Speeches by Juss.

“Do HMCTS staff have the digital tools and the training to deliver an effective service at the moment, or is that still a work in progress?”

“The Association of HM District Judges said that there are “too few staff” to support the work of the courts. Lord Justice Colin Birss said it is a “constant frustration” that people are leaving HMCTS to go to other parts of the public sector that pay better. It is an issue. That probably explains why we have particular…”

“If I can just move on to judges, the Lady Chief Justice and the Master of the Rolls have both raised concerns about over-reliance on fee-paid judges and said that having fee-paid judges creates a less smooth disposition of justice. Do you agree with that?”

“Thank you very much for that. That corresponds directly with what we were told yesterday about trying to persuade somebody who is in practice to leave and become a salaried judge. It is a vocation. They might end up being paid less as a salaried judge than they were earning in practice, but, as you say, it is the vocat…”

“I have one more question on the recruitment of judges. It is really pleasing to hear that you are going through a recruitment process. It was mentioned yesterday that in the past there have been recruitment exercises, but before that exercise is completed a stop is made to the recruitment process because of a lack of m…”

“You have the budget for those 80 vacancies.”

“We have already discussed fixed recoverable costs and early resolution of cases. Can I just ask a couple of questions on that? I understand that the rationale behind fixed recoverable costs is to reduce and bring certainty to costs. What impact has the expansion of the fixed recoverable costs regime had on access to ju…”

“On the issue of early settlement, members of the Select Committee visited the Civil National Business Centre in Northampton. We were really impressed with the small claims mediation service and the number of settlements that were achieved further to that. What plans are there to expand that service and to integrate med…”

“It was mentioned yesterday that you could be waiting nine months or even up to a year to get a cost and case management conference listed for the case to get started. Are we going to be able to get to a stage where that will be much reduced?”

“With multi-track cases, you have a cost management hearing and a case management conference, and then directions are made telling the parties what they need to do to progress the case. Parties can be waiting nine months for the case to be listed to have such a conference, sometimes even longer. The effect of that, as w…”

“They will settle for a lesser sum.”

“I just want to come back to some of the earlier questions that were asked. We had a meeting with practitioners and other stakeholders yesterday. Their general view was that things were better before centralisation. They even wondered whether it was an issue of policy or resources that telephone calls were not answered …”

“Will the hon. Lady join me in commending Compton Care hospice in my constituency? The hospice, which I visited recently, does great work raising funds, and it really welcomed the £100 million support provided by this Government. However, the hospice emphasised to me that if it was not there to provide social care, ther…”

“I thank my right hon. Friend for giving way. I want to raise a question that I am often asked. We have spoken about quick fixes. The problem is that we fix a few potholes, but the disrepair reappears. Does she agree that we should focus on resurfacing our roads?”

“Israel is supposed to be an ally of ours. Does the Minister agree that its treatment of our hon. Friends is not only an affront but a further indication of the Israeli Government’s desire to show no transparency in respect of their actions, and not to respect human rights?”

“Does the Lord Chancellor agree that the previous Government were consulted on and, indeed, welcomed the Sentencing Council’s new guidelines, and therefore it is totally unfair of Conservative Members to accuse this Government of having a two-tier system? Does she agree that it is yet another example of this Government …”

“Last week and at the weekend, the opening ceremony, group games, semi-finals and finals of the kabaddi world cup were played at WV Active Aldersley in my constituency of Wolverhampton West. The rest of the games were played at other venues in the west midlands. This is the first time ever that the kabaddi world cup has…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I thank the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) for securing a debate on this serious and important topic. Across England and Wales, there has been a 113% increase in drug-related fatalities in the last decade, and the impact of illegal drugs costs the G…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for securing this debate. Before I became an MP, I specialised exclusively in dealing with compensation claims on behalf of women who had suffered from the use of vaginal mesh. My hon. Friend is absolutely right that the mesh was sold to patients as a gold standard, and they were misled. Does she…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Furniss. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Washington and Gateshead South (Mrs Hodgson) for securing this important debate and for all the work she does on this issue. As I mentioned earlier, I specialised in pursuing clinical negligence claims on behalf of women w…”