Speeches by Paul.

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“The Victims’ Commissioner’s written evidence is useful because it makes clear that concerns about disproportionality are not confined to ethnicity. She says the potential impact of these reforms on women, particularly women from black and minoritised backgrounds, must be properly considered. She also notes that juries …”

“At the very least, Ministers should have been required to present Parliament with a more realistic counterfactual, incorporating live reforms already in train, including uncapped sitting days and new sentencing powers, before setting out to make permanent constitutional change. If the choice is set up as do nothing ver…”

“and warns:”

“On 27 November 2025, an hon. and learned Member for whom I have a great deal of time and respect said in the Commons:”

“If the Government truly believe clause 3 is fair, proportionate and necessary, why would they resist a review clause of this kind? New clause 29 has no impact on what the Government are proposing. It simply says that if you alter one of the most important protections in the criminal justice system and you know there ar…”

““The Lammy Review suggests that trust in the CJS, including magistrates, may be a factor”.”

“rather than a judge or magistrate if they themselves were charged.”

“but”

“It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Huq. I speak in support of amendments 23, 39 and 24 which, taken together, would do something simple but important: they would build a measure of flexibility back into the clause, so that jury trial is still available where the cause of justice requires it. The Minis…”

“I completely agree with the hon. Lady. She has set out a good example of the type of things that happen in reality. Life is not tidy, and unexpected things happen. As we look at the Bill and whether a sentence is over or under three years, it is easy to think in simple terms but, in reality, people who work in the just…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Jardine. I am pleased to speak in support of amendments 25 and 12, and particularly in support of amendment 43, tabled in the name of my hon. Friend the Member for Bexhill and Battle. The amendments all engage with a simple point of fairness. Whatever one’s view of …”

“It is clear that the Minister honestly believes this change will address the backlog. I do not doubt her sincerity—we believe differently, but I understand that that is what she believes. What concerns me is this: how many miscarriages of justice is she happy to accept in order to bring down the backlog? Why on earth, …”

“My hon. Friend is making a powerful point about the existing backlog starting to go down, and why it is important that we look at that and understand the impact that other measures are having. Does he agree that the recent change to suspensions for three-year sentences, which went live only a few weeks ago on 22 March,…”

“Why not?”

“I will speak in support of amendment 40, tabled in the name of my hon. Friend the Member for Bexhill and Battle, amendment 18, tabled in the name of the hon. Member for Chichester, and amendment 28, tabled in the name of the hon. Member for Bolton South and Walkden. Before I get into my speech, I think that the hon. Me…”

“That is not the case. The hon. Lady has just set out that it is about setting out the worst possible cases with respect to the sentence—so they absolutely could do that. It is exactly what will happen. They will always be looking to achieve the best for their client—particularly if their client is not guilty. Let us re…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for making that important point. Returning to this debate, we are going to see real problems from this approach to allocation. I am glad that the hon. Member for Amber Valley thinks that it is not an issue—it sounds as if she thinks that all the issues I am raising are not issues. However, she wi…”

“I apologise if the Minister is about to come to this, but is she saying that she does not expect this process to take very long?”

“Is the Minister saying that judges will not be required to review CCTV footage or understand the impact on the victim? Is she saying that that is not required in this process?”