Speeches by Fox.

“That is not what the Lord Chancellor said before Christmas.”

“Minister, if you have been committed to trial in the Crown court at the moment, you are expecting to have a jury trial, and what you are telling me is that once these changes take effect, you will divert those people committed but whose trial has not started into the swift court.”

“Let me move on, because the Lord Chancellor might well have been confused.”

“That, I think, is fundamentally different to what the Lord Chancellor said a few weeks ago.”

“No, he said the changes would not be retrospective, and now you are giving me a slightly different answer. If someone elects to go to the Crown court at the moment, it is on the assumption that there will be a trial by jury. What you are saying is that it might not be; they might be diverted to the swift court.”

“So when the Lord Chancellor said it will not be retrospective, that was not a wholly accurate answer.”

“So you will relook at cases that have been committed for trial at the Crown court and push some of them through the swift court—that is what you are telling me.”

“On that, nobody disagrees. It is trial by juries that we are talking about. My view, and I suspect the view of most people here, is that that is just not relevant, and it is not going to take effect until 2028 anyway.”

“Your proposal is going to take time, because the Lord Chancellor has confirmed that these proposals will not have retrospective effect. Some parts of the country are booking trials in four years’ time. If you take a year to present your legislation—I think the Lord Chancellor said it would be in autumn 2026—and it take…”

“Minister, the Institute for Government has said, “Proposed restrictions to jury trials are not necessary to turn around performance in criminal courts”. I saw you at the back of the room when Cassia Rowland was giving her evidence. She detailed numerous other things that should be done, and to that extent your proposal…”

“My hon. Friend makes a valuable point, which anticipates my next point. Teachers in my constituency have written to me saying that they will be pushed into the higher rate tax bracket by 2030, paying 40% on any extra work that they do—marking exams during the summer, for example—and that doing such work is not worth it…”

“A Budget is the most important set of choices that a Government can make, and introducing clause 10 is a choice by this Government. I oppose clause 10 because it extends the freeze on the personal income tax allowance and the basic rate limit for a further three years, from 2028 to 2031. That means that rates will have…”

“I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way a second time. Is he seriously saying that increasing the rate of tax on dividends will result in more investment in this country?”

“rose—”

“Does the hon. Gentleman believe that increasing taxation on dividends will result in more entrepreneurs taking risks, employing people and growing the economy, or fewer?”

“Does the shadow Minister agree that the overall thrust of these clauses is to discourage saving and enterprise, and to hit the people who do the right thing, all to fund more welfare spending? That is not a recipe for growth, is it?”

“In my experience, staff absence is normally the result of poor management. I suspect that the Ministry of Justice is managing its staff significantly worse than the rest of the civil service if staff sickness is 30% above the public sector average, which is not great to begin with. With approximately 16,400 staff in th…”

“I do not agree that the Government should curtail our rights to trial by jury. Trial by jury is an ancient right in England and the very essence of our criminal justice system. Combined with the Government proposals for digital ID, it reveals a very authoritarian attitude. It marks a significant shift in the balance of…”

“Good afternoon. I am Ashley Fox, Member of Parliament for Bridgwater. I am a former solicitor and my interests are as on the register.”

“Mr Miller, can I take you back to the cost of the updated means test? You said that the Ministry of Justice did some work and came up with a scheme in 2022. If that had been introduced, do you have any idea what the cost would have been to the taxpayer?”