Legal Aid

Debate between Dominic Raab and Karen Buck

Tuesday 15th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

I pay tribute to the huge amount of work that my right hon. and learned Friend did, which I was fortunate to inherit, before we came forward with our proposals. I agree with much of what he has said and done in this area. He is right to talk about the environment and the climate within which we talk about lawyers, because it was of course under the last Labour Government that they named and shamed lawyers for earning too much in fees. [Interruption.] The hon. Member for Hammersmith (Andy Slaughter) is chuntering from a sedentary position, but he is guilty of doing exactly that under the last Labour Government. We have not done that; we have engaged in a sober and sensible way because we understand the value of the legal profession, both barristers and solicitors.

I understand my right hon. and learned Friend’s call for a slightly shorter consultation period but, given the legal risk that I have been advised on, shortening it from 12 weeks to eight weeks does not seem the right thing to do. The consultation period is there not just as a legal matter but to ensure that we can tease out all the detail of the reforms, such as the implications of the fees and of the wider systemic reforms that we are introducing. It is right to take that time and I cannot see how a difference of four weeks can justify strike action in this case.

[Ms Karen Buck (Westminster North) (Lab)]

The Government cannot swerve responsibility for having made the largest cuts that have ever been made to the legal aid budget, which have brought civil and criminal providers to their knees. The whole service is held together by good will. As chair of the all-party parliamentary group on legal aid, I welcome every single penny that comes back into the service, but the fact remains that there is a crisis of capacity. Our inquiry report a few months ago showed just how many providers are closing and have been closing every month over recent years. I ask the Secretary of State exactly what steps he will now take to deal with the crisis in the provision of civil legal aid—he did not answer that in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester, Gorton (Afzal Khan)—not least to accommodate the additional demand for service that will now flow into it as an admittedly welcome consequence of adjustments to the means test.

[Dominic Raab]

I think the hon. Lady was also around at the time when the Labour Government were planning their cuts. [Interruption.] She does not like it, but I remind her that it was Tony Blair who said that the Labour Government would

“derail the gravy train of legal aid”,

so I am afraid that she cannot come to the House with those crocodile tears. On her substantive point, however, the consultation on expanding the Public Defender Service and the 15% raise in legal fees will deal with the scarcity of legal aid practitioners in certain areas. As I have already said in relation to the means test review, millions of extra people will become eligible for civil legal aid, which she should welcome.

Human Rights Legislation

Debate between Dominic Raab and Karen Buck

Tuesday 14th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

Human rights reform will no more be a silver bullet for all the ills of the world than any other reform, but it will deal with a whole range of serious and significant issues that the people of this country, my right hon. Friend’s constituents and mine, want dealing with. The reason I give in the consultation paper—I wrote about it in The Times today—is that article 8 is an example of a qualified right that allows us to stretch, or to press, the margin of appreciation. Some 70% of the successful human rights challenges to deportation orders by foreign national offenders come from people claiming under article 8 on the right to a family life. That is a very good example of what we can address.

[Ms Karen Buck (Westminster North) (Lab)]

Leading human rights lawyer and expert, and former adviser to the Joint Committee on Human Rights, Adam Wagner, said of these proposals this morning that this Government may be the first in the history of liberal democracies to enact a Bill of Rights that has the effect of reducing rather than increasing rights and protections. Are a Government who have traditionally provided themselves on the defence of the individual against the state proud of that description?

[Dominic Raab]

I do not accept it, but I know that a number of people, including the shadow Justice Secretary, have commented on the proposals before having read them. Freedom of speech, and trial by jury and the recognition that we can give to it, are just two examples of the way we can strengthen human rights, but also strengthen the credibility of human rights so that they are not dirty words in the minds of many of the public.

Covid-19

Debate between Dominic Raab and Karen Buck

Tuesday 17th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

I understand the point the hon. Gentleman raises. It is a fair question, but we have taken that position, first, because we are following the scientific advice that applies to the UK, and secondly, because covid-19 is affecting different countries at different paces and some of them are at a different place on the curve in terms of the spread of coronavirus. We will make the right decisions at the right time, in the best interests of people in this country, including our businesses, and we will do so based on the scientific advice, which carefully takes into account the different approaches and the different pace at which countries are trying to deal with coronavirus in Europe and across the world.

[Ms Karen Buck (Westminster North) (Lab)]

Although I am hugely appreciative of the pressure that consular staff are under, for everybody who has a loved one—particularly a vulnerable loved one—trapped in this situation, it is the end of the world. I have a constituent on the Silver Spirit cruise ship outside Darwin who is 78 years old and in extremely poor health. We are told that there are issues with the financial viability of the cruise line and the safety of supplies. I have a constituent in Peru who has multiple problems and whose mother is desperate. I had a case in from Morocco this morning; they are coming in every few hours. Can the Minister help with those cases, and can he assure us that capacity is being reviewed so we can urgently upscale it, at least for the coming weeks?

[Dominic Raab]

I reassure the hon. Lady that, in both the cases she referred to, we are actively looking at the solutions we can provide for UK nationals. She is right to raise the issue of scalable support. I am making sure that all the resource available will be focused on coronavirus in the weeks ahead, so of course there is an element of scalability. We have the resilience to get through this crisis, and I am confident that we will.

Grenfell Tower

Debate between Dominic Raab and Karen Buck

Monday 5th February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Dominic Raab]

I congratulate my hon. Friend’s local authority on being on the front foot. We encourage all local authorities to do their best to ensure that they address such issues in the same way. As for the Hackitt review, we have accepted every single one of the interim recommendations. We obviously want to consider the final report carefully, but the swift action and decisiveness that he wants are already under way.

[Ms Karen Buck (Westminster North) (Lab)]

The fire risk is obviously the single most important issue, but there are others. Local authorities such as mine are in the process of removing cladding. In one estate alone, the removal, the fire watch and the replacement will cost £6.5 million. Will the Minister assure me that the confusion over the tests will not mean that any local authority, private provider or housing association will face a delay in the decision making on the replacement of cladding? If they do, will the Government ensure that any interim costs, such as to cover waking watch or damage to buildings from water penetration when cladding is removed, will be fully met by the Government?

[Dominic Raab]

There is absolutely no reason why the testing and retesting of Celotex should have any impact on the wider re-cladding exercise that is under way. I am happy to speak again with the hon. Lady’s local authority, just as we have with others, to ensure that we get things right.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dominic Raab and Karen Buck

Tuesday 26th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Raab]

My hon. Friend makes that point powerfully. It is precisely one of the issues that we want to address.

[Ms Karen Buck (Westminster North) (Lab)]

T6. The Joint Committee on Human Rights was also in Strasbourg last week and heard testimony from representatives of countries that do not enjoy the tradition of stable democracy and human rights that we have in this country. Their message was clear: Britain provides leadership and inspiration in a troubled world. What kind of message do Ministers think they are now sending by providing such confusion and ambivalence over Britain’s commitment to the European convention on human rights?

[Mr Raab]

The Government led the world on human rights before the Human Rights Act and will do so afterwards.