Speeches by Farnsworth.

“I want to ask each of you the same question, but specifically in relation to your region. What do you believe is a key strength of your region in how it promotes rehabilitation?”

“Do you have anything to add, Linda?”

“I want to ask each of you the same question, but specifically in relation to your region. What do you believe is a key strength of your region in how it promotes rehabilitation?”

“Flipping it over into the opposite, what, beyond resourcing, do you think the challenges are that prevent the service from focusing on promoting rehabilitation? You will have heard me ask earlier about the court backlog, the remand population, and people being released straight away on sentencing. Is that also a challe…”

“Good afternoon. I am Linsey Farnsworth, the Member of Parliament for Amber Valley and a former Crown prosecutor. My interests are as declared on the register, but of significance for today, I am the co-chair of the APPG on legal and constitutional affairs and a member of the APPG on access to justice.”

“Nicola, I have a quick follow-up question regarding electronic monitoring. You did not mention anything about monitoring alcohol levels, which I know involves pretty new technology. Is any work going on in relation to that within the Probation Service?”

“You heard me asking the directors earlier about what they felt they were doing well in their regions to promote rehabilitation and resettlement and reduce offending. We heard from each of those three areas, but with your oversight of the whole of England and Wales, do you have any themes in terms of what you think the …”

“Martin, you mentioned, almost in passing, the youth justice service—the arm of the Probation Service that supports young people. I think it performs far better than its adult counterpart. Could you give us your insight into why that might be?”

“Thank you; that is very useful.”

“Good afternoon. I am Linsey Farnsworth, the Member of Parliament for Amber Valley and a former Crown prosecutor. My interests are as declared on the register, but of significance for today, I am the co-chair of the APPG on legal and constitutional affairs and a member of the APPG on access to justice.”

“I do not really want to move off such positivity, but I have to ask each of you another question, but in a different order. What are the biggest challenges in your specific region, perhaps beyond the budget, money, and resource? What prevents the service from focusing on promoting rehabilitation the most? Could we go t…”

“Chris mentioned the impact of prison capacity issues. We could probably talk about this question for a long time, so maybe limit your answers, but is the court backlog and the fact that a large proportion of the prison population are people who have been remanded into custody, and who may have served their sentence at …”

“From what I have heard today, that certainly seems to be the direction of travel with the changes that have been brought in and with the work that you and your directors are doing. You mentioned a sustainable caseload. If we switch that to probation officers, what would that look like for the adult probation teams?”

“Shrewsbury certainly does sound like a wonderful place to visit. I am working hard on the visitor economy for Amber Valley, and an integrated transport system and good transport links are a vital part of that. There was a daily railway service running from London to Alfreton in my constituency until 2021, when it was u…”

“Denby Pottery has been the heart of Amber Valley since 1809. It provides over 500 jobs and brings in 250,000 visitors a year, but it has sadly had to apply for administration support. While the Prime Minister has already committed to a review of the supercharger scheme, which helps with energy costs, I hope that it wil…”

“Our plan for court reform implements time savings across the system, not just in the courtroom but in a number of other aspects of the justice system that contribute to delays with the administration of jury trials, such as the summoning of jurors, the compiling of jury bundles, juror expenses and behind-the-scenes pre…”

“At a recent coffee morning that I held in the village of Holbrook, constituents raised their worries about energy bills. In 2024-25, 6,219 people, or 14.5% of all households in Amber Valley, received the warm home discount. Particularly in the light of ongoing uncertainty on household energy costs due to international …”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (James Naish) for securing the debate. Many in Amber Valley—including me—are proud descendants of coalminers, textile makers and engineers. That heritage still shapes our economy: 20% of the workforce are in manufac…”

“That is not an experience people want to receive, but it is probably useful going forward. I have one last question—I want to go back to the SSB Law Group, the current approach to legal services complaints handling and the Legal Ombudsman’s role within that. I know the Legal Services Consumer Panel has said that the co…”

“Do you have any good practice from your time as the Housing Ombudsman that you could bring to that process?”