Speeches by Vaughan.

“Thank you. I want to ask about remuneration, with Ms Brimelow first. Barristers in criminal legal aid have had a 15% increase and solicitors have had a 24% increase since the criminal legal aid review. To what extent is that enough? Is it going to stabilise the position or not?”

“Do you think that these increases will go anywhere near to preventing this attrition that we see in the system, where solicitors are spending all the time, as you referred to earlier, doing admin, essentially, that they are not paid for, but they have to do as part of a contract? Are we going to see this trend continue…”

“In relation to areas that are not housing and immigration but education, welfare benefits and community care, which have not had the increase, how would you assess the position there as to their sustainability and whether people are going to stick in those sectors if they are not getting paid properly?”

“Hello. I am Tony Vaughan. I am a barrister and before I became a Member of Parliament I practised a lot in civil legal aid. I am an associate tenant at Doughty Street Chambers. I draw attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. It is also relevant that I used to be a legal aid funding adjudic…”

“Richard or Kirsty, in your experience, when you have people who are in litigation representing themselves, what effect does that have on the legal process and the costs that have to be spent on the court time, the judge, etc.? What additional pressures or extra costs does it create in other places when you have somebod…”

“There is a power in section 2(2)(c) of LASPO to make arrangements to secure legal aid in areas where it is not being met. I was going to ask about remuneration for legally aided work.”

“Thank you, Chair. Thanks for all your answers so far. I want to ask about legal advice deserts. I know, Richard, that you mentioned that already. We have had a very large number of legal aid providers disappear, and we have areas of the country where, as you said, there is virtually nothing around. In Kent, we have zer…”

“It seems to me that everyone agrees about the importance of buses generally and to their local communities. I was glad to hear from the Minister about the addition of a rurality element to how bus funding is allocated. In areas such as mine, in Folkestone and Hythe, route after route has been cut, because we are told t…”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered e-petition 702845 relating to free bus travel for people over 60. Happy new year, Mr Mundell. It is, as always, a privilege to serve under your chairship. I start by thanking the petition’s creator, Mrs Karen Hickman, and the 101,000 people who signed the petition—including…”

“I completely agree with the hon. Member. Central Government have to support local government in properly funding bus services. As I will come on to say, that is exactly what this Government have been doing, but the critical question will be whether those local authorities spend the money in a way that benefits passenge…”

“The situation my hon. Friend describes is symptomatic of what I call the begging bowl approach of trying to reinstate routes, where a private company decides how it will run the service, it cuts the routes that are more difficult to make money on but which people really need, and we all go with our begging bowl, bangin…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention. That is exactly why the Government introduced the Bus Services Act: to allow local authorities to be held to account for the decisions they make about how to fund bus services. I completely agree that bus services are a fundamental public good and a public service. In my con…”

“6. What steps she is taking with the Secretary of State for Education to support young people to develop AI skills.”

“Research commissioned by DSIT estimates that by 2035 approximately 10 million UK workers will be in jobs where AI will be part of their responsibilities. PwC estimates that 18% of existing UK jobs face a high probability of automation by 2035, so what steps are the Government taking to ensure that young people in my co…”

“Will it show the sitting days that are saved as a result of restricting jury trials in sitting days?”

“Thank you. My last question builds on that and relates to the judiciary, because this is not just about magistrates court. On a slightly related issue, the High Court judiciary is not representative of the British population. What, if any, additional pressure can you bring to bear on the judiciary to ensure that it is …”

“That is fine. The last thing that I want to ask about is diversity—that is something I do not need to lecture you on. What specific mechanisms will there be to monitor disproportionate impacts on minority groups—conviction rates, sentence lengths, all disaggregated by race and other protected characteristics—so that we…”

“I want to ask about the proportion of resources. It may be that it is in the papers and I have not picked it up, but what proportion of the total criminal courts budget is used up by the 1.5% of cases that will lose jury trial in actual money terms? I know we have talked about numbers of cases, and some people have sai…”

“In terms of the 1% of cases that are being retained by the magistrates court, it is particularly important that you have a right of appeal that is effective. I want to ask about the legal aid position, and whether there would be any resource uplift from the Legal Aid Agency to fund the proposed appeals. As a lawyer, I …”

“Brilliant. I want to ask about the concordat, which you touched on earlier. Your letter said that we may need 139,000 sitting days by 2030 to meet demand. Is the barrier to sitting 139,000 days physical—that is, not enough courtrooms or judges—or financial? If you had the money, could you physically sit those days?”