Speeches by Kohler.

“I know you are part of it.”

“No, indeed.”

“Are you confident at the moment that looks like it is working as far as you can tell?”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir John. I will speak on new clause 6, new clause 25 and, in particular, new clause 2 tabled by the hon. Member for Warrington North. Her proposal represents the genuine structural reform that victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse have long been promised and too …”

“While I concede that the black hole might not have been foreseeable, the fact that there was a backlog in the courts was clearly foreseeable. The idea that the Government came into power and then suddenly realised there was a backlog is implausible. We are two years into this Government. The change that was promised is…”

“Ms Carr, you talk about the police as if it is one body. The evidence we heard was that different police forces have different definitions. Have they sorted that out?”

“Ms Carr, you looked like you want to say something.”

“That was going to be my question, actually, so excellent. These 14 Departments are all coming along?”

“We were looking at an answer from the Advocate General for Scotland to a question in the House of Lords on VAWG strategy. She said in February of this year that the VAWG board reports directly to the safer streets mission board, but you are saying that is not what happens?”

“The VAWG board?”

“Thank you for visiting us. I am going to ask you about governance. Before I do, I want to ask a really basic question: where are we on a definition of VAWG? I know there is one in the strategy, but where are we in accepting that across the sector, in police forces? All the evidence we have heard in the past is that the…”

“It is not a formal report as such.”

“Is the Minister talking about extending one trial over more hours? Surely the solution is having two trials in parallel. I do not know whether the Minister has ever been on a jury; I have been on a jury three times. It is very difficult for jury members, particularly non-lawyers, to listen to evidence for more than fou…”

“You will be aware of the letter sent to you and Alex by the Chairs of the Home Affairs, Women and Equalities and Justice Committees about stakeholders feeling they were left out of the process. What have you done since the strategy was published to address the feeling that some of them felt left out?”

“Yes, good. Thank you.”

“Do you feel confident the sector is feeling more involved in the process? Is that your real feeling?”

“Has the safer streets mission board stopped working? That is what I meant, sorry; I think it stopped in November.”

“I do not think there is animosity, but do you think things are improving?”

“I know what you did. I have it all here. I am not doubting you did. I just said that they felt left out. What have you done to try to build some more confidence in what—”

“Ms Carr is about to give me some figures, I think, are you?”