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1437893

registered interest
date	03/03/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Human Rights Act 1998
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will extend the deadline for his Department's consultation, Human Rights Act Reform: A Modern Bill of Rights, in response to the delay in publishing a full easy read version of that document.
tabling member constituency	Glasgow North East
tabling member printed	Anne McLaughlin
uin	134036
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/03/2022 answer text <p>The publication of the easy-read version of our consultation on A Modern Bill of Rights was regrettably delayed due to issues with an external supplier. As a result of this, the Secretary of State has extended the deadline for responses by six weeks for those with needs for an easy-read or audio version of the consultation document. The new deadline for these responses is 19 April.</p><p> </p><p>Ministry of Justice officials will be conducting focused engagement sessions with disability organisations to explore the proposals outlined in the consultation further. The Department will also complete a full Equalities Impact Assessment of any proposals taken forward.</p> answering member constituency South Suffolk answering member printed James Cartlidge question first answered 08/03/2022 16:26:13 answering member 4519 label Biography information for James Cartlidge
tabling member	4437 label Biography information for Anne McLaughlin

1437894

registered interest
date	03/03/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Probate Service: Telephone Services
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department holds data on the average waiting time before callers speak to call handlers at the probate service in each of the last five years.
tabling member constituency	Croydon North
tabling member printed	Steve Reed
uin	134024
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/03/2022 answer text <p>Average speed of answer in 2021 was 15 minutes and 18 seconds. Average speed of answer in 2020 was 13 minutes and 17 seconds.</p><p> </p><p>We do not hold data for this area of the service prior to the inception of the Courts and Tribunals Service Centre (CTSC), in January 2019.</p><p> </p><p>Until September 2019, probate calls were answered in both the CTSC and District Probate Registries. In October 2019, all probate calls transferred to the CTSC. This data reflects the full reporting for the centralised call handling. The District Probate Registries did not collect call handling data pre or post centralisation, which means any 2019 data would not be an accurate reflection.</p><p> </p><p>The centralisation of all calls provides consistent standards and better monitoring of call demand, which can be used to drive service improvement.</p><p> </p><p>The CTSC are continuing to onboard new staff to increase the number of calls being answered and reduce the waiting time. In addition, resources are continuing to focus on applications which have been paused (stopped) where further information is required to support a probate application. These applications can take longer to grant probate, which results in contact. The focus on stopped applications is to ensure we are stopping applications correctly first time and re-examining applications where evidence has been received to progress the application; in turn reducing contact will reduce the calls received and the average time to answer.</p> answering member constituency Corby answering member printed Tom Pursglove question first answered 08/03/2022 17:52:40 answering member 4369 label Biography information for Tom Pursglove
tabling member	4268 label Biography information for Steve Reed

