Speeches by Juss.

“You previously answered a question of mine on recruitment when you said that you were able to extend the pool of applicants because you were able to offer remote working, but at the same time you have said that you would like a lot more commissioners, and you have not been up to the full quota anyway. Are you saying th…”

“You could have a rota system where certain members of the staff go in and others do not, but there will always be a physical presence in the office at least during regular periods.”

“4. What steps he is taking to establish international leadership on climate change.”

“My hon. Friend makes a valid point. I remember dealing with criminal injuries compensation claims when they were assessed in the same way as personal injury claims. When the tariff system was introduced, it was apparent to us that it was simply inadequate. The Government should commit to review the current two-year tim…”

“I recently received letters from year 4 children at SS Peter and Paul primary school expressing concern over the impact of climate change on their futures, mentioning the extreme weather and the destruction of our natural habitats for our wildlife. The UK’s 10 warmest years on record have all occurred since 2002, and 2…”

“Does my hon. Friend agree that it is totally inconsistent to have a time limit of three years for ordinary personal injury claims, but a time limit of only two years for Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority claims? There is a reason why there are time limits—memories fade and evidence becomes less reliable—but does…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I thank and congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Northfield (Laurence Turner) on securing this important debate and on his moving and eloquent speech. The fact that he only received £1,000 compensation for the very significant injuries he sus…”

“T6. On a recent visit to Featherstone Prison near Wolverhampton, I came across a number of recalled prisoners who were there for minor technical breaches of their probation—sometimes for up to a year. Can the Secretary of State please outline what data is collected on the reasons for prison recalls and how that data th…”

“Just very quickly, I am all for settlement. I am all for early settlement. Cases should be settled before they get to a hearing. What should not happen is that somebody decides to accept a lesser sum—less than what their case is worth—just because the delay is excessive. That is something that we need to avoid.”

“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…”

“They will settle for a lesser sum.”

“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…”

“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?”

“That is totally fair. I am talking about adjournments. Somebody said yesterday that some cases were adjourned and taken out of the list three times. That should not be happening.”

“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 …”

“Can you explain why covid is still having an impact especially as regards to small claims? I was practising right up until the time that the general election was called. I know how disruptive covid was. I can understand that cases that were stuck in the system during covid would be impacted, but why is covid still havi…”