Speeches by Munt.

“As part of that “test, test, test” thing, can we have a look before you let it loose?”

“That is great. What are the lessons that you have learned that might apply to that particular piece of work, where you have one Department funding the work in your Department on digitising possession proceedings?”

“You have also talked about lessons learned. I wondered what lessons are translating into that particular piece of work. To clarify, is that digitisation process looking at what the Renters (Reform) Bill is going to look like? Is it looking at what is sitting on the books now or looking a little bit into the future?”

“Can I just pick up on another point? We have been talking about possession proceedings. As we understand it, the process of digitising those proceedings is being funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.”

“Can you just quantify that figure of 23%?”

“What is your budget to do that this year?”

“Thank you, Daniel. Can I ask you please to write to the Chair at some point relatively shortly to explain exactly the situation across our county courts and maybe the other courts systems in terms of which places are completely inaccessible, which places you can get in through a back door, a side door, a staff door or …”

“Can I also ask about accessibility for those who are less mobile, people who might use wheelchairs or whatever? What percentage of our courts have front-door wheelchair accessibility? I have heard of examples where people are invited to go around to where the bins are. What is the level of accessibility?”

“You are a barrister. You would have been welcomed with open arms. If you are a minion turning up at court on the first occasion and you have never been to court before, I would imagine it is quite daunting. It is about the ability to make people feel welcome and not like they are not guilty the moment they walk through…”

“There are other systems, are there not? If I want to submit my tax return, I have no choice. Certainly, in dealings with Defra and all sorts of other agencies, it is online or die. You just have to do it. You can go to your local library and be assisted to do that if you do not have that capacity at home. It is intense…”

“Surely that is a simple transaction that can be changed everywhere. Every single time you send out an order, you can do it digitally, surely.”

“I am not at all critical of the staff. I suspect they are doing their very best in circumstances that must be very frustrating in some cases. This is about the systems. This is a systemic problem, is it not? We still send out orders by post. Is that right? Why do we do that?”

“Only yesterday we met with a group of people who really are at the sharp end: the solicitors, the barristers and the others who deal with this. They are unbelievably frustrated that they cannot phone somebody in a court. Do you really feel that the centralisation of your phone system and your call centre is a massive s…”

“As constituency MPs and people who are sitting on the Committee, people do not often send emails saying, “Do you know what? It is brilliant. Thank you so much.” They just do not. We are naturally going to hear the squeaky bits.”

“It is not really mine. It is everyone’s.”

“I thought we had done reform. We have spent a massive amount of money doing reform. You talk about end-to-end digitisation. When we went up to Northampton, I am pretty certain I heard that people were digitising stuff so that everything is electronic, but when they go to the next bit and send it to the court, they end …”

“We have heard from a number of people that the courts and the background to the courts is pretty impenetrable. You cannot phone anybody; you cannot email anybody. There is a huge number of inboxes in various courts. Things get siloed. Do you have a comment on that? It seems extraordinary to me. We have heard this from …”

“Is it more modern in Wales?”

“You used Wales as an example where you can pick up some slack from other places. I would imagine that covid had been quite a positive thing, in that one now understands that you do not necessarily have to be physically in a place to be able to work. Although there has been a push from all sorts of people that everyone …”

“I am Tessa Munt. I am the Member for Wells and Mendip Hills, which is in Somerset. Everything is as per my declaration, but I will just point out, for the sake of this session, that I am a director of WhistleblowersUK, which is a non-profit-making organisation.”