1437566

registered interest
date	02/03/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Criminal Legal Aid Review
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much and what proportion of the funding committed to the accelerated items of the Independent Review of Criminal Legal Aid has been paid out as of February 2022.
tabling member constituency	Manchester, Gorton
tabling member printed	Afzal Khan
uin	133280
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/03/2022 answer text <p>From point of implementation in September 2020 up to the end of September 2021, which is the period for which official statistics exist, total expenditure on accelerated items amounts to £10 million. This represents 20% of the total potential steady state expenditure introduced under the accelerated items of the Criminal Legal Aid Review.</p><p> </p><p>The actual spend to date under the accelerated items is lower than expected at this point. This is due to a number of factors including the impact of COVID-19 on the court system, which has slowed the rate at which new cases are disposed of by the courts, meaning that the build-up of expenditure on these measures has been generally slower than anticipated. Additionally, there have been lower than expected numbers of providers making claims where they are eligible to do so under certain accelerated items such as the fixed fee for consideration of unused material. In response to this the Legal Aid Agency has increased its communications regarding claiming accelerated items and has added prompts to the digital payment system to encourage providers to claim the fixed fee in eligible cases. We expect the rate of payments to increase in the coming months.</p><p> </p><p>Criminal legal aid reforms since 2018 have increased funding by up to £74 million, in steady state terms. In 2018 the Ministry of Justice made a number of amendments to the Advocates’ Graduated Fee Scheme (AGFS) at a commensurate annual cost of £23 million. In 2020, a number of accelerated items affecting both Litigators’ Graduated Fee Scheme (LGFS) and AGFS, were introduced following completion of the first phase of the Criminal Legal Aid Review. These measures had the effect of injecting up to a further £51 million into criminal legal aid.</p><p>The Impact Assessments published alongside the consultation responses on the fee changes set out methodology and assumptions used to calculate the increase to expenditure as a result of these measures.</p><ul><li>2018 amendments to the Advocates’ Graduated Fee Scheme <a href="https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/amending-the-advocates-graduated-fee-scheme/results/agfs-response-impact-assessment.pdf" target="_blank">agfs-response-impact-assessment.pdf (justice.gov.uk)</a></li><li>2020 Accelerated Items <a href="https://consult.justice.gov.uk/criminal-legal-aid/criminal-legal-aid-review/results/clar-impact-assessment.pdf" target="_blank">Criminal Legal Aid Review: an accelerated package of measures amending the criminal legal aid fee schemes (justice.gov.uk)</a></li></ul><p> </p><p>As the amendments introduced in 2018 had the effect of re-baselining fees paid under the AGFS, information about how much has been paid in total specifically as a result of these amendments could only be obtained at disproportionate cost to the Department. However, details of annual expenditure under the AGFS can be found in published LAA statistics <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legal-aid-statistics-july-to-september-2021" target="_blank">Legal aid statistics: July to September 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a> (table 4.3). All of the additional expenditure introduced as a result of these amendments has been paid to advocates.</p><p> </p><p>As of 30 September 2021, total expenditure in relation to the accelerated items was £10 million. Of this £2.3 million was paid to advocates and £7.7 million was paid to litigators.</p> answering member constituency South Suffolk answering member printed James Cartlidge grouped question UIN 133281 question first answered 08/03/2022 16:28:49 answering member 4519 label Biography information for James Cartlidge
tabling member	4671 label Biography information for Afzal Khan

1437567

registered interest
date	02/03/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Criminal Proceedings: Legal Aid Scheme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much additional funding has been committed to criminal legal aid since 2018; how that figure has been calculated; how much of that funding has been spent; and what the funding breakdown is between payments to litigators and to advocates.
tabling member constituency	Manchester, Gorton
tabling member printed	Afzal Khan
uin	133281
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/03/2022 answer text <p>From point of implementation in September 2020 up to the end of September 2021, which is the period for which official statistics exist, total expenditure on accelerated items amounts to £10 million. This represents 20% of the total potential steady state expenditure introduced under the accelerated items of the Criminal Legal Aid Review.</p><p> </p><p>The actual spend to date under the accelerated items is lower than expected at this point. This is due to a number of factors including the impact of COVID-19 on the court system, which has slowed the rate at which new cases are disposed of by the courts, meaning that the build-up of expenditure on these measures has been generally slower than anticipated. Additionally, there have been lower than expected numbers of providers making claims where they are eligible to do so under certain accelerated items such as the fixed fee for consideration of unused material. In response to this the Legal Aid Agency has increased its communications regarding claiming accelerated items and has added prompts to the digital payment system to encourage providers to claim the fixed fee in eligible cases. We expect the rate of payments to increase in the coming months.</p><p> </p><p>Criminal legal aid reforms since 2018 have increased funding by up to £74 million, in steady state terms. In 2018 the Ministry of Justice made a number of amendments to the Advocates’ Graduated Fee Scheme (AGFS) at a commensurate annual cost of £23 million. In 2020, a number of accelerated items affecting both Litigators’ Graduated Fee Scheme (LGFS) and AGFS, were introduced following completion of the first phase of the Criminal Legal Aid Review. These measures had the effect of injecting up to a further £51 million into criminal legal aid.</p><p>The Impact Assessments published alongside the consultation responses on the fee changes set out methodology and assumptions used to calculate the increase to expenditure as a result of these measures.</p><ul><li>2018 amendments to the Advocates’ Graduated Fee Scheme <a href="https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/amending-the-advocates-graduated-fee-scheme/results/agfs-response-impact-assessment.pdf" target="_blank">agfs-response-impact-assessment.pdf (justice.gov.uk)</a></li><li>2020 Accelerated Items <a href="https://consult.justice.gov.uk/criminal-legal-aid/criminal-legal-aid-review/results/clar-impact-assessment.pdf" target="_blank">Criminal Legal Aid Review: an accelerated package of measures amending the criminal legal aid fee schemes (justice.gov.uk)</a></li></ul><p> </p><p>As the amendments introduced in 2018 had the effect of re-baselining fees paid under the AGFS, information about how much has been paid in total specifically as a result of these amendments could only be obtained at disproportionate cost to the Department. However, details of annual expenditure under the AGFS can be found in published LAA statistics <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legal-aid-statistics-july-to-september-2021" target="_blank">Legal aid statistics: July to September 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a> (table 4.3). All of the additional expenditure introduced as a result of these amendments has been paid to advocates.</p><p> </p><p>As of 30 September 2021, total expenditure in relation to the accelerated items was £10 million. Of this £2.3 million was paid to advocates and £7.7 million was paid to litigators.</p> answering member constituency South Suffolk answering member printed James Cartlidge grouped question UIN 133280 question first answered 08/03/2022 16:28:49 answering member 4519 label Biography information for James Cartlidge
tabling member	4671 label Biography information for Afzal Khan

