Speeches by Sackman.

“I understand where you are coming from, but I reject the characterisation of the civil justice system as a Cinderella service. It is fair to say that much of the political bandwidth concerns the criminal justice system, rightly, because the No. 1 duty of Government is to ensure that people feel secure and protected. Th…”

“First of all, in my position of Minister of State, my respect for the constitutional balance and dividing lines between our responsibility is sacrosanct. I was with the Master of the Rolls only last week visiting Bromley County Court, which we might touch on in later questions. We meet regularly. We have met in his cap…”

“If I were handing out a report, I would say there was room for improvement. I cannot be satisfied when it is taking, on average, over 125 weeks in London and the south-east to dispose of multi-track cases. I cannot be satisfied and say that there is not room for improvement in circumstances where the average time for d…”

“That is why I said there is room for improvement. You are absolutely right. I discuss with my officials, “What does good look like? What are we aiming for?” You are absolutely right. That 30-week turnaround for small claims is exactly where we should be aspiring to be. You are right: we are not there. We are not there …”

“Delays across all jurisdictions affect the behaviour of litigants. There might well be cases that are not even being brought because people think, “I just cannot be bothered. I have an enforceable right and a valid claim, but I am going to have to enter a system that is still in part paper-based and it is going to take…”

“We are dealing with a complex system. When one considers both the volume of cases and the variety of cases that come into the county court, a disruptive event—it was not a one-day event but something that endured for some time—feeds into and endures within the system. Once backlogs build up, unless one bears down and g…”

“I do not know whether anybody else wants to come in. Otherwise, I will answer that. Does anyone want to give any specific reflections on performance in the Welsh courts?”

“I will make some observations. If others want to come in, feel free. Again, we recognise that there is room for improvement in communication with the court. It is important to say that in aspects of the county courts’ work, particularly where that end-to-end digitisation has been carried out, the user feedback that we …”

“Can I just come back on that? Let me start by saying that I share your frustration.”

“I share the public’s frustration and—they will not say so—colleagues’ frustration, I suspect, that we are nowhere near where we would like to be. It is also important to differentiate between different work streams within the county court realm. Where digital services for online civil money claims and damages claims ha…”

“This is true.”

“In terms of the experience that you are describing from your constituents, solicitors and the legal practitioners who interact with the courts every day, these are things that were areas where there is room for improvement. These are exactly the sorts of areas where we are seeking to drive improvement in performance. T…”

“I will ask colleagues to comment on the specific training that members of staff are provided with. Again, I want to acknowledge the role played by security staff and court ushers in assisting people at court and signposting them to where they need to go. We all know that going to court is a very intimidating experience…”

“I will say something by way of introduction. Again, I have only been in this role since December. It is absolutely vital that under this Government, and indeed any Government, I imagine, that ensuring that people literally have access to justice is paramount. Ensuring physical access to court services is very important…”

“As a general reflection on what you have just said, there is no doubt that there are serious inefficiencies in the system. There is a lack of two-way communication. The parties are unable to convey messages to the court and, equally, the court is unable to communicate with the parties. Clearly, where there are barriers…”

“Again, I am happy to bring in others, but, as we have acknowledged, the digitisation is only part complete. That is the distinction that I was drawing earlier. There are areas where we have that end-to-end digitisation. Coming back to the earlier point about the communications around the progress of a case, when a fami…”

“I want to start, as I have done previously, by paying tribute to the judges who work across our justice system and particularly in the county court. I had the pleasure of sitting down with members of the bench at Bromley last week. We had a really good constructive discussion. They do an incredible job. They touched on…”

“I am sorry to interrupt you, but, just on that, there are no quick fixes here. We are making additional investment in the court estate. I should add that one of the judges last week made the points that you and I have just exchanged, but then he concluded by saying, “I do the best job in the world. I love it, and I wou…”

“What I can say is that any recruitment exercise that is carried out has to be, first, within budget and, secondly, commensurate and targeted at the need that is there. At the moment, our current district judge exercise, which we launched in November, is for 80 vacancies in London and the south-east only. That targeted …”

“I am confident. We would not be advertising for 80 vacancies if we did not have the budget to meet 80 salaried roles in that location.”