Speeches by Vaughan.

“I am just trying to understand the extent to which it is part of your case—whether you need to or not is not my question. It is about whether you do say that it is, and it sounds like you are saying that it does to an extent. Is that your position?”

“But is the systemic change not factored into the model? Does the model not need to assume behaviour change?”

“Does your model attribute delay, or a portion of these increasing trial times, to each of those elements?”

“Ms Sackman, I wanted to pick up on Mr Juss’s point about—[Interruption.]”

“Will you make that entire model transparently public so that Sir Ashley can put his sitting days into it, which he says are irrelevant but would actually show what the outputs would be?”

“The earlier witnesses were not able to provide an answer to this question. It would be really useful for us to have information, in due course, on the number of these kinds of appeals that end up being resolved in the appellant’s favour because witnesses do not turn up.”

“Is the ability of juries to deal with the evidence being presented to them part of the cause of the increased timeframes? Is that part of your case?”

“Will legal aid cover permission to appeal? There are some jurisdictions where you do not get paid unless you get permission to appeal. Will you ensure that they do, in any event, so as to mitigate any concerns about the reduction in rights from changing appeal rights?”

“That all presupposes that you have transcripts of the proceedings below. Are you confident that you have the technology in place to be able to do that quite easily?”

“Forgive me; I am talking about the length of the trials, or the time that cases are taking to be resolved, which is perhaps not about the volume of cases. Taking individual cases, each case is taking longer to resolve. What are the factors behind that?”

“Does the hon. Member agree that economic regeneration through the arts and culture is a powerful way of showing the link between the past and the future in our national story? If so, would she agree that Folkestone is a prime example of that? Having been a port from which our troops went to the frontline in world war o…”

“When the Justice Secretary gave evidence to the Justice Committee in December, he said that the evidence underpinning the 20% time saving that comes from Sir Brian’s report would be released. If that makes the proposition good—I understand that the hon. Gentleman disputes that—would he and his party still oppose even t…”

“Are there any other considerations here that we need to bear in mind when we think about how to advocate for more money? Ultimately, we can say that by spending on legal aid you save money elsewhere. I heard what was said, and I have seen some of the work that has been done to say that if you spend £1 you get £3 back. …”

“Thank you. I want to ask about remuneration, with Ms Brimelow first. Barristers in criminal legal aid have had a 15% increase and solicitors have had a 24% increase since the criminal legal aid review. To what extent is that enough? Is it going to stabilise the position or not?”

“Thank you. Chair, if I may, I have one last question on unmet need, etc., before I move on to legal aid remuneration. Within this general duty to make arrangements under section 1 of LASPO, I have heard it suggested that the Secretary of State could have the power to make a grant to create a legal advice centre; say, t…”

“Richard or Kirsty, in your experience, when you have people who are in litigation representing themselves, what effect does that have on the legal process and the costs that have to be spent on the court time, the judge, etc.? What additional pressures or extra costs does it create in other places when you have somebod…”

“There is a power in section 2(2)(c) of LASPO to make arrangements to secure legal aid in areas where it is not being met. I was going to ask about remuneration for legally aided work.”

“In relation to areas that are not housing and immigration but education, welfare benefits and community care, which have not had the increase, how would you assess the position there as to their sustainability and whether people are going to stick in those sectors if they are not getting paid properly?”

“Thank you.”

“Currently, where does that money go? Into the Home Office’s coffers?”