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1132399

	registered interest
	date	17/06/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Courts
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the frequency with which courts are closed to the public and press without an order having been granted by the judge.
	tabling member constituency	Leeds East
	tabling member printed	Richard Burgon
	uin	265566
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/06/2019 answer text <p>The arrangements for the admission of the public and the press to a court vary by the jurisdiction of that court, and by the nature of the application being considered. Where a court is under a duty to sit in open court, it has an inherent jurisdiction to sit in private but only if ordered by the presiding judge or magistrates. A court, to which the press or public must be admitted, will not sit in private without a judicial direction. The ability of the court to admit the public and the press may be limited by the physical constraints of the courtroom.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 20/06/2019 16:12:15 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	4493 label Biography information for Richard Burgon

1132401

	registered interest
	date	17/06/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	HM Courts and Tribunals Service: Staff
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of HMCTS staff were agency staff by staffing band in (a) 2010 and (b) 2018.
	tabling member constituency	Leeds East
	tabling member printed	Richard Burgon
	uin	265568
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/06/2019 answer text <p>The number of agency staff in HMCTS was 2,737 as of March 2018, which was 14.6%. The earliest held comparable data is from 2016 and shows 1,569, which was 8.5% of the staffing numbers. This shows an increase of 1,168, 6.1 percentage points, over this period. The following table shows a breakdown by grade as requested.</p><p> </p><p>We were unable to provide data from 2010 as HMCTS did not exist in its current form until 2011. Prior to this there were multiple business units that held their own people data. We are unable to obtain agency data from HR systems prior to 2016. As with any large data system, there are also likely to be some inaccuracies.</p><p> </p><p>Over the period of Reform, we expect the shape and size of the organisation to change. As part of this we are reducing our staffing levels and expect the future skills of our people to change. The HMCTS workforce strategy during this period is to increase the capability of our staff, whilst simultaneously increasing our workforce flexibility through the increased usage of contingent labour. This is in order to reduce redundancy costs and protect the jobs of longer serving, permanent staff. The required staffing level needed across each of our HMCTS sites is monitored closely, and proactive recruitment undertaken to ensure these levels are maintained.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 20/06/2019 16:11:43 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	4493 label Biography information for Richard Burgon

1132398

	registered interest
	date	17/06/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Julian Assange
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the procedure was for (a) public and (b) press access to the extradition hearing for Julian Assange; and if he will make a statement.
	tabling member constituency	Leeds East
	tabling member printed	Richard Burgon
	uin	265565
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/06/2019 answer text <p>This was an open hearing, accessible to both the press and public.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Extra chairs were laid out to accommodate as many people as possible in the court room. As is usual in high-profile cases, a ticketing system was in place to allocate seats to the media.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>There were, however, more people wishing to observe the hearing than there were seats available, meaning that not everyone could be accommodated on this occasion.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 20/06/2019 16:10:40 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	4493 label Biography information for Richard Burgon

1132396

	registered interest
	date	17/06/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Courts and Probation: ICT
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much money has been recovered from IT systems suppliers since the probation and courts IT systems failures in January 2019.
	tabling member constituency	Leeds East
	tabling member printed	Richard Burgon
	uin	265564
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/06/2019 answer text <p>The Ministry of Justice is continuing discussions with its Suppliers in relation to the outage. Due to the ongoing nature of these discussions it is not possible to provide any information pertaining to the quantification of costs, at this time.</p> answering member constituency South Swindon answering member printed Robert Buckland question first answered 20/06/2019 16:10:06 answering member 4106 label Biography information for Sir Robert Buckland
	tabling member	4493 label Biography information for Richard Burgon

1131180

	registered interest
	date	11/06/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Prisons: Contracts
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of the prison operator competition to date; and what estimate he has made of the projected cost of that competition.
	tabling member constituency	Leeds East
	tabling member printed	Richard Burgon
	uin	263187
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/06/2019 answer text <p>The estimated cost for the Prison Operator Competition up to April 2019 is £1.8m. The estimated projected cost of the competition (including costs to date) is £5.5m. The estimated costs cover the staffing and external advice required to develop and run the competition.</p> answering member constituency South Swindon answering member printed Robert Buckland question first answered 19/06/2019 16:39:25 answering member 4106 label Biography information for Sir Robert Buckland
	tabling member	4493 label Biography information for Richard Burgon

