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1131230

	registered interest
	date	11/06/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	hansard heading	Council Tax: Arrears
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate he has made of the increase in council tax arrears since 2014.
	tabling member constituency	Makerfield
	tabling member printed	Yvonne Fovargue
	uin	263136
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/06/2019 answer text <p>Council tax arrears reported by local authorities in England for 2014-15 to 2017-18 can be found in Table 7 of the 'Collection rates for Council Tax and non-domestic rates in England' statistical release. The link to the latest table is <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/743738/Table_7_2017-18_revised.xlsx" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/743738/Table_7_2017-18_revised.xlsx</a>.</p> answering member constituency Richmond (Yorks) answering member printed Rishi Sunak question first answered 13/06/2019 16:33:50 answering member 4483 label Biography information for Rishi Sunak
	tabling member	4034 label Biography information for Yvonne Fovargue

1130491

	registered interest
	date	06/06/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Courts: Attendance
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Failure to Appear warrants were issued (a) in each year between 2014 and 2018 and (b) from 1 January to 30 April 2019.
	tabling member constituency	Bolton South East
	tabling member printed	Yasmin Qureshi
	uin	261185
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/06/2019 answer text <p>Her Majesty’s Courts &amp; Tribunals Service (HMCTS) published its response to the consultation Fit for the future: transforming the Court and Tribunal Estate on 10 May 2019.</p><p>Figures on Failure To Attend warrants for the period 2011 to 2017 appear on page 16 of that response: -</p><p>Magistrates Courts – Failure to Attend Warrants (FTA)</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p><strong>2011</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2012</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2013</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2014</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2015</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2016</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2017</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>National</strong></p></td><td><p>115,490</p></td><td><p>109,521</p></td><td><p>95,234</p></td><td><p>94,540</p></td><td><p>92,983</p></td><td><p>92,862</p></td><td><p>93,317</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Note: Figures are for warrants issued in Criminal Proceedings for failing to attend Court, as well as those issued for failing to comply with the requirements of a Community Order. Figures are based on cases rather than defendants which means that where a defendant has more than one case for which a warrant is issued, each instance will be counted. Data is based on the most serious offence type on a case when it is registered on the HMCTS Libra Case Management system, and where a warrant is issued at different hearings for the same case, each issuance will be counted.</p><p>The full document can be found on GOV.UK at:<br>https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/800874/hmcts-fit-for-the-future-consultation-response.pdf</p><p>The number of Failure to Attend warrants for 2018, and those between January and April 2019, will be published later this year.</p><p>The Ministry of Justice and HMCTS are developing a consistent statistical measure of Failure to Appear warrants and will be publishing a time series of these figures alongside MoJ court statistics later this year.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 13/06/2019 16:08:22 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	3924 label Biography information for Yasmin Qureshi

1129087

	registered interest
	date	03/06/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Courts: Opening Hours
	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 number of days (a) crown courts and (b) magistrates courts in England (i) sat in 2018 and (ii) are expected to sit 2019.
	tabling member constituency	Bolton South East
	tabling member printed	Yasmin Qureshi
	uin	259164
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/06/2019 answer text <p>The number of days sat in the Crown Court in England in the calendar year 2018 was 97,431 days.</p><p> </p><p>The number of sessions sat in magistrates’ courts in England in the calendar year 2018 was 208,711. We don’t count days sat in the magistrates’ court and instead count sessions. A session is usually half a day in length.</p><p> </p><p>We estimate that we will sit around 79,000 days in the Crown Court and around 215,000 sessions in the magistrates’ courts in England in the financial year 2019/20. These estimates are based on how much resource is required to deal with the number of cases expected to be received in 2019/20 and reflect demand in the Crown Court.</p><p> </p><p>We will continue to review demand and performance in the Crown Court and magistrates’ court and will ensure they have the resources they require.</p><p> </p><p>Waiting times for trials in 2018 were the lowest since 2014, despite the challenge of increasingly complex cases</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 10/06/2019 16:18:15 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	3924 label Biography information for Yasmin Qureshi

