Speeches by Russell.

“It has been the gold standard in the employment tribunal system for a very long time that there is a judge and one member who is drawn from a traditionally employer background and one who is drawn from a traditionally trade union background. They are both lay, but there is absolutely considered to be good-quality decis…”

“The overwhelming majority of child sexual abuse imagery produced online is still, very sadly, produced by children themselves, who have been groomed by adults in order to do so. What steps will the Government take to ensure that there are device-level protections to prevent children from taking and sharing nude images …”

“In my constituency, 19 people died on the roads between 2018 and 2024. It is usually assumed that that is because we have some motorway in the constituency, but in fact people are six times more likely to die on a rural road. I thank the Minister very much for the measures within the strategy. I know there will be thos…”

“Happy new year to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, your team and everyone else in the House. It is no overstatement to say that this is one of the most pressing issues of our time. I suspect that if we were not bringing forward this legislation it would only become apparent quite how pressing it had been when there was a maj…”

“Let us move on to the employment tribunal system. There are now over half a million open claims. Individual unresolved claims are up 33%, new claims in are up 33% in quarter 2 and claims resolved are down 10% in quarter 2. We are obviously producing significant new employment legislation, which of course, as a Labour M…”

“I am Sarah Russell. Before arriving here, I was a solicitor specialising in employment law. I am on various APPGs, as you would imagine, and a member of various trade unions. I co-chair the access to justice APPG.”

“Lord Chancellor, you have spoken strongly about the importance of centring victims in this discussion, which I entirely agree with. At the moment, the average wait from reporting a rape to the end of a criminal trial is six years. What figure do you think would be acceptable for that period?”

“Lord Chancellor, I reiterate my question: what do you consider, in a civilised society and the seventh richest country on earth, to be an acceptable waiting time?”

“In terms of the targets that you are setting, when do you anticipate that we would reach that point?”

“I quite agree that the system will not produce that improvement if we are just dealing with efficiencies. I also question whether the proposed reforms would even touch the sides of moving that dial down from six years. I think the ambition is to see this start to come down a bit.”

“I think it will significantly increase the speed of those trials, but we are talking about half of 3% of the total criminal backlog. If we want really to move the dial on that six years, what do we need to do, and are we going to do it?”

“Civil justice, so I have a question about the county court, if I may. Our recent inquiry into the county courts revealed a dysfunctional system full of delay, and we recommended a root-and-branch review. Although the Government has seen fit to commission major reviews on sentencing and the criminal court, the recommend…”

“You referred to family law. In your introduction, you said that you were proud of the increases in legal aid rates. The current fixed fees in family legal aid are based on an hourly rate of £44. If we contrast that with the national rates recommended by HMCTS for solicitors in general, for solicitors with over eight ye…”

“Lord Chancellor, the only people who can get family legal aid are those who have suffered from domestic abuse or whose children are being taken into care. I would strongly suggest that mediation is probably not appropriate in most of those situations, so £44 an hour is completely and utterly unsustainable. The same pos…”

“Lastly, I have a question on the subject of SEN tribunals. Again, 25,000 cases were registered last year, but only 20,000 were disposed of. The cases in question are children who have education, health and care plans. Those have typically taken a long time to come forward in the first place. Children are waiting for lo…”

“Approximately 12% of the total prison population is currently comprised of foreign nationals. Actually, foreign nationals are under-represented within the prison population, relative to their age profile and demographics, so I certainly do not want to be fuelling suggestions that there are disproportionate problems wit…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for bringing forward this welcome strategy, to which I know she is personally committed. There is a long-term ambition in the strategy to reduce the number of days of school missed by children in temporary accommodation, but is there a specific target for that? On data transparency for children f…”

“It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Butler. I thank the hon. Member for Dewsbury and Batley (Iqbal Mohamed) for securing this debate. There are two problems—maybe three—with AI. The first is that we do not distinguish very well between what is and is not AI. Although AI and tech are obviously related, t…”

“T5. There is a massive problem with childcare for mothers doing PhDs. Even if they are fully funded for their university research, essentially by the Government, they will not be eligible for free childcare hours and that affects both parents. The average PhD stipend is just £15,000 a year, but the average nursery plac…”

“As a specialist equality lawyer, I am not currently aware of any cases in the UK around the kind of algorithmic bias that I am talking about. I would be delighted to see some, and delighted to see the Minister encouraging that, but I am not sure that the regulatory framework would achieve that at present.”