Speeches by Juss.

“You have the budget for those 80 vacancies.”

“I have one more question on the recruitment of judges. It is really pleasing to hear that you are going through a recruitment process. It was mentioned yesterday that in the past there have been recruitment exercises, but before that exercise is completed a stop is made to the recruitment process because of a lack of m…”

“Thank you very much for that. That corresponds directly with what we were told yesterday about trying to persuade somebody who is in practice to leave and become a salaried judge. It is a vocation. They might end up being paid less as a salaried judge than they were earning in practice, but, as you say, it is the vocat…”

“If I can just move on to judges, the Lady Chief Justice and the Master of the Rolls have both raised concerns about over-reliance on fee-paid judges and said that having fee-paid judges creates a less smooth disposition of justice. Do you agree with that?”

“The Association of HM District Judges said that there are “too few staff” to support the work of the courts. Lord Justice Colin Birss said it is a “constant frustration” that people are leaving HMCTS to go to other parts of the public sector that pay better. It is an issue. That probably explains why we have particular…”

“Do HMCTS staff have the digital tools and the training to deliver an effective service at the moment, or is that still a work in progress?”

“We visited the Central London county court last year, and we were really impressed with how hard the staff worked and how diligently they just got on with their jobs. We did see lots of paper files. The place was overflowing with paper files. We have already discussed this but when a case is transferred from the High C…”

“Just very quickly, I am all for settlement. I am all for early settlement. Cases should be settled before they get to a hearing. What should not happen is that somebody decides to accept a lesser sum—less than what their case is worth—just because the delay is excessive. That is something that we need to avoid.”

“They will settle for a lesser sum.”

“With multi-track cases, you have a cost management hearing and a case management conference, and then directions are made telling the parties what they need to do to progress the case. Parties can be waiting nine months for the case to be listed to have such a conference, sometimes even longer. The effect of that, as w…”

“It was mentioned yesterday that you could be waiting nine months or even up to a year to get a cost and case management conference listed for the case to get started. Are we going to be able to get to a stage where that will be much reduced?”

“That is totally fair. I am talking about adjournments. Somebody said yesterday that some cases were adjourned and taken out of the list three times. That should not be happening.”

“I just want to come back to some of the earlier questions that were asked. We had a meeting with practitioners and other stakeholders yesterday. Their general view was that things were better before centralisation. They even wondered whether it was an issue of policy or resources that telephone calls were not answered …”

“Can you explain why covid is still having an impact especially as regards to small claims? I was practising right up until the time that the general election was called. I know how disruptive covid was. I can understand that cases that were stuck in the system during covid would be impacted, but why is covid still havi…”

“Yes. I am Warinder Juss. I am a member of the GMB executive council. I am a solicitor and a member of various APPGs.”

“Will the hon. Lady join me in commending Compton Care hospice in my constituency? The hospice, which I visited recently, does great work raising funds, and it really welcomed the £100 million support provided by this Government. However, the hospice emphasised to me that if it was not there to provide social care, ther…”

“I thank my right hon. Friend for giving way. I want to raise a question that I am often asked. We have spoken about quick fixes. The problem is that we fix a few potholes, but the disrepair reappears. Does she agree that we should focus on resurfacing our roads?”

“Israel is supposed to be an ally of ours. Does the Minister agree that its treatment of our hon. Friends is not only an affront but a further indication of the Israeli Government’s desire to show no transparency in respect of their actions, and not to respect human rights?”

“Does the Lord Chancellor agree that the previous Government were consulted on and, indeed, welcomed the Sentencing Council’s new guidelines, and therefore it is totally unfair of Conservative Members to accuse this Government of having a two-tier system? Does she agree that it is yet another example of this Government …”

“I thank my hon. Friend for securing this debate. Before I became an MP, I specialised exclusively in dealing with compensation claims on behalf of women who had suffered from the use of vaginal mesh. My hon. Friend is absolutely right that the mesh was sold to patients as a gold standard, and they were misled. Does she…”