Speeches by Mullan.

““Each parent’s willingness and capacity to support the child’s relationship with the other parent, where safe”.”

“Will my hon. Friend give way?”

“On the basis of that discussion, the Opposition do not oppose the clause. We can explore the issue on a good faith basis. I do not think it is critical to the importance of the Bill, so we are happy to proceed. We would, however, welcome some further clarity.”

““quality and sustainability of the child’s relationship with each parent… The nature of the relationship between the parents insofar as it affects the child””

“In summary, clause 7 represents a substantial recasting of appellate rights that prioritises administrative throughput over the correction of error. We should not trade away, without any evidence of abuse and with little evidence of meaningful efficiency savings, a safeguard that is successfully correcting mistakes in …”

“By formalising the role, the Bill acknowledges that the legal system is not just an arena for competing arguments but a human endeavour with all those involved having real psychological needs. While the Opposition support the principle under discussion, the task of the Committee is to ensure that the court retains prop…”

“The justice system depends on the belief that mistakes can and will be fixed. By restricting access to appeals and forcing successful cases back into the summary system, we risk creating a parallel system that simply displaces the backlog, while degrading the quality of justice. We must maintain the automatic right to …”

“My interpretation was that the provision would not be able to be used to enable someone like a family member or friend to take part, but will the Government give us more insight on how they intend to define “independent supporter”, and whether alongside that definition there will be any requirement for vetting or train…”

“Have the Government committed to, or do they expect to commit to, any additional funding to the organisations that will fulfil this role? If we do not know who these people are, how they will be regulated and whether there are the necessary resources, the clause will have less impact. That is why I think it is importan…”

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“On amendment 37, I have talked about the high rate of error and injustice that is being corrected by the current appeal mechanism, and I have talked about the unrepresented defendants who will have to navigate a more complex and subjective system, such as by reviewing transcripts. On the whole, we do not think that we …”

“We must give great weight to the evidence we have heard, but the Government’s own position is that it is unlikely to materially change outcomes; they are repealing a provision that their own assessment concedes will not make a material difference to what happens.”

“I understand the Minister’s criticism that the defendant making the appeal may be perfectly content to have their case reheard in the magistrates, and insisting that an appeal be reheard in a jury trial gives no flexibility in that direction—that is a fair point. In response, we will not press amendments 55 to 57 to a …”

“Another example of important evidence is from Dr Warwick Dumas, who obtained email correspondence from Dr Anja Steinbach, whose research was cited in the Government’s review. Dr Steinbach stated explicitly:”

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“and that her research warned only against 50:50 care under all circumstances. She was clear in her positioning but feels that the way in which it was reported in the Government’s review did not fairly reflect her ultimate conclusion. We received significant written evidence in support of maintaining presumption, but we…”

“If the defendant is successful at appeal, we might say that they are doubly aggrieved: they have gone through the process and it has not worked for them. Surely we should want to do everything we can to support that group of people, so that they have a route to the mode of trial that they think is fairest, considering …”

“I rise to speak in connection to clause 13 and amendment 70, which are about how witnesses are supported while navigating the potentially stressful environment of the courtroom. Giving evidence in criminal proceedings is inevitably going to be stressful for many people. For victims of crime, including but not limited t…”

“I accept the Minister’s point that to insist on that being the remedy is not necessarily what the defendant would want. We absolutely want to support defendants who have been through the process of a trial and a successful appeal. Where they could have had a Crown court trial with a jury, prior to the Government’s refo…”

“I rise to speak in support of clause 20, which is a technical and geographic provision necessitated by the significant infrastructure developments currently under way in the City of London. As new law courts are developed, specifically at the Salisbury Square site—we mentioned the specialist fraud court earlier in the …”