Speeches by Cox.

“Good afternoon. I am Pam Cox. I am chair of the APPG on penal affairs, and my other interests are as declared on the register.”

“Chair, may I say something? We are about to embark on questions on the matter, and this is, I think, a rather elaborate opening statement.”

“1. What progress his Department has made on creating a national listing framework.”

“How will the new listing framework help to fast-track prosecutions for rape and serious sexual offences? What other measures is the Secretary of State introducing or supporting to that end, so that we can honour our manifesto commitments to bring perpetrators to swift justice?”

“All I would suggest is that the ADR UK data has given rise to lots of more recent studies that are coming to very different conclusions and there is a range of opinions on this matter.”

“Are you satisfied, as the CPS, that it would be a fair process?”

“Mr Monteith. I am sure we all agree that we need much more research into questions of ethnicity and criminal justice data. To achieve it has been difficult, more difficult than it needed to be. I just wonder whether you are aware of data from the Administrative Data Research UK project for the MOJ, which offers insight…”

“Mr Atkinson, do you agree?”

“Do you have a view on that?”

“Okay, thank you. I think my other question has already been covered, so I will stop there.”

“We have divergent views on that one. Allocation decisions under the Bill cannot be appealed. Do you expect that decisions would therefore be challenged by judicial review, Mr Guest?”

“Would the hon. Member agree that legal judgment by peers or equals can include legal judgment by magistrates, and that indeed there is no ancient right to jury trial? To say so is to misrepresent the case.”

“Would the right hon. Gentleman accept that the Bill preserves jury trials? It does not abolish them, and to say that it does is to misrepresent the case.”

“I very much respect what my hon. Friend is saying, but the right to elect is not an ancient right; it was introduced in 1855 and escaped reforms in the 1970s. It is therefore a relatively recent addition to the judicial armoury.”

“We could think of this exchange as Cox v. Cox. The right hon. and learned Gentleman mentions legal history. I have more than a passing interest in that and am minded to think of the Summary Jurisdiction Act 1879, which moved a lot of cases from a jury system into the magistrates system. The architect of that was Disrae…”

“Will he give way?”

“Will the right hon. and learned Gentleman give way?”

“Will the hon. Lady give way?”

“The Opposition have chosen to misrepresent this Bill. That is their choice, but it does the delivery of justice in this country no favours. That misrepresentation has centred on one of the Bill’s many provisions—the proposed changes to mode of trial—but this Bill does not abolish jury trials. It moves some cases to the…”

“rose—”