Show Search Form

Search Results

registered interest	true false
date	exactly: or between: and
answering body
answering dept id
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
hansard heading
house id
legislature	pref label
question text
tabling member constituency
tabling member printed
uin
answer	is ministerial correction true false date of answer exactly: or between: and answer text answering member constituency answering member printed grouped question UIN question first answered answering member label
tabling member	label

Search

1716410

registered interest
date	08/05/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Offenders: Litter
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the press notice entitled Clean-up scheme expanded nationwide to tackle anti-social behaviour, published on 22 March 2024, how many offenders in England and Wales were ordered to carry out litter-clearing activities in support of the Great British Spring Clean from 17 March to 2 April 2024; and how many hours of litter-clearing activity were completed by those offenders.
tabling member constituency	Islington South and Finsbury
tabling member printed	Emily Thornberry
uin	25188
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/05/2024 answer text <p>The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 13/05/2024 11:51:47 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	1536 label Biography information for Emily Thornberry

1716412

registered interest
date	08/05/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Ministry of Justice: Ipsos MORI
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in what way the purpose of the contract agreed by his Department with Ipsos Mori on 20 March 2024, procurement reference 398437/1351727, differs from the purpose of the contract agreed with the same company on 5 June 2023, procurement reference 336036/1227987.
tabling member constituency	Islington South and Finsbury
tabling member printed	Emily Thornberry
uin	25190
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/05/2024 answer text <p>The contract with procurement reference 336036/1227987 was delayed due to difficulties with finding a survey design that would accurately answer the research question, and eventually the contract expired before a workable design was agreed.</p><p>A new contract – reference 398437/1351727 – was awarded to Ipsos on the basis of agreeing a different survey design, which is more likely to produce usable results.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 13/05/2024 11:54:17 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	1536 label Biography information for Emily Thornberry

1716483

registered interest
date	08/05/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisons: Nitazenes
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the level of availability of nitazenes in prisons.
tabling member constituency	Brentford and Isleworth
tabling member printed	Ruth Cadbury
uin	25240
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/05/2024 answer text <p>Since February 2024, all prisoners subject to mandatory drug testing in prisons have been tested for fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid. We are working closely with our contracted drug testing provider to further improve our capabilities to test prisoners for other synthetic opioids, including nitazenes.</p><p> </p><p>Forensic testing of suspected drug finds was made available to all public sector prisons in April 2023. Our contracted forensic analysis provider has capability to detect synthetic opioids including all fentanyls and nitazenes.</p><p> </p><p>All prisons have a zero-tolerance approach to drugs and we are aware of the threat synthetic drugs present. Our current assessment is that there is a low prevalence of Nitazenes in prison custody. However, we are alert to the risks and continue to monitor this.</p><p> </p><p>Our £100 million investment in tough security measures, such as X-ray body scanners, is helping tackle the supply of illicit drugs into prisons.</p><p> </p><p>To prevent the smuggling of drugs through the mail, we have also invested in next-generation drug trace detection machines. As of March 2024, every public sector prison now has this cutting-edge technology.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar grouped question UIN 25241 question first answered 14/05/2024 16:25:47 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4389 label Biography information for Ruth Cadbury

1716602

registered interest
date	08/05/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	End-to-End Rape Review
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of expanding the Rape Review Action Plan to include all cases of sexual violence.
tabling member constituency	Somerton and Frome
tabling member printed	Sarah Dyke
uin	25402
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/05/2024 answer text <p>The 2021 Rape Review Action Plan set public ambitions to return the volumes of adult rape cases being referred by the police, charged by the CPS, and going to court back to at least 2016 levels. We have exceeded each of these ambitions ahead of schedule.</p><p> </p><p>The Rape Review intentionally focussed its efforts on the system’s response to adult rape, acknowledging its unique and complex nature to investigate and prosecute, as well as for the harm it causes to victims. That being said, improvements delivered through the Action Plan will also have wider benefit for the justice system’s response to other sexual offences.</p><p> </p><p>For example, we have recruited 20,000 extra police officers and are providing specialist rape and serious sexual assault training to 2,000 officers, making sure the police have the skills to investigate these crimes. We have rolled out pre-recorded cross examination for victims of sexual and modern slavery offences nationally, sparing victims from the glare of court and helping them give their best evidence. We are also quadrupling victims funding by 2024/25, up from £41 million in 2009/10, enabling us to increase the number of Independent Sexual Violence and Domestic Abuse Advisors to around 1,000 by 2024/25.</p><p> </p><p>More widely, the Government’s 2021 Tackling Violence against Women and Girls strategy set out our plan for improving the system wide response to VAWG. We have delivered on the vast majority of the actions set out in the original Strategy and continue to make important strides, including the first successful prosecution for cyber flashing resulting in a custodial sentence (March 2024); bringing into force the provisions in the Online Safety Act (January 2024) including new intimate image abuse offences; and putting a new duty on employers to protect their employees from sexual harassment via the Worker Protection amendment of the Equality Act 2010.</p> answering member constituency Newbury answering member printed Laura Farris question first answered 13/05/2024 15:30:34 answering member 4826 label Biography information for Laura Farris
tabling member	4995 label Biography information for Sarah Dyke