1436627

registered interest
date	28/02/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Ministry of Justice: Public Expenditure
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will (a) list the spending programmes his Department devolves for administration to local government in England and other local spending bodies and (b) specify the value for each programme for every year for which budgets are agreed.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Hodge Hill
tabling member printed	Liam Byrne
uin	131069
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/03/2022 answer text <p>MoJ provides the majority of its funding directly to services with a limited amount of funding going to bodies and local authorities for administration. Where we do make payments to local authorities for activities, such as grants to Youth Offending Teams, we do not consider these to be funding for programmes.</p><p> </p><p>We do provide funding to bodies such as the Police and Crime Commissioners in England and Wales which cover a wide range of activities to support Victims Services such as Pre-Trial support and funding to Independent Sexual Violence and Domestic Abuse Advisors.</p><p> </p><p>We are currently working through the departments financial budget allocations and therefore are not in a position to confirm plans for future spend.</p> answering member constituency South Suffolk answering member printed James Cartlidge question first answered 08/03/2022 15:18:48 answering member 4519 label Biography information for James Cartlidge
tabling member	1171 label Biography information for Liam Byrne

1436689

registered interest
date	28/02/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Freezing of Assets and Travel Restrictions: Russia
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether (a) he and (b) other Ministers in his Department have received from law firms with offices in London attempting to stop efforts to implement asset freezes and travel bans relating to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
tabling member constituency	Croydon North
tabling member printed	Steve Reed
uin	131207
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/03/2022 answer text <p>No letters have been received on this topic by the Secretary of State for Justice or any other Ministers in the Ministry of Justice.</p> answering member constituency South Suffolk answering member printed James Cartlidge question first answered 08/03/2022 15:27:23 answering member 4519 label Biography information for James Cartlidge
tabling member	4268 label Biography information for Steve Reed

1434483

registered interest
date	22/02/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Abduction: Children
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of the recourse available through the family courts where a child has been abducted from the UK to an EU Member State which is not a party to the 1980 Hague Convention, now that the Brussels II Regulation no longer applies.
tabling member printed	Baroness Pitkeathley
uin	HL6357
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/03/2022 answer text <p>Applications for the return of a child wrongfully removed or wrongfully retained away from the UK are made to the court in the country where the child has been taken or retained. All EU member states are party to the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention and the UK continues to operate the Convention with them through the Central Authorities which transmit applications. This position was not changed by the UK’s exit from the EU.</p> answering member printed Lord Wolfson of Tredegar question first answered 08/03/2022 15:37:44 answering member 4901 label Biography information for Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
tabling member	3179 label Biography information for Baroness Pitkeathley