Member

That is clearly important in the context of my amendment and for sentencing hearings, just as in respect of contested trials. We would like to see more done—I have said this before—in investigating evening and weekend sittings for sentencing hearings. I know they have been trialled in part but that that has not been pursued. One advantage of sentencing hearings being held in the evening and at weekends is that, because they involve fewer people attending court than trials, there are significant opportunities for using resources more wisely. They have the advantage of not cutting into the working day of offenders who have found work because they do not have to get time off work to attend such hearings, with the lengthy and difficult explanations that necessarily involves to employers and others. Such hearings would free up courts for use in the working day and court resources for trials. Certainly, one accepts that staff would have to work out of hours to cover them, but that is not an insuperable obstacle.