1716698

registered interest
date	08/05/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Administration of Justice
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	What steps his Department is taking to reduce delays in judicial processes.
tabling member constituency	Broadland
tabling member printed	Jerome Mayhew
uin	902791
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/05/2024 answer text <p>We remain committed to tackling the outstanding caseloads across our courts and tribunals and have introduced a range of measures to achieve this aim.</p><p>While the listing of cases is an independent judicial function, we have consistently invested in judicial recruitment to ensure we have the capacity to deliver effective judicial processes. Since 2018, we have recruited around 1,000 judges and tribunal members annually, across all jurisdictions.</p><p> </p><p>Criminal courts <br>Over 90% of all criminal cases are heard at the magistrates’ courts, where we heard 100,000 cases a month on average across 2023. While the outstanding caseload in the magistrates’ courts has slightly increased in recent months due to an increase in the number of cases coming to court, the caseload remains well below its pandemic peak and stood at 370,700 at the end of December 2023, and cases continue to be progressed quickly.</p><p>To aid our efforts in the magistrates’ courts, we invested £1 million in a programme of work to support the recruitment of more magistrates. We aim to recruit 2,000 new and diverse magistrates this year, and similar numbers for each of the next couple of years.</p><p>At the Crown Court, we remain committed to reducing the outstanding caseload. We delivered 107,700 sitting days in the most recent financial year (FY23/24) and judges have worked tirelessly to complete more cases. The latest data shows cases progressed through the Crown Court more quickly throughout 2023, with the median time from receipt to completion reducing from 167 days in the first quarter of 2023, to 125 days in the last quarter.</p><p>We are also investing more in our criminal courts. In August 2023, we announced we are investing £220 million for essential modernisation and repair work of our court buildings, up to March 2025.</p><p> </p><p>Family Court <br>In March 2024 the Family Justice Board agreed a new set of priorities for the family justice system, with a clear focus on closing the longest running cases and increasing the proportion of public law cases concluding within the 26-week statutory timeline.</p><p>We announced in the Spring Budget an additional £55 million to improve productivity, support earlier resolution of family disputes and reduce the number of cases coming to court. This includes creating a digital advice tool for separating couples, piloting early legal advice and supporting the expansion of the private law Pathfinder model. The Department for Education are investing an extra £10 million to deliver new initiatives to address the longest delays in public law.</p><p>We have provided the flexibility for judges to sit virtually across regional boundaries, so that judges can be deployed where they are needed most, to reduce the caseload and waiting times.</p><p>We are also investing up to £23.6 million in the family mediation voucher scheme, which we intend will allow for its continuation up to March 2025. As of May 2024, over 28,600 families have successfully used the scheme to attempt to resolve their private law disputes outside of court.</p><p> </p><p>Civil courts</p><p>With regards to civil cases, we are taking action to ensure those that do need to go to trial are dealt with quickly. We have a significant volume of judicial recruitment underway for District and Deputy District Judges, are digitising court processes and holding more remote hearings, and are increasing the use of mediation.</p><p>The requirement for small claims in the county court to attend a mediation session with the Small Claims Mediation Service will start this spring and is expected to help parties resolve their dispute swiftly and consensually without the need for a judicial hearing.</p><p>The HMCTS Reform Program has introduced technology that delivers simplified and transformed digital ways of working for civil court users and judges such as the online money claims process and the damages claims service, offering accessible and responsive services.</p><p> </p><p>Tribunals <br>With regards to the tribunals, we continue to work with the Department for Business and Trade on further measures to address caseloads in the Employment Tribunal, where the deployment of legal officers, recruitment of additional judges and a new electronic case management system have helped the Tribunal to manage its caseload which remains below its pandemic peak.</p><p>We have rolled out the HMCTS digital reform programme in the Immigration and Asylum and Social Entitlement chambers so that anyone challenging an immigration or welfare benefits decision can lodge their appeal, track progress and receive the results all online.</p><p>HMCTS continues to invest in improving tribunal productivity through the recruitment of additional Judges, deployment of Legal Officers to actively manage cases, the development of modern case management systems and the use of remote hearing technology.</p> answering member constituency Orpington answering member printed Gareth Bacon question first answered 14/05/2024 13:46:27 answering member 4798 label Biography information for Gareth Bacon
tabling member	4739 label Biography information for Jerome Mayhew

