Speeches by Shastri-Hurst.

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“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this evening, Mrs Barker. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Colne Valley (Paul Davies) for opening this important debate, and to other right hon. and hon. Members for their contributions to it. I also pay tribute to Brain Cancer Justice and to all the people—over 109…”

“I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for sharing Holly’s story, which sadly, is far too frequent. I remember from my time in clinical practice that those subtle signs were sadly sometimes missed. We need to do much more to ensure that our clinicians are aware of them so that they can make an early diagnosis. Of course,…”

“The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. There are countless charities that have done a huge amount of work, and what they are doing is making a tangible difference to people’s lives. Sadly, brain tumours remain one of the most challenging forms of cancer. In many instances, outcomes are no better than when I worked as …”

“The hon. Lady is absolutely right that when someone is facing a devastating crisis, but has to travel excessive distances to get the treatment they deserve, there is something wrong with the system. If we are serious about accelerating research, we must ensure that every patient has a fair opportunity to participate in…”

“I listened carefully to the Minister’s response to my hon. Friend the Member for Broadland and Fakenham (Jerome Mayhew), but the reality is that every day shopkeepers are facing abuse and threats and being stolen from. A direct consequence of the presumption in the Sentencing Act 2026 that those with a sentence of 12 m…”

“4. What advice she has provided to the Government on the potential impact of restricting the right to jury trials on the rule of law.”

“Imagine a scenario in which two individuals are both charged with the same offence and the factual matrix of each case is identical. However, the first defendant has a string of previous convictions, whereas the second has none. Under the Government’s proposal, the first defendant would be able to elect for a jury tria…”

“The Government’s constant refrain is that they are “working at pace”, but the reality is that our adversaries are doing exactly that. In an increasingly unstable world, the lack of a defence readiness Bill is a significant disadvantage. Will the Minister set out when the Bill will be published, and the specific date on…”

“6. Whether he plans to introduce a defence readiness Bill.”

“T8. I think it is fair to say that the Government and I do not see eye to eye when it comes to the policy of curtailing trial by jury. However, if the Government are determined to go down that route, their own impact assessment sets out that a significant number of magistrates need to be recruited—the MOJ has put it at…”

“Phoenix shops are a blight on many of our high streets, including in my constituency of Solihull West and Shirley. Councillor Karen Grinsell, the leader of Solihull metropolitan borough council, recently brought forward a motion to have greater statutory powers to close down these stores. Will the Leader of the House p…”

“I think you said in your earlier evidence that you do not have anyone as young as 10 at the moment—”

“—but you can take them?”

“If I can pivot across to placements in the youth custody system, the Youth Custody Service’s placement team determines them. Can you set out your experiences of how that process works?”

“Can I just pick up on that? You have said you get limited time, and you get limited information when the referrals are made across to you. How do you therefore ensure that you are effectively transferring a child’s care history or their risk profile from the community into one of your establishments?”

“You have set out how it works. How could it be improved to ensure that it is more efficient and effective?”

“Mr Wragg, you set out the example of a child who was transferred from Plymouth up into your institution in Milton Keynes. The youth custody population report sets out that around 60% of children and young people on the secure estate are based in an institution that is within 50 miles of their home, but around 15% are h…”

“Would that trigger any specific safeguarding protocols if they are under 12, for example?”

“Within the secure home estate, you have welfare placements where they often involve children who are a high risk to themselves, whether that is through self-harm or other means. You have justice placements that are potentially children who are high risk to others. How do you manage that balance within the same space?”