Speeches by Munt.

“If you do not know what the non-priorities are, what are your priorities for the fixed spending envelope that you have?”

“When you are writing to the Committee about that, maybe you could let us know exactly what new data is available as a result that has already been worked. That would be helpful. Thank you.”

“There is a 2024 budget commitment to “recruit thousands more prison and probation staff”. How many thousands, and by when?”

“I am alarmed that you have to think about it.”

“To pick up on the data point, in July, the Judicial Office published a report on data in the family justice system and said that the core case data, the new case management system under the reform programme, “is not designed to monitor and evaluate the family courts”. Are there plans in place to do something about that…”

“Is there an envisaged end date for paper bundles to be not a thing any more?”

“Is it not the Department’s programme?”

“We did a visit to the central London county court, which seemed to be a place of vast quantities of paper, yet the Ministry of Justice’s digital strategy 2025 says that its objective is to “strip out paper, unnecessary hearings, forms and duplication”. I wondered how that was going, and whether you would like to update…”

“I am just making the point that victims and witnesses are looking at 2027-28. That is a very long way ahead. They will want certainty that there is some end to all of this.”

“Three years?”

“Urgent.”

“What does “medium to long-term” mean?”

“And you anticipate concluding those negotiations when?”

“So you are in negotiation now, already, for next year’s allocation.”

“Yes, but you are now the Lord Chancellor.”

“But setting your cap means you just decide—”

“But is it not the case, Lord Chancellor, that the judiciary had actually listed trials for significantly more than that? Wouldn’t it have been better just to give extra money and let it roll?”

“What consideration have you given to multi-year agreements, to give certainty, so that this kind of shambles does not happen again?”

“I am a vice-chair of the APPG on whistleblowing, and a director of Whistleblowers UK.”

“I want to mention the shocking damage to tourism, given the number of people who leave Paddington and try to go west. My constituents are stunned to find that all this has only just come to light—my hon. Friend referred to six years of closure; I have heard seven, and we all know that projects overrun. I also want to r…”