Speeches by Russell.

“Have you read Baroness Harman’s report, “Independent review of bullying and harassment at the Bar”?”

“SSB Law ran a portfolio funding business model which the Civil Justice Council has recommended should be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority as a type of loan. Do you agree with that?”

“When does that programme deliver?”

“PM Law unexpectedly closed on 2 February, putting millions of pounds of client funds at risk. What risks were the SRA aware of prior to its closure?”

“Have you done a review of what complaints you had about this organisation? It bought a lot of firms quite rapidly, didn’t it? Did you have ongoing complaints about it?”

“I know that the thoughts of the whole House are with the families, as are mine. One of the many aspects of what has gone wrong here relates to children’s mental health services. Will the Home Secretary please outline what we are doing about the workforce in children’s mental health services? There is a real shortage of…”

“4. What steps she is taking to help increase prosecution rates for cases involving violence against women and girls.”

“I very much welcome that news. Prosecution rates in cases involving violence against women and girls are shamefully low. I strongly welcome the Government’s ambition to tackle violence against women and girls, including our manifesto commitments to fast-track rape cases and introduce specialist courts. Will the Ministe…”

“I have to leave the room in 10 minutes.”

“Mr Monteith, I am going to put some things to you. I quoted your study in my speech in the Chamber recently. I am going to put forward some stuff, but I start from the position of being very sympathetic to your views. One thing that has been said when these issues are raised is that the Deputy Prime Minister replied, “…”

“Hello. My name is Sarah Russell. I am a solicitor. I have practised employment law. I have a current practising certificate. I am the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on access to justice. I am a member of various trade unions, and the rest of my interests are as declared on the register.”

“I quoted extensively from that, too, in my speech. It is very worrying.”

“I have two questions. One is about unrepresented litigants, about whom I have significant concerns. The movement of cases into the magistrates court will produce a large number of unrepresented litigants. What impact do you think that will have on relative timesaving? My second question is about the fundamentals of Sir…”

“9. What recent progress he has made on improving parental rights at work.”

“Since 2004, the limit on relief for small employers at which they can reclaim statutory maternity pay has been set at £45,000. Small and medium-sized enterprises want to support working parents, but they need our help to do so. Will the Minister confirm whether that will be looked at as part of the parental leave revie…”

“Obviously not everyone is exhibiting these traits and training can help, but my understanding, from what I have heard anecdotally, is that substantial numbers of members of the judiciary are not up to date with the training requirements that they already have. I would welcome hearing more from the Secretary of State ab…”

“I am afraid I will not. When we look at how much these measures will bring down the backlog in totality, it is simply not enough. When the time from reporting a rape to an actual trial is, on average, six years, bringing down the backlog slightly by the end of the next Parliament is just not enough. I have significant …”

“I draw attention to the fact that I am a solicitor with a current practising certificate who has appeared before tribunals historically. I will speak briefly today about the £1.3 billion maintenance backlog in our courts. We have heard that the Justice Secretary will commit £287 million to it. That is a large sum of mo…”

“Does my hon. Friend agree it is absolutely crucial that we fund contact centres properly, so that there are properly supervised options for courts to order?”

“On that point, there is a backlog in the family courts of 110,000 cases, more than what we are discussing, and legal aid rates for family law have not gone up since 1997. Does my hon. Friend agree that this is an important move but we need to do more?”