1129089

	registered interest
	date	03/06/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Homicide: Sentencing
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average length of sentence was for (a) white, (b) BAME and (c) traveller defendants convicted of murder in (i) 2017, (ii) 2018 and (iii) 2019 up to April 30.
	tabling member constituency	Bolton South East
	tabling member printed	Yasmin Qureshi
	uin	259165
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/06/2019 answer text <p>Every offender convicted of murder must be given a life sentence as this sentence is fixed by law.</p><p> </p><p>The Ministry of Justice does not hold full information on the tariff period (the minimum period that must be spent in custody) set by the court when imposing a mandatory life sentence. Information may be held in individual court records but to be able to identify these cases we would have to access individual court records which would be of disproportionate cost.</p><p> </p><p>Data on the average custodial sentence length (in months) for offenders has been published by the Ministry of Justice up to December 2018 and can be filtered by ethnicity. However, in the case of murder this simply shows a life sentence. This information can be found at:</p><p> </p><p><a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/802314/outcomes-by-offence-tool-2018.xlsx" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/802314/outcomes-by-offence-tool-2018.xlsx</a></p><p> </p><p>Filter by ‘Offence’ as required.</p><p> </p><p>For ethnicity breakdowns, filter by ‘Ethnicity’ for the required ethnicity.</p><p> </p><p>Ethnicity information is provided using a 5+1 classification (based on the 2011 census classification) and is therefore not available for “traveller” defendants.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency South Swindon answering member printed Robert Buckland question first answered 10/06/2019 14:28:48 answering member 4106 label Biography information for Sir Robert Buckland
	tabling member	3924 label Biography information for Yasmin Qureshi

1128388

	registered interest
	date	22/05/2019
	answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept id	16
	answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
	hansard heading	Sri Lanka: Terrorism
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his Sri Lankan counterpart on protection for the Muslim community from retaliatory attacks in that country; and if he will make a statement.
	tabling member constituency	Bolton South East
	tabling member printed	Yasmin Qureshi
	uin	257499
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/06/2019 answer text <p>The Government has made a number of representations to the Sri Lankan authorities regarding the protection of the Muslim community and other minorities in Sri Lanka. In the aftermath of the Easter Sunday attacks we urged the Sri Lankan government, faith and community leaders to lead an inclusive response to the attacks that brought different communities and faith groups together, and ensured the protection of minorities.</p><p>The Minister of State for Security and Economic Crime, Ben Wallace, visited Sri Lanka on 2-3 May and met with President Sirisena, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and a number of faith leaders to underline this message. Lord Ahmad and I have raised the issue of protection for minority groups with the Sri Lankan High Commissioner, and our High Commission in Colombo has continued to raise concerns with the Sri Lankan Prime Minister, including following the outbreaks of violence against Muslim communities on 13 May.</p><p>I addressed the House on this matter on 14 May, and our High Commission also joined an EU statement on 16 May calling on political, religious and other community leaders to make every effort to promote understanding and harmony between communities.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Cities of London and Westminster answering member printed Mark Field question first answered 04/06/2019 10:09:18 answering member 1405 label Biography information for Mark Field
	tabling member	3924 label Biography information for Yasmin Qureshi