1132151

	registered interest
	date	13/06/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Courts: Staff
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the cumulative number of years of experience held by courts staff was in (a) 2010 and (b) 2018 by bands (i) a, (ii) b, (iii) c, (iv) d, (v) e and (vi) f.
	tabling member constituency	Leeds East
	tabling member printed	Richard Burgon
	uin	264468
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/06/2019 answer text <p>The cumulative experience of all HMCTS staff between Bands A and F was 197,334.2 years in 2018. The earliest held comparable data is from 2012 and shows 165,045 years. This shows an increase of 32,289.2 over the period. The following table shows a breakdown by grade as requested. This shows an increase in cumulative experience at every grade.</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Grade</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>March 2012 cumulative service</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>March 2018 cumulative service</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Differential</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Band A</p></td><td><p>6,052.9</p></td><td><p>6,582.2</p></td><td><p>529.3</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Band B</p></td><td><p>19,479.0</p></td><td><p>22,006.6</p></td><td><p>2,527.6</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Band C</p></td><td><p>9,963.1</p></td><td><p>11,424.7</p></td><td><p>1,461.6</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Band D</p></td><td><p>35,811.6</p></td><td><p>36,956.8</p></td><td><p>1,145.1</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Band E</p></td><td><p>77,702.1</p></td><td><p>100,644.5</p></td><td><p>22,942.4</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Band F</p></td><td><p>16,036.1</p></td><td><p>19,719.3</p></td><td><p>3,683.2</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Total</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>165,045.0</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>197,334.2</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>32,289.2</strong></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>We were unable to provide data from 2010 as HMCTS did not exist in its current form until 2011. Prior to this there were multiple business units that held their own people data, which is likely to impact upon the service length considerably as many staff would have worked in courts and tribunals for many years before this It should be noted that the data from 2012 is drawn from a different HR system than that from 2018 and as such is unlikely to be comparing like for like. As with any large data system, there are also likely to be some inaccuracies. Our data covers all staff who work operationally in HMCTS, not just court staff. We are unable to split the data further to include those only in courts.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 19/06/2019 16:04:02 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	4493 label Biography information for Richard Burgon

1132240

	registered interest
	date	14/06/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Race and Ethnicity Board
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people are members of the Race and Ethnicity Board that was established as a result of the Lammy Review; how many hours the members of that Board have worked in the last 12 months; what the budget is of that Board; and whether the Budget has remained the same in each year since that Board was established.
	tabling member constituency	Bolton South East
	tabling member printed	Yasmin Qureshi
	uin	264755
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/06/2019 answer text <p>As part of the Government’s response to the Lammy Review, we have set up a Race and Ethnicity Board to oversee progress on the recommendations, and the wider agenda of race disparity. The Board currently has circa 22 members and is chaired by the Ministry of Justice Director General for Policy, Communications and Analysis. Membership of the Board includes senior level representation from departmental policy groups (from Ministry of Justice and other government departments), operational bodies such as HM Prison and Probation Service, HM Courts and Tribunal Service, and the Crown Prosecution Service, and external members. It is not possible to isolate individual time spent on race disparity work, as the board members hold these positions as part of their wider work responsibilities. However, the board was set up in January 2018 and has since met on a quarterly basis. The board does not have a dedicated budget as work is resourced separately by the various organisations responsible for actions to address racial disparities.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 19/06/2019 16:04:02 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
	tabling member	3924 label Biography information for Yasmin Qureshi

1132275

	registered interest
	date	14/06/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Legal Aid Scheme: Homelessness
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether cases involving the risk of homelessness fall under the scope of legal aid.
	tabling member constituency	Ashfield
	tabling member printed	Gloria De Piero
	uin	264753
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/06/2019 answer text <p>Legal aid funding continues to be available for cases where an individual is at immediate risk of homelessness, or where there are disrepairs which seriously threaten the life or health of the individual or their family.</p><p> </p><p>Legal aid also remains available for housing possession cases, including the Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme.</p><p> </p><p>Legal aid may be sought via the Exceptional Case Funding scheme (ECF) in any matter where failure to provide it would breach, or risk breaching, the European Convention on Human Rights or enforceable EU law, subject to the statutory means and merits tests.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 19/06/2019 15:57:05 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	3915 label Biography information for Gloria De Piero

1131251

	registered interest
	date	11/06/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Offences against Children: Prosecutions
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make it his policy (a) to toughen sentencing guidelines for people found to have watched videos of child abuse and (b) to not implement the recommendation of the report, published by JUSTICE on 10 June 2019, entitled Prosecuting Sexual Offences, that calls for people found in possession of indecent images of children to not face prosecution if they successfully complete a Conditional Diversion Scheme.
	tabling member constituency	North East Hampshire
	tabling member printed	Mr Ranil Jayawardena
	uin	263193
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/06/2019 answer text <p>Sentencing guidelines are a matter for the independent Sentencing Council. The courts are required to follow any guidelines relevant to the case before them, including the definitive guideline on Sexual Offences which came into effect on 1 April 2014.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has no current plans to implement the recommendation of the JUSTICE report to pilot a conditional diversion scheme for individuals who have viewed indecent images of children.</p> answering member constituency South Swindon answering member printed Robert Buckland question first answered 19/06/2019 15:53:09 answering member 4106 label Biography information for Sir Robert Buckland
	tabling member	4498 label Biography information for Mr Ranil Jayawardena

1132232

	registered interest
	date	14/06/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Randox Testing Services: Compensation
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on whether damages have been paid to people as a result of manipulation of forensic toxicology results at Randox.
	tabling member constituency	Sheffield, Heeley
	tabling member printed	Louise Haigh
	uin	264785
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/06/2019 answer text <p>The Government is unable to comment on compensation payments relating to the manipulation of forensic toxicology results at Randox until the criminal investigation into this matter is complete.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 19/06/2019 15:51:05 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	4473 label Biography information for Louise Haigh