Speeches by Mullan.

““the quality and sustainability of his relationships with each parent, the nature of the relationship between the parents insofar as it affects him and the capacity and willingness of each parent to support his relationship with the other parent, insofar as this is likely to further his welfare now and in the future.””

“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…”

“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…”

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“I must address some of the evidence that the Government relied on. The Ministry of Justice published its review on the presumption of parental involvement in October last year. Both Parents Matter, the charity that has been working for some 52 years on shared parenting and that helpfully sat on the advisory group for t…”

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“I think it is a drafting habit to say “his”, and there is no pejorative element to that.”

“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:”

“I hope that I have demonstrated to the Committee that I have a genuine interest in the suggestion that this element is causing an issue. We are open-minded to that. My instinct is that, at heart, this is about the courts, judges and other professional staff making bad decisions and bad judgments. That is at the heart o…”

“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…”

“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 …”

“Will my hon. Friend give way?”

“I have spent a lot of time working on the issue of victim personal statements, often referred to as victim impact statements, in work on other Bills. We are talking today about someone’s ability to give an effective statement, but the Opposition have also been concerned about restrictions on what people can actually sa…”

“We have heard about the need for judges to receive better training, but I observe that the CAFCASS officers and social workers who advise the courts are already trained. They are the professionals on whose expert reports judges rely. In every one of the cases we have talked about, those trained professionals were invol…”

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“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 …”

“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 …”

“The Family Services Foundation notes that, in its view, the presumption provides a “neutral reference point” that professionals can use to challenge inappropriate gatekeeping. It and Both Parents Matter note in their written evidence that removing the presumption risks creating a perverse incentive where there is no cl…”

“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 …”

“As we have discussed in debates on previous amendments, the grounds of an appeal may very well relate to an allocation decision. Someone could successfully appeal on the basis that their trial should never have been heard by a magistrate and that they should have had a jury instead. Providing the option for a jury retr…”