Speeches by Munt.

“Very good, thank you. What is causing it to take so long? Accepting that there is a two-day median, what is happening with the others?”

“Shall we talk about that a bit?”

“Thank you. That would be helpful, perhaps in writing to the Committee generally. Can I just focus on your bit of it?”

“Thank you. Would you like to correct me?”

“Yes, if I may. I understand that it takes an average of 125 days from police referral of a rape case to a CPS charging decision. Would you agree with that?”

“My point was marginally flippant. When you are running your pilot, could I offer a conversation with Bristol first, please? I think they are feeling the pinch. If there was a way of easing some of their troubles, it would be good.”

“Can I volunteer Bristol for one of your pilots?”

“I am Tessa Munt, the Member for Wells and Mendip Hills. I have a full declaration as required, but point out that I am the vice-chair of WhistleblowersUK.”

“Non-qualifying leaseholder status gets slapped on a property in perpetuity long after the required safety works are completed. That status means that it is almost impossible to acquire a mortgage—solicitors advise very strongly that purchasers steer clear of such properties, which are very often flats—and the status is…”

“I associate myself with the remarks of the Deputy Prime Minister and my hon. Friend the Member for Taunton and Wellington (Gideon Amos) in recognising the pain, grief and hurt caused to so many connected to the Grenfell Tower tragedy, in which 72 lives were lost. I have heard the sombre comments in this debate and mean…”

“Yes, I agree with my hon. Friend, and I will come on to some of those issues. Sophisticated business entities are probably the intended target of the legislation, so there is good news for people who have divided their property assets, and bad luck for those who jointly own their property investments, which is a terrib…”

“I have constituents who live on the Somerset levels who are 90 years young. They have limited mobility and do not have mobile phones. Three months ago BT cut them off in the process of changing their landline to digital—something they did not request. They do not even have broadband, and they lost access to their emerg…”

“Success in the transition to electrical vehicles is vital for the west country and Somerset in particular, with the new Agratas battery plant that is coming to Somerset and the port of Bristol, through which go 500,000 vehicles a year. Will the Secretary of State please act to support consumers and consumer confidence …”

“I had a number of questions I wanted to ask, and you have answered most of them, but I wondered, in the light of your comments before Sir Ashley’s questions, what your preferred metrics for measurement would be, or is it the adaptation of the metric you have? Is there any other way you would prefer?”

“I am the Member for Wells and Mendip Hills, in Somerset. Everything is declared in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. However, I am also a member of WhistleblowersUK, as a director, and I am part of its APPG. I think I am vice-chair.”

“That sort of leads to my next question. We might have seen evidence of a moderate level of chaos around data, and digitisation, as you say, might not be a complete thing or it might be slightly over the horizon for some areas of the system. Where would the priority be for you, in terms of capturing data? Clearly, there…”

“Thank you for mentioning Bristol, which is in my part of the world. People go to Bristol or to Taunton because there is nothing in between. There is very little flexibility. People very often have to leave the day before if they are using public transport to get to court for 10 o’clock. It is fairly desperate. You ment…”

“Has anyone done some work on what those costs might be? I was thinking about post-2025 cases that are going to be shunted.”

“No; it’s fine. Exactly—you have probably answered the question.”

“I think the official figures were produced in December 2023 for the outstanding cases in the Crown court. It was up at 67,500 and a bit. When are the next set of figures? What do you think is going to happen?”