Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Oliver Heald and Jason McCartney

Tuesday 7th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Jason McCartney (Colne Valley) (Con)]

7. What progress has been made on making access to affordable or pro bono legal advice more widely available.

[The Minister for Courts and Justice (Sir Oliver Heald)]

The Government’s court programme aims to deliver a justice system that is more accessible. Legal support needs to reflect the new way in which the justice system will work, so a Green Paper is proposed for early next year. I recently addressed the Civil Justice Council and was able to pay tribute to the work of Mr Justice Knowles and the tireless work of everyone in the pro bono sector that does so much for our country.

[Jason McCartney]

Will the Minister join me in thanking law students from Huddersfield University law school and local law practices for their excellent work in providing a fantastic Huddersfield legal advice clinic in the Packhorse centre? Does he agree that as constituency MPs we must make sure that we can direct our constituents not only to pro bono legal advice but to affordable and accessible legal advice?

[Sir Oliver Heald]

Huddersfield University is known as a beacon in this area, and it has done tremendous work. I was pleased to meet some of the students during pro bono week last year. I pay tribute to them and to all the universities and other bodies that set aside time to help people with their legal work.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Oliver Heald and Jason McCartney

Tuesday 25th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[The Solicitor-General]

The hon. Lady is covering a much broader area than that raised in the question. As I think she would agree, the Serious Fraud Office has a superb unit that is actively after the money that it leads on—£100 million—and it is believed to be extremely competent. [Interruption.] The extra money is nothing to do with this particular aspect. Overall, we do need a proper strategy to improve confiscation and asset recovery, and that is under way. Ministers are meeting on the matter, and a new strategy from the Crown Prosecution Service was explained in more detail when evidence was given to the Justice Committee. I think the hon. Lady is being over-critical, as it is not always easy to extract money that is overseas in complex trust arrangements and hard to recover.

[Jason McCartney (Colne Valley) (Con)]

2. What assessment he has made of the legal implications for the UK of Russia’s recognition of Crimea as a sovereign state.