Justice Committee: weekly update

15 December 2017

At the end of sitting weeks the Justice Committee publishes a brief summary of its activities in the form of a weekly update.

This week

We met on Wednesday this week.

At that meeting we agreed to publish the Government's response to our predecessor's Report on the implications of Brexit for the justice system.

We also agreed to publish correspondence we had received from Ministers.

In public, we took oral evidence from David Green CB QC, Director, on the work of the Serious Fraud Office.

Oral evidence: Work of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO)

In our evidence with David Green, Director of the SFO, we discussed a range of issues including:

The priorities for the SFO
Staff numbers
Staffing cases (including the use of technology and staffing models)
Case performance
Working with the domestic and international partners
Financing of the Serious Fraud Office (including blockbuster funding).

You can re-watch the session on parliamentlive.tv or you can read the transcript on our website.

Inquiries with open calls for written evidence

You can still submit evidence to the Committee through its evidence portal for the following inquiries:

Small claims limit for personal injury (the written evidence deadline is Friday 22 December for those who did not submit written evidence to our predecessor's unconcluded inquiry on personal injury: whiplash and small claims limit inquiry): Read the terms of reference for our inquiry
Prison population 2022: planning for the future (the initial deadline for written submissions was 4 December, however, the portal remains open for further submissions): Read the terms of reference
Transforming Rehabilitation (the initial deadline for written submissions was 17 November, however, the portal remains open for further submissions): Read the terms of reference

Guidance: written submissions

Published correspondence

This week we agreed to publish two pieces of correspondence:

Letter from Dr Phillip Lee MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice, on the evidence session on young adults and the youth custodial estate on 7 November 2017
Letter from Rt Hon Jeremy Wright QC MP, Attorney General, on the Government's economic crime reform programme.

Future business

On 19 December from 10am we are taking evidence on employment tribunal fees. We are hearing from Shantha David, Legal Officer, Unison (10am); Joe Egan President, Law Society of England and Wales (at c.10.30am); and Dominic Raab MP, Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (at c.11.00am). 

You can find out more information on this session on our website. You will be able to come along to watch this session or you can watch it online at parliamentlive.tv.