1715998

registered interest
date	07/05/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Bail: Remote Hearings
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions he has had with the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary on its decision to make second and subsequent bail applications remote by default.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	24910
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/05/2024 answer text <p>It is standard practice not to comment on discussions between Ministers and the judiciary.</p><p>The Lord Chancellor is supportive of any efforts to help ensure sufficient capacity in the courts to hear bail applications and to remove principal structural barriers to applications being submitted, and he welcomes the revised guidance launched by Judicial Office which sets out that all second and subsequent bail applications to the Crown Court should be heard remotely unless ordered otherwise by a judge.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 13/05/2024 08:49:11 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1716036

registered interest
date	07/05/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Compulsorily Detained Psychiatric Patients
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people serving an imprisonment for a Public Protection sentence were held in secure hospitals at the start of the last 20 quarters.
tabling member constituency	Blackburn
tabling member printed	Kate Hollern
uin	24924
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/05/2024 answer text <p>Under sections 47/49 of the Mental Health Act 1983, the Secretary of State may authorise by warrant the transfer of sentenced prisoners to a mental health hospital, where he is satisfied that the criteria for detention are met by the aforementioned Act. Thereby, and for the duration of the period in hospital, the transferred prisoner becomes what is known as a restricted patient.</p><p>The requested data in the tables below are taken from an electronic casework system. Snapshot data of restricted patients in hospital are available only at the end of each year. We have provided this information in Table 1 for 2019-2022. We are unable to recreate snapshot data, for the start of each of the last 20 quarters, due to limitations of the case management system.</p><p><strong>Table 1: Population of offenders serving a sentence of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) detained in hospital as a restricted patient on 31 December in each year from 2019-2023.</strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Population of IPP Restricted Patients </strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2019</p></td><td><p>272</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2020</p></td><td><p>276</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021</p></td><td><p>292</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2022</p></td><td><p>262</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2023</p></td><td><p>241</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><strong>Table 2:</strong> <strong>The number of offenders serving an IPP sentence who have been transferred from prison to secure hospitals on mental health grounds in each year since 2020.</strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Number of transfers</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2020</p></td><td><p>56</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021</p></td><td><p>41</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2022</p></td><td><p>44</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2023</p></td><td><p>37</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><strong>Notes </strong></p><ol><li>These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large-scale recording systems are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.</li><li>Where patients are admitted more than once, each admission is counted separately. This information does not count number of individual patients but instances of transfers.</li></ol><p><strong>Data Source: Public Protection Unit Database (PPUD)</strong></p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar grouped question UIN 24926 question first answered 13/05/2024 11:49:00 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4363 label Biography information for Kate Hollern

1716054

registered interest
date	07/05/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Ministry of Justice: ICT
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the guidance by the Central Digital and Data Office entitled Guidance on the Legacy IT Risk Assessment Framework, published on 29 September 2023, how many red-rated IT systems are used by his Department; and how many red-rated IT systems have been identified since 4 December 2023.
tabling member constituency	Reading East
tabling member printed	Matt Rodda
uin	25013
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/05/2024 answer text <p>The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), in the Cabinet Office, has established a programme to support departments managing legacy IT. CDDO has agreed a framework to identify ‘red-rated’ systems, indicating high levels of risk surrounding certain assets within the IT estate. Departments have committed to have remediation plans in place for these systems by next year (2025).</p><p>It is not appropriate to release sensitive information held about specific red-rated systems or more detailed plans for remediation within the Ministry of Justice’s IT estate, as this information could indicate which systems are at risk, and may highlight potential security vulnerabilities.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 13/05/2024 09:12:33 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	4654 label Biography information for Matt Rodda

