Oral Answers to Questions

Scott Mann Excerpts

Tuesday 24th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gyimah]

The Secretary of State and I met the POA last week. We had a very constructive discussion about continuing talks and, more widely, about workforce reform, professionalising prison officers’ jobs and raising their status.

[Scott Mann (North Cornwall) (Con)]

7. What assessment she has made of the implications for the justice system of the UK leaving the EU.

[Steven Paterson (Stirling) (SNP)]

10. What assessment she has made of the implications for her Department’s policies of the UK leaving the EU.

[The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Elizabeth Truss)]

We are determined to use the opportunities presented by our exit from the EU to build a truly global Britain. Our world-leading legal services contribute £25 billion per annum to the UK economy. My Department is leading the work on future co-operation with the EU on civil, commercial and family law, and, together with the Home Office, on criminal justice.

[Scott Mann]

I welcome the Prime Minister’s confirmation that we will be ceasing membership of the single market and thus ending the control of the European Court over this country. Does my right hon. Friend look forward to the day when the British courts are no longer undermined by European judges sitting in Luxembourg?

[Elizabeth Truss]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The UK has fantastic, independent and incorruptible judges, and we will be leaving the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, meaning that final decisions will be down to British judges.