Speeches by Babarinde.

“I have been privy to some correspondence from judges and court workers who are deeply concerned about the reduction in sitting days. It would be good to get an idea from you of the extent to which the judiciary, and indeed court workers, were consulted about that decision.”

“I agree with taking a parallel approach. It sounds to me that if additional resources were to be made available to rebuild magistrates courts, like Eastbourne magistrates court, that would not be unwelcome from the perspective of the judiciary.”

“I want to move to another branch of the reform agenda, which is around physical facilities. It is pretty well documented that there are some serious challenges. An umbrella one I would like to ask about is this. In light of the fact that we are going to see magistrates taking on more cases, do you feel that in order to…”

“If, hypothetically, a Royal Commission was set up to explore the issues, would you feel in your role that that could be a vehicle that could enable you to engage and feed in your insights?”

“What would you say are the blockers? We have spoken a lot about capacity being stuck. Without underestimating the scale of the job to be done, using artificial intelligence, or deploying it in some way, shape or form, feels like it could be a relatively quick win, compared to some of the alternatives.”

“By begin, do you mean it is not being used at all in that respect?”

“To what extent have you explored using artificial intelligence?”

“I am Josh Babarinde, the MP for Eastbourne, and folks will be able to find my interests declared on the register.”

“In your opening remarks you mentioned that upholding the rule of law requires investment. Throughout some of what you have shared with us, that is a theme that keeps coming back. One area in which there are campaigners who have campaigned for investment is when it comes to court transcripts, particularly for victims wh…”

“The safety and condition of our roads are hugely dependent on those who drive on them, but too many vehicles illegally use our roads without tax, without registering their details with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, and without their MOT. I thank Jamie from Seven Sisters garage for sorting my MOT out last wee…”

“I am proud that the Liberal Democrats were the first UK-wide major party to call for an immediate bilateral ceasefire between Israel and Gaza, and we continue to push the Prime Minister to honour that position. I am also proud that many Eastbourne campaigners have been calling for that from the get-go, and have come ou…”

“Organisations such as TechResort in my constituency support people who are digitally excluded to become digitally included. The Minister has a long list of meetings to go to, so instead, can the Secretary of State come along the coast to the sunniest town in the UK to visit TechResort and hear more about the funding it…”

“On the subject of risk, it has been super-clear, as I know you are also aware—whether it is the Domestic Abuse Commissioner or charities like Refuge, which I met with earlier today—that there is significant concern from survivors. Although a number of domestic abuse-aligned offences were excluded from early release, th…”

“What plans are there to do a re-procurement?”

“I was once on the Employers’ Forum for Reducing Reoffending, which Lord Timpson used to chair, so we collaborated in that respect.”

“Thank you, Chair. Welcome and thank you for joining us. It is good to see you again. I wanted to ask about the early release scheme SDS40, which saw a number of ex-offenders released 40% into their sentence as opposed to 50%. Are you able to share with us how many available places there were in prisons before that sche…”

“As well as building capacity, a key part of improving prison capacity is around our prison officers. We have spoken about training, but there is a need to recruit more prison officers. What do the MOJ’s plans look like to recruit the number of prison officers required?”

“I ask about the plan. It has been pretty well documented that Unlocked Graduates is an organisation that has facilitated the training of many prison officers over a number of years. It featured in the Sunday Times top employers. The MOJ has really relied on it to help fuel the recruitment of prison officers. We have se…”

“I think it was the Prison Governors Association that said shortly after the first tranche of releases that within a year we were going to be back to square one. Are you able to share with us when you would expect prisons to reach capacity again?”

“So do you have a ballpark? You mentioned the phrase “decent amount of time”. What is that?”