Speeches by Munt.

“Can I pick up on that, please? I think I am right in saying that the queue to get into the employment tribunal is about 80,000 cases, maybe slightly over. I have a particular interest—I have declared it already—in whistleblowing. The only route for people who have suffered detriment as whistleblowers is to go through t…”

“Your consultation on the Interest on Lawyers’ Client Accounts Scheme to raise additional money for the justice system closed relatively recently. In evidence to this Committee, Professor Linda Mulcahy was fairly critical of some of the specifics of your proposal—in particular, that it would not be administered independ…”

“What do you feel would be the disadvantages of having independent oversight of this?”

“Thank you.”

“You referred to the new legal support grant that runs from this October to March 2029. What lessons have been learned from previous grants going on at the moment? We certainly heard evidence that legal advice organisations are completely overwhelmed by the demand for their services and they are under-resourced. When we…”

“Thank you. Can you give me your view of the Welsh system? I would be interested to know what you think of that nationwide approach.”

“Yes, because if there is some sort of universality it helps people in areas like mine that are incredibly rural. We already know, do we not, that there are 1.6 million people who are not online at all and 23% of people have very low digital capability? Quite a lot of people, if they need to go to court in my area, have…”

“Yes, very quickly. Warinder asked part of my question. Have you considered actually asking or surveying every court user about whether they wanted legal advice? It is a simple tick, isn’t it? Then you will know. Your contention is that some people—perhaps many of those people—would want to do it themselves. My suspicio…”

“My name is Tessa Munt. I am the Member of Parliament for Wells and Mendip Hills, in Somerset. I am a vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on penal affairs, and a director of WhistleblowersUK, which is a non-profit-making organisation.”

“I just raise the flag for those people who somehow have to go 7 miles to a surgery. Their kids go 8 miles to school. They go 20 miles to a station. There are no buses. The library is shut. On and on it goes. They have no mobile signal. Even in the city of Wells, the whole of east Wells has no mobile signal. Can you aff…”

“”

“It is a pleasure to serve with you as Chair, Sir John. The Liberal Democrats support the implementation of the biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction agreement, and welcome the draft order, which enables the United Kingdom to meet its international obligations under the global oceans treaty. We have long campaigned …”

“The Liberal Democrats support the principle of reducing unnecessary bureaucracy and avoiding costly duplication for businesses in the UK REACH regime. We recognise the challenges that businesses face in complying with post-Brexit chemicals regulations, and we understand the need to develop a more proportionate and work…”

“Indeed I was.”

“I will do that, shall I? Thank you.”

“Of course, that is absolutely fine. There are occasions when things are carded. I am told that some of my questions are argumentative and that I am not allowed to be argumentative, and I would say to you that I am never argumentative. I am seeking facts; I want data and I want to be able to back up what I am presupposi…”

“Yes. There are a number of frustrations in the system as it exists. It is not perfect. If I may, I will refer to the notes that I brought because I want to use various examples. I have experience of Departments avoiding substantive answers. By that I mean that sometimes they will try to avoid answering by saying that i…”

“I am very reliant on them. I have to say that—probably in common with any number of MPs—I have an idea of what the answer might be before I ask the question because I will have done my research beforehand, but I am very reliant on making sure that the Government are accurate in their answers.”

“I will do that, shall I? Thank you.”

“My name is Tessa Munt and I am the MP for Wells and Mendip Hills in Somerset.”