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1694744

	registered interest
	date	07/03/2024
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Coroners: Standards
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure the adequacy of coroners' inquests.
	tabling member constituency	Huddersfield
	tabling member printed	Mr Barry Sheerman
	uin	901972
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/03/2024 answer text <p>The coroner’s statutory duty, through the investigation and inquest process, is to establish who has died, and when, where and how they died. Coroners are independent judicial office holders and the way in which they conduct their investigations and inquests is a matter for them. However, the Government and the Chief Coroner are clear that the bereaved should be placed at the heart of this process.</p><p>The office of the Chief Coroner was introduced in 2013 to provide judicial leadership, guidance and support to coroners and to promote consistency of standards and practice. In addition, the Chief Coroner is required to provide an annual report to the Lord Chancellor which, amongst other issues, assesses the consistency of standards between coroner areas.</p><p>The Government continues to identify and implement measures to promote consistency of standards in coroner services – for example, through the programme of coroner area mergers, and by means of a suite of provisions in the Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022 to streamline coronial processes.</p><p>We also accepted a number of recommendations made by the Justice Committee following its 2021 Inquiry into the Coroner Service, and undertook to give further consideration to others. The Committee’s current follow up Inquiry will, amongst other issues, consider progress against those recommendations.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 14/03/2024 17:10:05 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
	tabling member	411 label Biography information for Mr Barry Sheerman

1689909

	registered interest
	date	19/02/2024
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Legal Profession: Accountability
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish a rating of legal firms by their environmental social governance each year.
	tabling member constituency	Huddersfield
	tabling member printed	Mr Barry Sheerman
	uin	14470
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/02/2024 answer text <p>Under the Legal Services Act 2007, the legal services sector, together with its regulators, operate independently of government. The Ministry of Justice does not collect data on law firms’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. The department has no plans to publish ratings of law firms by their ESG performance.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 27/02/2024 17:35:14 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
	tabling member	411 label Biography information for Mr Barry Sheerman

1626533

	registered interest
	date	10/05/2023
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Small Claims: Electronic Government
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Money Claim Online system.
	tabling member constituency	Huddersfield
	tabling member printed	Mr Barry Sheerman
	uin	184286
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/05/2023 answer text <p>Money Claim Online (MCOL) is a digital service first released in 2001 which allows users to start and reply to a civil money claim for a fixed amount of money less than £100,000. Digital claims and responses are processed automatically on the day of receipt, users also have the opportunity to respond on paper, these paper responses can take longer to process. Weekly performance statistics are published here - <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmcts-civil-business-centres-performance-information/weekly-performance-national-business-centres-updated-5-december-2022" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmcts-civil-business-centres-performance-information/weekly-performance-national-business-centres-updated-5-december-2022</a>. If a case is defended it is no longer supported on MCOL and is printed and posted to a local county court to proceed on papers only.</p><p> </p><p>HMCTS has invested £1.3bn in the HMCTS Reform Programme to deliver large-scale modernisation. As part of the Programme, HMCTS is developing the Online Civil Money Claims (OCMC) service - providing a more modern, user-friendly service beyond the functionality of the MCOL service. Cases progress three times quicker in the OCMC service (9 weeks compared to 27 weeks) and user satisfaction currently sits at 97%. The service will ultimately replace MCOL.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 18/05/2023 14:41:51 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
	tabling member	411 label Biography information for Mr Barry Sheerman

1626534

	registered interest
	date	10/05/2023
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Administration of Justice: Electronic Government
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to improve the performance of the County Court Business Centre.
	tabling member constituency	Huddersfield
	tabling member printed	Mr Barry Sheerman
	uin	184287
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/05/2023 answer text <p>We have implemented a recovery action plan, introduced a new leadership structure focusing on performance recovery and are exploring task force activity to help to reduce the backlogs as soon as possible. For the current delays in service provision, we apologise. We are keeping all stakeholders informed and dealing with priority work where necessary.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 18/05/2023 14:41:05 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
	tabling member	411 label Biography information for Mr Barry Sheerman

1613154

	registered interest
	date	21/04/2023
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Guardianship: Child Trust Fund and Individual Savings Accounts
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department is taking steps to help improve access to (a) Child Trust Funds (b) Junior ISAs for the guardians of young people without capacity to make financial decisions.
	tabling member constituency	Huddersfield
	tabling member printed	Mr Barry Sheerman
	uin	182136
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/04/2023 answer text <p>In 2021, the Court of Protection begun a programme of work to digitise and streamline the property and affairs application process, this includes an online application process and changes to the application forms. A pilot of these improvements showed that application waiting times reduced from 24 weeks to 8 weeks. These improvements were rolled out for all court users in February 2023. The forms are still under review and steps are being taken to simplify these as much as possible.</p><p> </p><p>In December 2020 we announced that Court of Protection application fees can be waived for Child Trust Funds in the majority of cases.</p><p> </p><p>We are also collaborating with ODGs and stakeholders in both the disability and finance sectors to raise awareness of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and ensure that materials are available to support parents and guardians to navigate the legislation.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 27/04/2023 15:36:50 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
	tabling member	411 label Biography information for Mr Barry Sheerman

