Speeches by Juss.

“RASSO cases by their very nature, for want of a better description, can be horrible cases, can’t they, because you are dealing with serious offences? I worked as a personal injury lawyer. For our own wellbeing, we had training on how to deal with such cases. What kind of support do you provide to RASSO lawyers as far a…”

“I beg your pardon. Yes, that’s right. Is 37 what you would recommend, or do you think it should be less than that?”

“We have been talking about caseloads. You mentioned that a typical caseload for a RASSO prosecutor was 200 and obviously—”

“Thank you, Director. I hope I will be able to deal with these questions quickly in light of the information you have already given me, so I won’t ask all the questions I intended to ask. Looking specifically at RASSO cases, those have increased quite considerably over the last few years. I know that you have recruited …”

“I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate on International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Does she agree that a lot of the disabilities that we need to be aware of are hidden disabilities such as autism, depression and other mental conditions? We do not see those disabilities directly, but we need to be …”

“Director, having accepted that it must be unconscious bias that accounts for it, will you be providing extra training to your prosecutors on unconscious bias?”

“Director, can I please ask you a couple of questions about your research into disproportionality in your charging decisions? I have read the letter that you sent to the Chair of the Select Committee on 28 November, and I have to say that it was disturbing to read that the research published in February 2023 told you th…”

“Although in my constituency we have the City of Wolverhampton council’s homelessness prevention strategy, which has had some success in tackling homelessness, last week I was contacted by a constituent fleeing domestic violence and finding it difficult to get permanent social housing for herself and her daughter. Crisi…”

“21. What steps her Department is taking to support councils in reducing homelessness.”

“In Wolverhampton last year, it was estimated that more than 6,000 women were subjected to domestic abuse. Will my hon. Friend commend the “Orange Wolverhampton” campaign, which runs from 25 November to 10 December every year? The campaign involves the Wolverhampton safeguarding team, the Safer Wolverhampton Partnership…”

“Last week, I attended the citizenship network launch at Parliament organised by Citizens UK and met people from my constituency who came to this country years ago to build a better life. They have lived and worked here, raised their families here and contributed to society and the economy, and having spent a considerab…”

“Thank you for that; it is reassuring. I have one final question. In January, you mentioned to the Committee that you wanted to review the terms and conditions of salaried judges and fee-paid judges. Are there any disadvantages that you see in having fee-paid judges in crime, civil and family cases?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

“If I read your article, I might be able to get the answer to the next question. When it comes to ethnic minority background judges, 14% of district judges in magistrates courts are from ethnic minorities. I hope these figures are right. When it comes to deputy High Court judges, 13% are from ethnic minority backgrounds…”

“Yes.”

“I want to ask you a question about fee-paid judges and salaried judges, but before I come to that I have a couple of questions about the actual make-up of the judiciary. Five per cent. of senior judges—High Court and above—are non-barristers. They are mostly solicitors. When it comes to district judges and deputy distr…”

“Are there any problems in terms of the applicants not being of the required high standard?”

“I want to ask you some questions about judicial capacity, the make-up of the judiciary and diversity within the judicial profession. You mentioned that there is competition for judges at the moment. When we were at the Central London county court last week, I raised that question. One of the issues raised was that ther…”

“Linked to the issue of sentencing is the problem of repeat offenders. There was a report this morning which posed the question whether repeat offenders should be given longer prison sentences. I had a meeting in my constituency with the local inspector, who said that one of the main problems he was facing was that it i…”

“Baroness Carr, I know that in civil litigation the emphasis is always on keeping cases out of court and concentrating on negotiation and mediation. Can a similar approach be made in any way with criminal cases? Is there any way that they can be kept out of court?”