Results 1-20 of 192 for in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates' speaker:Baroness Mallalieu

Civil Legal Aid (Merits Criteria) Regulations 2012: Motion to Approve (3 December 2012)

Baroness Mallalieu: If the position is, as we have heard during this debate, that the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mackay, a former Lord Chancellor, and my noble friend Lord Bach, a Queen's Counsel, cannot agree on the interpretation of the wording of Article 3 of this order, is it not clear that people who have no legal qualification and are going to have to look at it to see whether they can obtain legal aid...

Horses: Transportation — Motion to Take Note (5 July 2012)

Baroness Mallalieu: My Lords, I first declare a personal interest as the president of the Horse Trust and the chairman of the All-Party Group for the Horse. I am also a member of the Humane Slaughter Association. Secondly, and most importantly, I thank and congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Higgins, on securing this debate which is particularly timely in relation to the Commission, for reasons I will come to. At...

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill: Report (2nd Day) (7 March 2012)

Baroness Mallalieu: My Lords, I intervene very briefly to go back to the first of the speeches on this group, which have contained a number of powerful offerings, the speech of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd. He was kind enough to write to me and others setting out the figures that he gave in his speech. I found what he had to say deeply disturbing and something that I hope that the Minister will be able...

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill: Report (1st Day) (5 March 2012)

Baroness Mallalieu: My Lords, I support both this amendment and the amendment that the Government have tabled. For reasons that have already been given, it is crucial that the figure who is the director should not be political in any way and should not, in so far as it is humanly possible, be susceptible to political pressure. That is not only because he will be dealing, as has just been said, with cases that...

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill: Report (1st Day) (5 March 2012)

Baroness Mallalieu: At Second Reading, I supported a very similar amendment, and I would like to support this one today. This is the single most important amendment in relation to this Bill. It sets out a clear principle that the Government say that they accept-that nobody should be deprived of access to our legal system because they cannot afford it. The rest of the Bill contains many instances where one doubts...

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill: Committee (9th Day) (Continued) (9 February 2012)

Baroness Mallalieu: My Lords, I support the noble and learned Lord. "Pointless" is a very good description of Clause 114. It is pure political posturing. That is the trouble in the area of criminal law; there has been too much of this going on in recent years, and to little effect. Why on earth can we not leave the detailed business of sentencing in cases such as this, with the guidelines that already exist, to...

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill: Committee (9th Day) (9 February 2012)

Baroness Mallalieu: My Lords, I support the amendment. I do so in part having been around prisons in Hong Kong some years ago-I have no reason to think that the position has changed since-and seen considerable numbers of very old and very sick men who were there because there was no means of their ever being released. They presented very considerable difficulties for the prison service and they presented...

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill — Committee (5th Day) (Continued) (24 January 2012)

Baroness Mallalieu: My Lords, I support this amendment as far as it goes. We are all worried about who will fund organisations such as law centres, which at present are largely reliant on legal aid. Clearly, many of them will go under if there is not some alternative form of funding. What troubles me about the amendment in its present form is that there is absolutely no break on the way in which this Lord...

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill — Committee (5th Day) (Continued) (24 January 2012)

Baroness Mallalieu: I also support the amendment. Who do the Government propose should prepare and conduct appeals that fall into the category of either complexity or public importance in the absence of legal aid, but which will not make the cut under Clause 9 exceptional? Unless damages are involved, conditional fee agreements will not begin to kick in. If there are qualified solicitors or barristers who have...

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill: Committee (3rd Day) (16 January 2012)

Baroness Mallalieu: My Lords, a number of noble Lords have spoken who have experience both of the legal and the medical sides of such cases. I am not one of them-it is outside the scope of my field of practice-but I am conscious that this debate on clinical negligence has produced some very powerful arguments, and more very powerful arguments are likely to be produced in the debates on Schedule 1 which are to...

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill: Committee (3rd Day) (16 January 2012)

Baroness Mallalieu: My Lords, I wonder what on earth could, in fact, be a valid reason for objecting to the spirit of the amendments in this group, in particular the one proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Faulks. If, as I fear, some parts of the Bill remain unchanged by amendment and legal aid is withdrawn from some areas, it is almost certain that it will be shown in due course that legal of aid was essential for...

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill: Committee (1st Day) (20 December 2011)

Baroness Mallalieu: My Lords, I wonder whether others felt, as I did, that what the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, just said was music to the ears. Of the amendments currently tabled to this Bill, I regard this amendment as by far and away the most important, and it is one that I strongly support. It provides the litmus test of what the Government are really trying to achieve with legal aid. This part of the Bill has...

Bovine Tuberculosis — Question (20 December 2011)

Baroness Mallalieu: My Lords-

Bovine Tuberculosis — Question (20 December 2011)

Baroness Mallalieu: My Lords, is the noble Lord aware of the desperation of my neighbours on Exmoor, most of whom are under a restriction and are losing cattle at every retest? They are frustrated with science because year after year they have been promised that if they will only wait a little longer there will be an effective oral vaccine. They are still being told that. Is the noble Lord also aware of the...

Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill — Second Reading (21 November 2011)

Baroness Mallalieu: My Lords, I must first declare two interests. I am a practising member of the criminal Bar with an almost exclusively legal aid practice. In addition, I have a daughter who has followed me into the same area of practice, despite my best efforts to stop her boarding a sinking ship. I have had 40 years' experience of looking at the legal aid system from inside and outside, and in my seven...

Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill: Committee (11th Day) (19 January 2011)

Baroness Mallalieu: My Lords, I wonder if I might contribute briefly to this debate. I add that I am not on any roster or rota; I will be very brief and address the amendments. There will not be time, I am afraid, for the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, to get out and order his tea at all. In order to have equal-sized seats, which I hope are what we are all aiming for, it is essential that there is an accurate and...

Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill — Committee (9th Day) (Continued) (17 January 2011)

Baroness Mallalieu: My Lords, I hope that the House will forgive that I was unable to speak on Second Reading on the Bill and that this is the first time that I have intervened in Committee. It is not intended to be in any way discourteous to the House. I shall try to avoid waffling and I shall try to be brief. Surely, what all sides of the House want to achieve is a figure which will enable the House of Commons...

Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill — Committee (9th Day) (Continued) (17 January 2011)

Baroness Mallalieu: I am grateful to that person who knew him. In those days, a Member of Parliament was not required or indeed expected to be totally full-time. He was expected to have another job, and the hours of the House were designed with that in mind-indeed, frankly, people were paid with that in mind-and the burden on those people was very much less. My father was a good constituency MP because he went...

Rural Communities: Prince's Countryside Fund — Debate (7 October 2010)

Baroness Mallalieu: My Lords, I declare an interest as both president of the Countryside Alliance and a small hill farmer living in a rural community. I too thank the noble Lord, Lord Gardiner, for having the foresight to put his name down in the ballot for this debate. However, I have to upbraid him with the fact that this debate could have been sustained over five hours and we could all then have had the run...

Coroners and Justice Bill: Committee (5th Day) (7 July 2009)

Baroness Mallalieu: I rise briefly to support what the noble Lord, Lord Neill, has just said as I see that there are two clause stand part debates in this group and one which will follow shortly in relation to Clause 44. Over the past 10 years, I have had to attend, as all practising barristers have, continuing professional development conferences, when the new law is explained to the criminal bar. Time and...