1126970

	registered interest
	date	15/05/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Trials: Ethnic Groups
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate he has made of the proportion of (a) BAME and (b) white defendants who enter guilty pleas.
	tabling member constituency	Bolton South East
	tabling member printed	Yasmin Qureshi
	uin	254792
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/05/2019 answer text <p>The proportion of guilty pleas (where plea was known) has slowly been declining, from 74% in 2014 to 69% for white defendants, and from 61% in 2014 to 57% for BAME defendants in 2018.</p><p>Data is only available for defendants dealt with at Crown Court (not all defendants) for indictable offences.</p><p>The proportion of defendants who entered a guilty plea by ethnicity (2008 – 2018) can be found in the Crown court data tool at the following link:</p><p><a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/802313/crown-court-tool-2018.xlsx" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/802313/crown-court-tool-2018.xlsx</a></p><ul><li>Remove the ‘Values’ field from Rows</li><li>Drag the ‘Ethnicity’ field into Rows</li><li>Drag the ‘Total for Trial’ field into Values</li><li>Filter to ’01: Guilty Plea’ in the ‘Plea at Crown Court’ field for the number of defendants that entered a guilty plea</li><li>Filter to ’01: Guilty Plea’ and ’02: Not Guilty plea’ in the ‘Plea at Crown Court’ field number of defendants that entered a plea overall (where plea was known)</li><li>The number of BAME defendants can be defined by combining ’02: Black’, ’03: Asian’, ’04: Mixed’ and ’05: Chinese and other’ rows. The number of white defendants who entered a guilty plea each year can be found in the ‘01: White’ row.</li><li>The proportion of defendants who entered a guilty plea can be found by dividing the number of guilty pleas by the number of overall pleas for the relevant ethnicity rows.</li></ul> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 22/05/2019 16:46:56 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
	tabling member	3924 label Biography information for Yasmin Qureshi

1126077

	registered interest
	date	13/05/2019
	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
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference paragraph 7.20 of HM Courts & Tribunals Service response to the consultation paper entitled Fit for the future: transforming the Court and Tribunal Estate, what steps he is taking to determine appropriate capacity utilisation of the HM Courts & Tribunals estate; and what the date is for the completion of that analysis.
	tabling member constituency	Bolton South East
	tabling member printed	Yasmin Qureshi
	uin	253542
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>HM Courts &amp; Tribunals Service is currently investigating how to appropriately evaluate optimum utilisation rates for courts and tribunals, looking at past data on utilisation and performance. We anticipate that this analytical work will be completed prior to the publication of any further proposals regarding the court or tribunal estate.</p><p> </p><p>Maintaining effective access to justice will be the top priority when making decisions about the future of courts and tribunals buildings.</p><p> </p><p>The closure of any court is not taken lightly and, where a service is moved outside the local area, will only follow a full public consultation. To date, courts that have closed have been dilapidated, too close to another or underused. All money raised from the sale of buildings since 2016 has been reinvested back into the justice system.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 21/05/2019 15:42:20 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	3924 label Biography information for Yasmin Qureshi

1126081

	registered interest
	date	13/05/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Courts: Disability
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many court buildings in the south west of England were inaccessible to (a) defendants and witnesses, (b) members of the public and (c) court staff with disabilities in the week beginning 6 May 2019; and how many of those buildings were only temporarily inaccessible in that week because of broken lifts; and how many of those courts were inaccessible to at least one of those groups for (i) more than one week and (ii) more than one month in the latest period for which figures are available.
	tabling member constituency	Bolton South East
	tabling member printed	Yasmin Qureshi
	uin	253543
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>HM Courts &amp; Tribunals Service is committed to ensuring access to courts and tribunals is maintained for staff and service users. We have a reasonable adjustments policy in place to accommodate those with particular access requirements. Disabled access was typically not factored in when many of our court and tribunal buildings were built. However, we have a number of accessible courts that our criminal justice partners are aware of, and these are used to list cases where a defendant might have accessibility needs.</p><p> </p><p>The majority of our buildings were accessible to the user groups listed during the period in question. Of the 40 total courts and tribunals in the South West, none were inaccessible to witnesses, staff or members of the public during the week commencing 6 May 2019, whilst 27 were inaccessible to one very specific user group with disabilities (defendants using custodial facilities).</p><p> </p><p>No buildings were temporarily inaccessible due to broken lifts.</p><p> </p><p>We aim to list cases at suitable venues when there are access needs. Where access issues do arise various mitigations are explored, including video-conferencing from a remote site, the use of judicial or staff lifts, or later start times for those who require longer to travel to court.</p><p> </p><p>Since 2015/16, we have invested more than £114m to improve court buildings and, in last year’s Budget, the Chancellor announced an additional £15m to be spent on improving maintenance and security across the estate.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 21/05/2019 15:39:33 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	3924 label Biography information for Yasmin Qureshi

