Speeches by Vaughan.

“From the perspective of the public, how would they know about or go about accessing that?”

“In practical terms, does that involve setting up some sort of remote adviser who goes into the office of some other organisation that you commission?”

“In relation to the nature of what is called a desert, do you accept the Public Accounts Committee’s position that there are 19 areas of the country where there are real problems in access, or how would you characterise the nature of the deficit in the availability of legal advice in any particular areas of the country?”

“Thank you for your answers, Minister, and thank you for the steps that you have taken, as you have described, to stabilise the system, particularly in areas that have not seen a pay rise for a long time. I will ask about legal aid deserts. In January, the Public Accounts Committee reported that there are around 19 area…”

“Hello. I am Tony Vaughan, the MP for Folkestone and Hythe. I am a barrister with a practising certificate. I was formerly an independent funding adjudicator for the Legal Aid Agency; otherwise I draw attention to my registered interests.”

“Lastly, just so I am clear, who is the ministerial lead on that? Is it Minister Sackman? I did not know whether one of the Law Officers was also leading.”

“How far along the road are you to actually using the technology to practical effect? All the things that you said are really exciting. They strike me as all being urgent and should be progressing. Often you use the words “at pace”, but that can mean anything. This is an area where it seems to me you have huge potential…”

“Are the Government moving towards a system where you can put all the law in one large language model to allow somebody to put in their factual scenario and at least it pulls up a series of various laws? There is a finite amount of law. There is a lot of it, but it is only really accessible to people who can pay for Wes…”

“Staying with this theme, I want to ask Ms Ziaulla about chatbots. More and more people use them because, as we said, there are barriers to accessing legal advice and representation. What are the Government doing to address the risks inherent in that? I think things are being done, but I could not find them when I looke…”

“How far do you think we are away from having the information you need to get the actions in place to address this issue? When the Lord Chancellor was before us in December, he told us that you had a new survey. You talked about providers and have given more detail about that. Given all of that, are we close to the poin…”

“The data suggests that vacancy levels in hospitality remain very high. One element of the difficulties facing hospitality businesses is, in fact, skills shortages. Would the hon. Member agree that the anticipated youth mobility scheme for EU youths and the Government’s youth guarantee scheme, which will be supported by…”

“On continental freight, the hon. Member mentioned volumes coming from the European Union. In my constituency, we have so much traffic coming in and out of Eurotunnel that there is not the gauge capacity for trains to come all the way through, so they have to offload and reload. Does she agree that the Government should…”

“While we rightly focus on the grave situation in Lebanon, the wider region is seeing an increasing pattern of British nationals being arbitrarily detained and used as leverage by countries including Iran. In light of the news that Craig and Lindsay Foreman have had their appeal dismissed by the Iranian courts, and give…”

“Will the Minister give way on the complexity of this case?”

“Does the Minister agree that it is precisely because of the complexity of these cases, which potentially involve numerous different Government Departments, that we need an envoy for complex consular cases, who has not just the resources, but the authority to bring the Government together, and to act proactively to get …”

“I thank the hon. Member for her intervention. She is right that we need to call a spade a spade here. There is no basis for these convictions and no basis for this detention—that is the hallmark of an arbitrary detention in international law. If we can accept that, we can move to the next stage to take the appropriate …”

“My hon. Friend makes an incredibly important point. Craig and Lindsay are currently undertaking a hunger strike, which is essentially the only way they feel that they can protest against their treatment, after their phone cards were taken away and they were denied contact with their family. I will discuss their welfare…”

“Just over 500 days ago, Lindsay and Craig Foreman, the mother and stepfather of one of my constituents, were on the trip of a lifetime: a motorcycle journey across the world. During their travels, Lindsay, who is a positive psychologist and life coach, planned to research along the way the elements of what makes a good…”

“The hon. Member is absolutely right. Contributions in this Chamber and the response to the early-day motion that I tabled some months ago—I think around 70 parliamentarians signed it, which is a good number, given that many people do not sign such motions—show that there is cross-party support for more robust action in…”

“For more and more UK households and businesses, the monthly energy bill is one of their largest bills, and it is increasing. That is largely due to rising international oil and gas prices, which in turn have been exacerbated by the recent war in Iran. It is for exactly that reason that for too long we have been energy …”