot draw conclusions on potential differences in verdicts for individuals with protected characteristics for judge only trials”.”

“if accused of a criminal offence and that those opinions should be taken into account in discussions about restricting the right to a jury trial. That is an important finding because it suggests that, for some groups, the jury is experienced as a form of protection against discrimination “elsewhere in the system”. Prof…”

““independent of the justice system”,”

“and said that they”

““a feeling of protection to individuals who are and/or believe that they are targeted or discriminated against””

“compared with “15% of White defendants”, and:”

“”

“by that system.”

“It will no doubt be a relief to Members to hear that I am not going to talk for quite as long as I did this morning. I oppose clause 4 and schedule 1 standing part, and I support amendment 51, tabled in the name of my hon. Friend the Member for Bexhill and Battle. As is becoming habit, I will begin with a very brief ov…”

“One of the strongest arguments for new clause 29 is that the Government’s own evidence base is plainly incomplete. The equalities statement accompanying the Bill makes a series of important omissions. It says that historical data for triable either-way offences”

““jury decision-making is one of the few places such disproportionality does not appear to exist””

“but”

““Previous reviews indicate significant discrepancies in conviction rates based on race in the Magistrates Court and Crown Court compared with no significant differences in conviction rates in jury trials.””

“The Government’s consistent position has been that the reforms are justified, proportionate and fair. If that is truly their view, they should have no objection to being required to come back to Parliament and show their working in the light of experience. Resistance to the new clause would therefore be highly revealin…”

“If Parliament is being asked to weaken or remove the precise part of the system that the Secretary of State identified as relatively more trustworthy, Parliament is plainly entitled to insist on a mandatory review of the impact on ethnic minority defendants.”

“There is another point that reinforces the need for new clause 29: the demographic profile of those who will be making more of these decisions if clause 3 stands. Diversity among circuit judges who would hear judge-alone trials is particularly worrying: only 36% are women and only 10% are from minority ethnic backgroun…”

“It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Huq. I speak in support of amendments 23, 39 and 24 which, taken together, would do something simple but important: they would build a measure of flexibility back into the clause, so that jury trial is still available where the cause of justice requires it. The Minis…”

“My hon. Friend is making a powerful point about the existing backlog starting to go down, and why it is important that we look at that and understand the impact that other measures are having. Does he agree that the recent change to suspensions for three-year sentences, which went live only a few weeks ago on 22 March,…”