Part of the debate – in Westminster Hall at 5:48 pm on 9 October 2018.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Robertson. This has been the fourth such debate since I was appointed on
I pay tribute to my hon. Friend Kevin Hollinrake for his campaigning on the matter and to my hon. Friend Mr Wragg, who set out powerfully the case that justice needs to be blind, that it needs to be done and that it needs to be seen to be done.
My deliberations will reach a conclusion imminently; I have not been putting the matter off. As has been discussed, a series of pieces of work are being undertaken, two of which will report in the next few weeks, and I will then make a judgment about the best way forward. Financial sector fraud has had a severe impact on SMEs—we heard today about several individual cases in which lives have been destroyed and families ruined. This is not a subject that I treat lightly; I have been very focused on it over the past nine months.