Speeches by Wright.

“At the moment, it says, “Criminal proceedings are active when a charge has been made or a summons to appear has been issued,” so arrest doesn’t trigger it. We might want to consider whether that is the right starting point, but as things stand, there is likely to be a period of time immediately post incident when the s…”

“I agree with part of that, but not all of it. It is certainly right, as Michael says, that the risk of prejudice diminishes over time, but there is a distinction to be made between the Contempt of Court Act process and sub judice in the House, which is that there are very significant penalties attached to the Contempt …”

“Do you mean to cover decisions that they make on which we as parliamentarians might want to comment?”

“I agree. The only thing that we might want to think about as a legislature is that, although Dominic is quite right, the reason this does not often arise as a problem is that, generally, identities are not promulgated after arrest in the way they were. It is not unlawful to do that, and we might want to think again, as…”

“I do not have much to add. Inevitably, the exercise of discretion is a balancing exercise. You have to decide which risk outweighs all the others. I think the point here is that there is still a risk of prejudicing proceedings even at the sentencing stage, but it is a much lower risk, so it is quite likely that the Spe…”

“As would I. Between us we cover about a decade’s worth of being in the Attorney General’s Office, and I have no recollection of any incidents. Because I don’t trust my own recollection, I went and asked the Attorney General’s Office to check, and there was no such incident in the four years I did the job, so I don’t th…”

“I agree with that. I think it could be very helpful. There is an eternal conflict between clarity on the one hand and flexibility on the other. We all encounter it every time we try to make law. If you want to be able to deal with circumstances as they arise, you obviously want flexibility, but you also want people to …”

“They can be, but I think with sufficient guidance we can all understand what we can say and what we cannot. As I said, the majority of Members of Parliament—I know you are one of them, Sir Gavin—would not wish to prejudice criminal proceedings. I think people want guidance so that they can understand how far they can g…”

“I am Jeremy Wright. I took over from Dominic as Attorney General in 2014 until 2018. I am still a serving Member of Parliament.”

“It is a fair question. We have talked about why there is a sub judice resolution. It is not just to be irritating to Members of Parliament; it is because there is good reason for protecting the integrity of criminal process. That is largely because, as I said earlier, I think we would all want to see those responsible …”

“My answer is no. The only circumstance in which they would have done so is if something had been said in Parliament that they believed would prejudice a prosecution, and I think we are of the view that there have not been cases that have got to that level of concern. I cannot think of one, no.”

“I recognise the strength of the case that the Prime Minister is making. He will understand the interest that the Intelligence and Security Committee has in clause 6 of the Bill, which provides for certain exemptions for those who work for the intelligence agencies. It then says that those people should report internall…”

“I first of all thank the Minister for what he said about co-operation with the work of the Intelligence and Security Committee on this matter. I agree with him, as I often do, that the Government are entitled to clarity about what the question they are being asked is. The question for me is not whether the Government s…”

“It is now clear that the Crown Prosecution Service asked the Government more than once, over more than a year, for some additional evidence on what the CPS considered to be the crucial question of whether China constituted a national security threat during the relevant period. It seems to me, having read those statemen…”

“The first question was about why the deputy National Security Adviser included reference to economic opportunity in his statement when he knew that that was not the question he was being asked, nor the relevant question.”

“I understand the point the hon. Lady is making, and to be fair to Sir Brian, he is not suggesting that we remove jury trial in all cases; he is very much talking about a subset of cases in which he thinks it is worth restricting that right. However, she is right that we must balance the clear advantages of jury trials,…”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered the Independent Review of the Criminal Courts: Part 1. It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. Despite the title of this debate—which I will immediately concede is less than exciting—it focuses on a serious problem with significant consequences. …”

“I thank all Members who have contributed to this debate. In particular, I thank the Chair of the Justice Committee for rearranging his Committee’s diaries so that its members could do so. This has, I hope, been a constructive debate, not least for the Minister to add to her considerations. I hope she will forgive the d…”

“As the Minister says, she will have to consider each of Sir Brian’s proposals, although she will know that he says that they are to be taken as a “package” and not with a “pick-n-mix” approach. Is that something that the Government accept? Will they take the view that it is either all of Sir Brian’s recommendations or …”

“Yes. My hon. Friend makes a really important point. Again, to be fair to Sir Brian, it is not within his capacity to do all the analysis necessary to follow through his recommendations and to understand quite what the effect on the system will be. However, I agree with my hon. Friend’s point. As I was about to say, we …”