Oral Answers to Questions

Andy McDonald Excerpts

Tuesday 6th May 2014 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

My hon. Friend is right to say that we have to be very careful. Of course the gross fees that are cited include VAT and chambers’ fees, but those barristers also derive benefits from being self-employed that counteract some of the reductions they experience, because they can offset many other parts of their expenditure and overheads against tax in a way that employed people would not be able to do.

[Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough) (Lab)]

How many more serious fraud trials in the pipeline are struggling to secure legal representation for the defence, in a way similar to the case that collapsed last week, where the judge was forced, in effect, to abandon the trial because of Government legal aid changes?

[Chris Grayling]

As I said, given that this case is subject to appeal, I do not think it would be appropriate for me to comment further on it.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Minister for Policing, Criminal Justice and Victims (Damian Green)]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his suggestion. He will know that we now have a more all-embracing victims code than ever before. Also, with reference to getting the views of victims, tomorrow sees the first meeting of the victims panel so that the Secretary of State and I can hear face to face the experience of those who are victims and what they want to happen to future victims in the system.

[Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough) (Lab)]

T6. How many books, to the nearest thousand, sent to prisoners in 2013 were intercepted and found to include contraband?

[Jeremy Wright]

The hon. Gentleman will not be shocked to learn that I do not have that figure in front of me. As I said to his hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Tom Blenkinsop), the Opposition need to think carefully about what they are really worried about. If they are worried about prisoners having access to books, I have reassured them that they do not need to worry about that. If, however, they are worried, as the shadow Secretary of State told us he was, about the influx of drugs and other contraband substances into prisons, they might want to reflect on the sense of restricting packages as they come into prisons. That is what we are proposing to do. What are they going to do?