Speeches by Munt.

“I too voted for the minority report, mainly because I am particularly concerned that the Government are going much further than the Leveson report. On judge-only trials, if magistrates’ sentencing powers are increased to 24 months, it is not impossible that cases with sentences of up to two and a half years could be re…”

“I echo the comments about how disgusting these particular crimes are. Lady Casey has identified how, in quashing convictions, the Government have failed to take account of the whole picture. Quashing convictions for under-age prostitution is laudable, but there are other convictions such as for possessing the drugs giv…”

“I thank the Secretary of State for her response. Wells Cathedral school is in my constituency, and it has 80 young people who are on the music and dance scheme. It is a fantastic scheme, and I pay tribute to the outgoing headteacher, Alastair Tighe, who has done his very best to ensure that the scheme reaches deep into…”

“I have to say, I am dismayed by the fact that there will not be humans in contact with young people. From my experience, I know that young people are really engaged when somebody turns up in their place, particularly in their school. At a time when we are trying to reduce the screen time of young people, I want to spea…”

“We have just touched on the subject of children. For those Members who do have children, what might the House do immediately after the election and during one’s time as an MP? What information on childcare provision in Westminster would be helpful for—it says here “candidates”, but I think probably for MPs?”

“I want to talk about your experience of setting up a constituency office. You have explained some of the difficulties. Would it have been helpful if you would have rented your predecessor's office?”

“Yes—and partners.”

“There is some work going on, is there not, in the north-east health and justice hub? I wonder whether one of the three of you is familiar with that, and what conclusions you may have come to as a result, or whether you would like to write to the Chair about that afterwards.”

“Where do you anticipate those women will go?”

“Oh, why?”

“I would be quite interested to know when you think those bits will come into force.”

“I suppose part of my experience would be that, having gone into prisons, there is quite often all sorts of technology that takes your photograph on the way in but there does not seem to be anything on the way out. We do it in airports all the time and I am not quite sure why we cannot have a sort of passport-type techn…”

“Thank you. The hourly Crown court checks that were brought in in March seem to have prevented 23 releases in error. Was that in a particular sector or part of the prison system? What caused those near misses, and why did that bit go right?”

“I want to move on to prisoners who have been released in error. I know that the Deputy Prime Minister has accepted all 33 of Dame Lynne Owens’s recommendations in principle, but five of those seem to be dependent on funding decisions for the future. The one I am particularly interested in is cross-agency digitisation a…”

“I would be really interested to know why and where that happened, and whether it is a cluster or just chance across the sector.”

“I am sure you will write to the Chair, won’t you? Can I just ask one other thing, which is slightly more victim-focused. That is the business of recommendation 27, which asks Ministers to “agree a ‘tolerable’ level (both in terms of volume and gravity) of releases in error”. I just wondered what “tolerable” meant, when…”

“Can you remind me, Lord Timpson: you said that out of the £82 million there was a wodge of money that had been shovelled aside for digitisation. How much was that?”

“Okay, and how much do you think the whole thing is going to cost, in the end?”

“Hello. I am Tessa Munt, and I am the Member of Parliament for Wells and Mendip Hills, which is in Somerset. Everything is on the register, but I just point out that I am a director of WhistleblowersUK, which is a not-for-profit organisation.”

“Indeed. I accept that one is not going to iron out absolutely everything.”