Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

Debate between Karl Turner and Elfyn Llwyd

Monday 31st October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Llwyd]

I do not have any cases with me today, but I can assure the hon. Gentleman that I would not make the allegation without some evidence.

[Karl Turner]

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that it is often the public policy of these authorities—certainly, in my experience, the national health service—to delay? I could not provide any examples either, but in my experience, they do delay.

[Mr Llwyd]

That is the point. Unless and until there is full disclosure at the very earliest point, these cases will be drawn out until the evidence is available. Everybody knows that any case against a health authority has to rely on expert evidence, and it is impossible to have that without experts’ reports from the health authority. This is the conundrum facing people who are often two, three or four years down the road and still no nearer to a conclusion. That is exactly the position that many people report, and that is why lots of these cases are, as we hear, high-value cases.