1611354

	registered interest
	date	17/04/2023
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Probate
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 16 January 2023 to Question 117447 on Probate, how many probate cases have been awaiting a decision for seven weeks or more.
	tabling member constituency	Huddersfield
	tabling member printed	Mr Barry Sheerman
	uin	180982
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/04/2023 answer text <p>The number of probate cases that have been awaiting a decision for seven weeks or more is 9125 (December 2022).</p><p> </p><p>The number of unassessed probate cases for which evidence has been received that were awaiting a decision for longer than six weeks is in the table below:</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p>Unassessed over 6<sup>2</sup> Weeks</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Jul-22</p></td><td><p>4,419</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Aug-22</p></td><td><p>6,090</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Sep-22</p></td><td><p>8,067</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Oct-22</p></td><td><p>8,331</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Nov-22</p></td><td><p>8,901</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Dec-22</p></td><td><p>9,873</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>1 The administration of probate applications is dealt with as a national service, covering England and Wales. The open caseload excludes cases older than 6 months.</p><p>2 The time outstanding is counted from the application submission date recorded in the case management system, except for digital applications with a Will, where the date of receipt of the original Will by HMCTS is used.</p><p> </p><p>Since October 22 we have increased staffing resources in Probate by 42%, an increase of 75 staff after taking account of attrition, recruiting into Probate an additional 100 staff. Following a period of extensive training those additional staff are now being used bring down the overall timeliness on digital and paper applications and improve call handling times.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer grouped question UIN 180983 180984 question first answered 25/04/2023 15:16:51 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
	tabling member	411 label Biography information for Mr Barry Sheerman

1611355

	registered interest
	date	17/04/2023
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Probate
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 16 January 2023 to Question 117447 on Probate, how many unassessed probate cases for which evidence has been received were awaiting a decision for longer than six weeks since evidence was received in each of the last six months.
	tabling member constituency	Huddersfield
	tabling member printed	Mr Barry Sheerman
	uin	180983
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/04/2023 answer text <p>The number of probate cases that have been awaiting a decision for seven weeks or more is 9125 (December 2022).</p><p> </p><p>The number of unassessed probate cases for which evidence has been received that were awaiting a decision for longer than six weeks is in the table below:</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p>Unassessed over 6<sup>2</sup> Weeks</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Jul-22</p></td><td><p>4,419</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Aug-22</p></td><td><p>6,090</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Sep-22</p></td><td><p>8,067</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Oct-22</p></td><td><p>8,331</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Nov-22</p></td><td><p>8,901</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Dec-22</p></td><td><p>9,873</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>1 The administration of probate applications is dealt with as a national service, covering England and Wales. The open caseload excludes cases older than 6 months.</p><p>2 The time outstanding is counted from the application submission date recorded in the case management system, except for digital applications with a Will, where the date of receipt of the original Will by HMCTS is used.</p><p> </p><p>Since October 22 we have increased staffing resources in Probate by 42%, an increase of 75 staff after taking account of attrition, recruiting into Probate an additional 100 staff. Following a period of extensive training those additional staff are now being used bring down the overall timeliness on digital and paper applications and improve call handling times.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer grouped question UIN 180982 180984 question first answered 25/04/2023 15:16:51 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
	tabling member	411 label Biography information for Mr Barry Sheerman

1611356

	registered interest
	date	17/04/2023
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Probate
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 16 January 2023 to Question 117447 on Probate, what recent steps he has taken to increase resources for HM Courts and Tribunals Service to reduce waiting times for probate cases.
	tabling member constituency	Huddersfield
	tabling member printed	Mr Barry Sheerman
	uin	180984
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/04/2023 answer text <p>The number of probate cases that have been awaiting a decision for seven weeks or more is 9125 (December 2022).</p><p> </p><p>The number of unassessed probate cases for which evidence has been received that were awaiting a decision for longer than six weeks is in the table below:</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p>Unassessed over 6<sup>2</sup> Weeks</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Jul-22</p></td><td><p>4,419</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Aug-22</p></td><td><p>6,090</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Sep-22</p></td><td><p>8,067</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Oct-22</p></td><td><p>8,331</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Nov-22</p></td><td><p>8,901</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Dec-22</p></td><td><p>9,873</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>1 The administration of probate applications is dealt with as a national service, covering England and Wales. The open caseload excludes cases older than 6 months.</p><p>2 The time outstanding is counted from the application submission date recorded in the case management system, except for digital applications with a Will, where the date of receipt of the original Will by HMCTS is used.</p><p> </p><p>Since October 22 we have increased staffing resources in Probate by 42%, an increase of 75 staff after taking account of attrition, recruiting into Probate an additional 100 staff. Following a period of extensive training those additional staff are now being used bring down the overall timeliness on digital and paper applications and improve call handling times.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer grouped question UIN 180982 180983 question first answered 25/04/2023 15:16:51 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
	tabling member	411 label Biography information for Mr Barry Sheerman