1716160

registered interest
date	07/05/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Offenders: Suicide
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people serving an Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence on licence in the community took their own life in each year since 2010.
tabling member constituency	Blackburn
tabling member printed	Kate Hollern
uin	24925
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/05/2024 answer text <p>The number of self-inflicted deaths of offenders serving an Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence on licence in the community in England and Wales in each year between April 2019 and March 2023 are shown in the table.</p><p><strong>Self-inflicted deaths of offenders serving an Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence supervised on licence in the community, financial year 2019/20 to 2022/23, England and Wales<sup> (1) (2) (3)</sup> </strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p>2019/20</p></td><td><p>2020/21</p></td><td><p>2021/22</p></td><td><p>2022/23<sup> (p)</sup></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Total</p></td><td><p>6</p></td><td><p>11</p></td><td><p>9</p></td><td><p>7</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>(p) The 2022/23 figures are provisional and may be updated in future publications to account for any changes or additions to the data since they were originally collected.</p><p>1. Apparent cause is as reported in annual returns (prior to 2020/21 only) or the national Delius case management system (nDelius) and has not been independently verified.</p><p>2. The reporting period relates to when the death occurred.</p><p>3. A new set of death classifications was implemented on 1 April 2022 and, as such, figures for 2022/23 are not comparable to those presented for previous years. The category of 'self-inflicted death' up to 31 March 2022 includes any death of a person who has apparently taken his or her own life, irrespective of intent. The category of 'self-inflicted death' from 1 April 2022 includes any death of a person at their own hand, including where intent is undetermined. This includes some drug poisonings (e.g. where a suicide note is found or the circumstances are suspicious) but not drug poisonings which appear to have been the accidental result of consumption for another purpose. Refer to the guide to deaths of offenders supervised in the community statistics for further details about the new set of classifications.</p><p>The information for the period before April 2019 could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 13/05/2024 11:49:55 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4363 label Biography information for Kate Hollern

1716162

registered interest
date	07/05/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Compulsorily Detained Psychiatric Patients
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people serving an Imprisonment for Public Protection sentence have been transferred from prison to secure hospitals on mental health grounds in each year since 2020.
tabling member constituency	Blackburn
tabling member printed	Kate Hollern
uin	24926
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/05/2024 answer text <p>Under sections 47/49 of the Mental Health Act 1983, the Secretary of State may authorise by warrant the transfer of sentenced prisoners to a mental health hospital, where he is satisfied that the criteria for detention are met by the aforementioned Act. Thereby, and for the duration of the period in hospital, the transferred prisoner becomes what is known as a restricted patient.</p><p>The requested data in the tables below are taken from an electronic casework system. Snapshot data of restricted patients in hospital are available only at the end of each year. We have provided this information in Table 1 for 2019-2022. We are unable to recreate snapshot data, for the start of each of the last 20 quarters, due to limitations of the case management system.</p><p><strong>Table 1: Population of offenders serving a sentence of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) detained in hospital as a restricted patient on 31 December in each year from 2019-2023.</strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Population of IPP Restricted Patients </strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2019</p></td><td><p>272</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2020</p></td><td><p>276</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021</p></td><td><p>292</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2022</p></td><td><p>262</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2023</p></td><td><p>241</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><strong>Table 2:</strong> <strong>The number of offenders serving an IPP sentence who have been transferred from prison to secure hospitals on mental health grounds in each year since 2020.</strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Number of transfers</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2020</p></td><td><p>56</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2021</p></td><td><p>41</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2022</p></td><td><p>44</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2023</p></td><td><p>37</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><strong>Notes </strong></p><ol><li>These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large-scale recording systems are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.</li><li>Where patients are admitted more than once, each admission is counted separately. This information does not count number of individual patients but instances of transfers.</li></ol><p><strong>Data Source: Public Protection Unit Database (PPUD)</strong></p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar grouped question UIN 24924 question first answered 13/05/2024 11:49:00 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4363 label Biography information for Kate Hollern