David Lammy MP: speeches 2025

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Speeches

16 Dec 2025 · Jury Trials Proposal: Impact · Hansard source
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I know the right hon. Gentleman has more front than Blackpool pier, but let us be clear: we are accepting a permission stage that was recommended by Brian Leveson. What we need are more sitting days and more investment, and we are doing that. We cannot shirk reform, he knows that jury trials will continue to be a cornerstone of the Crown court system, and we need modernisation. All of that was not done by the last Government.
16 Dec 2025 · Jury Trials Proposal: Impact · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend and I have been friends for a very long time and I recognise his experience in matters related to criminal trials. May I just remind him that we have the Sentencing Bill passing through the House? That will give us greater capacity in the prison system. He will also know that the Government are on track to provide 40,000 extra prison places by the early 2030s—under the last Government, there were only 500. All of that increases capacity, and of course we hope that jury trials will also make a difference for victims.
16 Dec 2025 · Jury Trials Proposal: Impact · Hansard source
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Everyone has a right to a fair trial, and the essence of a fair trial is a timely trial. Only 3% of all criminal cases are heard by a judge and jury under the current regime. Jury trials will remain a cornerstone of the British justice system. Delayed justice is justice denied.
16 Dec 2025 · Jury Trials Proposal: Impact · Hansard source
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I am grateful to my hon. Friend. First, we need investment and more sitting days. We did not get that under the last Government—we are getting that now. Secondly, we need reform. We asked Sir Brian Leveson to look at this in great detail. He did that, and we must now respond and not shirk from the reform that is necessary. Thirdly, we need modernisation. That is why, for example, being able to get a transcript and a recording at magistrates is so important.
16 Dec 2025 · Jury Trials Proposal: Impact · Hansard source
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The right hon. Member for Goole and Pocklington (David Davis) on the Conservative Back Benches has just said that summary justice is no justice—either they believe in our magistrates or they do not. I believe in our magistrates. Sir Brian recommended a permission stage, and we accept his recommendation for creating a permission stage on appeal. That is the right thing to do, particularly because many appeals have no merits, and that is why victims fall away.
16 Dec 2025 · Jury Trials Proposal: Impact · Hansard source
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I completely reject what the hon. Gentleman said. It is an absolute essential foundation of our democracy that all of us in this House and in government respect the independence of the judiciary. I remind him that it is precisely because of the judiciary’s independence that it is not able to answer for itself. The Lord Chancellor has that responsibility, and I will do it robustly.
16 Dec 2025 · Jury Trials Proposal: Impact · Hansard source
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The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. Whenever a Government propose legislation, there must be an impact assessment—both an economic impact assessment and an equality impact assessment—and of course we will publish it in the usual way.
16 Dec 2025 · Jury Trials Proposal: Impact · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend is absolutely right. A third of all sex victims in the backlog have now been waiting a year or more, and she knows that in many of those cases, there are also defendants playing the system, pleading late with pre-hearing after pre-hearing, with the result that witnesses fall away and cases collapse. It is for that reason that it is absolutely right that we change the threshold and introduce the measures that Brian Leveson has properly looked at, to speed up the process and get those victims justice.
16 Dec 2025 · Jury Trials Proposal: Impact · Hansard source
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I say to the right hon. Gentleman that it was a serious independent panel and I do not think he can reject Sir Brian Leveson out of hand in that way. I remind him that David Ormerod was also on the panel. The analysis was based on data and on evidence internationally, and that is why it is important that we implement it. There is no silver bullet. To affect change, we have to do it all; otherwise, at the next general election, the backlog will have soared to over 100,000.
16 Dec 2025 · Victim Support: Funding · Hansard source
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Last week I announced record funding for victim support services: £550 million over the next three years—the biggest investment in victim support services to date. This Labour Government are putting victims at the heart of the justice system.
16 Dec 2025 · Victim Support: Funding · Hansard source
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We have committed to providing PCCs with £131.8 million for 2026-27 and £134 million for 2027-28 for their work on sexual violence and domestic abuse. It is really important that we ringfence that funding.
16 Dec 2025 · Victim Support: Funding · Hansard source
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We have up to May 2028. It is important that we get the money in and that that money particularly goes to the frontline. When I meet organisations on the ground such as Rape Crisis, they are the voice of women on the frontline, but of course we are looking very closely at how this interaction will work after we no longer have PCCs.
16 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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I pay tribute to Lenny Scott, who was a dedicated prison officer and much-loved family man. In 2020, he seized an illicit mobile phone from a prisoner, who took revenge four years later by taking his life in broad daylight. Perpetrators of heinous killings like that must feel the full force of the law. I can announce today that we will broaden the starting point for whole-life orders to include murders connected to the current or former duties of a police, prison or probation officer. That means that offenders can expect to spend the rest of their life behind bars. That is the latest step that this Government have taken to keep our hard-working prison and probation staff safe.
16 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend is right to put on record the huge support that we have had, particularly from west Africans, in our prison system, for which I am grateful. I am in discussions with the Home Secretary and hope to update the House on that shortly, but I do see a way through.
16 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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The hon. Gentleman will have seen the announcement that I just made on whole-life orders. I will of course ensure that the Prisons Minister meets him. We will do everything we can to keep our probation officers safe.
16 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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The Criminal Justice Board, which brings all the justice partners together, met recently, and of course the police are represented on that board. However, I urge the hon. Lady to look closely at the Victims and Courts Bill, which provides for the reform that we need to reduce the backlog.
16 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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The hon. Gentleman can do better than that. That is not true. We are serious about bringing down the backlog, and that means that we of course want to introduce our courts Bill in the early part of next year.
16 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. That is why the £40 million that we are investing in drone technology in particular is important, but we are also investing in new X-ray machines across our prisons to drive down drug use.
16 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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The £550 million for victims was essential, as is passing the Victims and Courts Bill, implementing Sir Brian Leveson’s review, modernisation and all the work and money we are putting into our courts system.
16 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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Mediation is hugely successful, and I reassure my hon. Friend that we will continue to talk to the sector about this issue. I will update him in the coming weeks.
16 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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I am truly grateful to my hon. Friend for once again raising the voice of victims in this House. I hope that over the coming months, as we debate our courts Bill, hon. Members will keep in mind those victims, and the voices that we often hear, via female Members of Parliament. The £550 million of multi-year funding that I have found for victims to give them certainty was essential, and we will continue to keep victims front of mind.
16 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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Yes, we will ensure that that money reaches the hon. Member’s constituency, and I will ensure that the Minister responsible meets him.
16 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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I am grateful to my hon. Friend for championing this issue. As part of our mission to deal with violence against women and girls, we must build a positive agenda that promotes opportunities for men and boys but is in no way at the expense of opportunities for women and girls. The Prime Minister has announced a new programme of work to be led by me and by the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, my hon. Friend the Member for Pontypridd (Alex Davies-Jones), which will include a national summit for men and boys next year.
16 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her campaigning on this issue. She knows that I cannot comment on the individual case, which was subject to a review, but the Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Rother Valley (Jake Richards), is meeting the chair of the Sentencing Council and will take forward her recommendations.
16 Dec 2025 · Legal Aid · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend will recognise that the uplift of £20 million in housing and immigration is significant; it is actually the first major uplift in his and my time here in Parliament. He is right that we should look across the piece at civil legal aid, combined with what is happening in our courts, and I will continue to do that over this next period.

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