Speeches by Qureshi.

“I want to comment on two points. First, I agree entirely with the speech of the hon. Member for Chichester on the problem with clause 3 and jury allocation, and I especially agree with her point about the retrospective reallocation of cases, whereby people waiting for trial by jury will suddenly find that their case wi…”

“However—this is very important—most continental systems start from a different premise. As I said previously, our system is considered to be adversarial, but theirs are considered to be inquisitorial, which is about finding out what has gone wrong. One big difference in our system is that if a police officer arrests so…”

“I agree with the hon. Member. I want to set out why we have a backlog and what we can do. Everybody has talked about various things that we could do, such as triaging the cases more effectively and more routinely, like Liverpool Crown court and some of the others that have seen a considerable reduction. There are the i…”

“I entirely agree. The state of some of the courts in this country is sad. They are completely neglected, which creates a lot of challenges.”

“The Institute for Government also said that juries do not take up that much time—they save more time. The point is that, without too much difficulty, we could get the courts up and running and working for extra sitting days. Essentially, if we had more court sitting days, we would not have the backlog; it is not the ju…”

“In a moment. The main reason why the Government have cited is the backlog. What I am trying to say is that it is not the juries that cause the backlog. It is quite clearly the case that, with investment in court structures and court personnel, the courts could be fully up and running, and we could probably get rid of t…”

“That is absolutely correct. Of course, one of the reasons why some people left the criminal Bar is the fact that the legal aid funding was not great, but I assure Members that if they did not have other work to do, they would come back to the Bar. There are enough barristers and solicitors in the legal system for that.”

“No, because let’s face it: in the jury trials we are talking about, people are not getting sentences of more than three years. There is hardly going to be a King’s counsel dealing with those cases—it is not even going to be a leading junior who will deal with those cases. A lot of the barristers will be middle ranking;…”

“I will not press my amendment to a vote. In fact, Ms Butler, I notify you and the Committee that I am not asking to vote on any of my amendments.”

“Sir Brian Leveson recommended that a case should be heard by the Crown court bench division, with no right to a jury trial, only if it carried a potential sentence of 24 months or more. To change the maximum sentencing period in the magistrates court without proper consultation and debate in Parliament is a fundamental…”

“My hon. Friend the Member for Amber Valley mentioned that the youth court can sentence someone to up to two years’ imprisonment. There is one big difference: youth courts often deal with indictable offences. Some of those youngsters are charged with really serious offences that would go straight to the Crown court if a…”

“When we were having all the various debates about legislation as we were exiting the European Union, we in the Opposition, among others, argued that the Government should not use Henry VIII provisions to essentially sweep changes along and make laws without proper debate. The then-Government were rolling up a whole lot…”

“I think I am possibly the oldest person in this room. As somebody who was prosecuting, defending and dealing with criminal cases back in the late ’80s, ’90s, 2000s and so on, I saw the criminal justice system at first hand. When I started practising at the Bar, we had full legal aid at all levels, so whenever defendant…”

“The amendment would add to proposed new section 74C of the Senior Courts Act, which concerns matters that must be taken into account when determining allocation in cases that are already set to have a jury trial. Amendment 26 would add two further conditions that must be considered when making such allocation decisions…”

“I beg to move amendment 26, in clause 3, page 8, line 36, at end insert— “(h) fairness when considering the rights and circumstances of the defendant; (i) the interests of justice.””

“I will speak to amendment 28, regarding page 9, line 20 of the Bill. Essentially, the amendment states that, if the prosecution and defence waive their right to a hearing, the court can then make a determination under proposed new section 74AB of the Senior Courts Act 1981. That proposed new section, which will be intr…”

“I will not say any more. I think we have discussed retrospectivity enough. As I have said from the beginning, retrospective legislation is always a bad idea, in any country. People are entitled to certainty about the law. If we start eroding that fundamental principle, God knows where we will stop. I do not intend to p…”

“Does the hon. Member agree that trying to divide our citizens into victims and defendants—the good and the bad—is not the best way forward? Defendants can themselves be victims, and victims can become defendants. It is important that we have a system of principle that applies to everyone. There is an assumption that we…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Jardine. Amendment 25 relates to the retrospective allocation of cases to the Crown court bench division. I am asking that provisions for the allocation for trial without jury do not apply when election has already happened. The point is that in all jurisprudence in…”

“I beg to move amendment 25, in clause 3, page 5, line 38, at end insert— “(7) The preceding provisions on allocation for trial without a jury do not apply to cases where a defendant has already elected to be tried in the Crown Court prior to the commencement of this section.””