1126082

	registered interest
	date	13/05/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Courts: Disability
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many court buildings in the south east of England, excluding Greater London, were inaccessible to (a) defendants and witnesses, (b) members of the public and (c) court staff with disabilities in the week beginning 6 May 2019; and how many of those buildings were only temporarily inaccessible in that week because of broken lifts; and how many of those courts were inaccessible to at least one of those groups for (i) more than one week and (ii) more than one month in the latest period for which figures are available.
	tabling member constituency	Bolton South East
	tabling member printed	Yasmin Qureshi
	uin	253544
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>HM Courts &amp; Tribunals Service is committed to ensuring access to courts and tribunals is maintained for staff and service users. We have a reasonable adjustments policy in place to accommodate those with particular access requirements. Disabled access was typically not factored in when many of our court and tribunal buildings were built. However, we have a number of accessible courts that our criminal justice partners are aware of, and these are used to list cases where a defendant might have accessibility needs.</p><p> </p><p>The majority of our buildings were accessible to the user groups listed during the period in question. Of the 81 total courts and tribunals in the South East, only 11 were inaccessible to witnesses and members of the public during the week commencing 6 May 2019, none were inaccessible to staff, whilst 39 were inaccessible to one very specific user group with disabilities (defendants using custodial facilities).</p><p> </p><p>3 of those buildings were temporarily inaccessible in that week because of broken lifts, of which 3 were inaccessible for more than one month.</p><p> </p><p>We aim to list cases at suitable venues when there are access needs. Where access issues do arise various mitigations are explored, including video-conferencing from a remote site, the use of judicial or staff lifts, or later start times for those who require longer to travel to court.</p><p> </p><p>Since 2015/16, we have invested more than £114m to improve court buildings and, in last year’s Budget, the Chancellor announced an additional £15m to be spent on improving maintenance and security across the estate.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 21/05/2019 16:10:28 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	3924 label Biography information for Yasmin Qureshi

1126083

	registered interest
	date	13/05/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Courts: Disability
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many court buildings in the Greater London were inaccessible to (a) defendants and witnesses, (b) members of the public and (c) court staff with disabilities in the week beginning 6 May 2019; and how many of those buildings were only temporarily inaccessible in that week because of broken lifts; and how many of those courts were inaccessible to at least one of those groups for (i) more than one week and (ii) more than one month in the latest period for which figures are available.
	tabling member constituency	Bolton South East
	tabling member printed	Yasmin Qureshi
	uin	253545
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/05/2019 answer text <p>HM Courts &amp; Tribunals Service is committed to ensuring access to courts and tribunals is maintained for staff and service users. We have a reasonable adjustments policy in place to accommodate those with particular access requirements. Disabled access was typically not factored in when many of our court and tribunal buildings were built. However, we have a number of accessible courts that our criminal justice partners are aware of, and these are used to list cases where a defendant might have accessibility needs.</p><p> </p><p>The majority of our buildings were accessible to the user groups listed during the period in question. Of the 56 total courts and tribunals in London, only 7 were inaccessible to witnesses and members of the public during the week commencing 6 May 2019, none were inaccessible to staff, whilst 26 were inaccessible to one very specific user group with disabilities (defendants using custodial facilities).</p><p> </p><p>2 of those buildings were temporarily inaccessible in that week because of broken lifts, of which 2 were inaccessible for more than one month.</p><p> </p><p>We aim to list cases at suitable venues when there are access needs. Where access issues do arise various mitigations are explored, including video-conferencing from a remote site, the use of judicial or staff lifts, or later start times for those who require longer to travel to court.</p><p> </p><p>Since 2015/16, we have invested more than £114m to improve court buildings and, in last year’s Budget, the Chancellor announced an additional £15m to be spent on improving maintenance and security across the estate.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 21/05/2019 16:06:13 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
	tabling member	3924 label Biography information for Yasmin Qureshi