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1133273

registered interest
date	19/06/2019
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Personal Independence Payment: Merseyside
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average waiting time has been in Merseyside for personal independence payment tribunal appeals in each of the last 12 months.
tabling member constituency	Garston and Halewood
tabling member printed	Maria Eagle
uin	266776
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/06/2019 answer text <p>Information about waiting times for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) appeals to the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support - SSCS) is published at:</p><p>www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.</p><p> </p><p>Average waiting times<sup>1</sup> for PIP<sup>2</sup> appeals in Merseyside<sup>3</sup> between April 2018 to March 2019 (the latest 12 month period for which data are available) is included in the table below:</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Month</p></td><td><p>Waiting time (in weeks)<sup>4</sup></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>April 2018</p></td><td><p>34</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>May 2018</p></td><td><p>35</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>June 2018</p></td><td><p>35</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>July 2018</p></td><td><p>34</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>August 2018</p></td><td><p>34</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>September 2018</p></td><td><p>36</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>October 2018</p></td><td><p>37</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>November 2018</p></td><td><p>37</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>December 2018</p></td><td><p>38</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>January 2019<sup>p</sup></p></td><td><p>37</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>February 2019<sup>p</sup></p></td><td><p>38</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>March 2019<sup>p</sup></p></td><td><p>36</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p><sup> 1 </sup>Waiting time is interpreted as average clearance time – time taken from appeal receipt to outcome</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><sup>2. </sup>Personal Independence Payment (New Claim Appeals), which is replacing Disability Living Allowance was introduced on 8 April 2013, also includes Disability Living Allowance Reassessed cases</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><sup>3. </sup>SSCS data are recorded by the office that dealt with the case, and if the case went to oral hearing, the location of the tribunal hearing, normally the hearing venue nearest to the appellant’s home address. Cases relating to the Merseyside region are attributed to the following SSCS venues: Birkenhead, Liverpool &amp; St Helens</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><sup>4. </sup>Includes all cases cleared both with and without a tribunal hearing, in line with the published statistics</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><sup>p </sup>Provisional data which are subject to change.</p><p> </p><p>Waiting times are calculated from receipt of an appeal to its final disposal. An appeal is not necessarily disposed of at its first hearing. The final disposal decision on the appeal may be reached after an earlier hearing had been adjourned (which may be directed by the judge for a variety of reasons, such as to seek further evidence), or after an earlier hearing date had been postponed (again, for a variety of reasons, often at the request of the appellant). An appeal may also have been decided at an earlier date by the First-tier Tribunal, only for the case to have gone on to the Upper Tribunal, to be returned once again to the First-tier, for its final disposal.</p><p> </p><p>In order to respond to a general increase in appeal receipts, HM Courts &amp; Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has been working with the judiciary to reduce waiting times for appeals and has appointed additional judges and panel members. This includes 250 judges across the First-tier Tribunal, 125 disability qualified members and up to 230 medical members. In addition, more PIP appeals are being listed per session and case-management “triage” sessions have been introduced, with the aim of reducing the time taken for appeals to reach final determination. All these measures will increase the capacity of the tribunal, with the aim of reducing waiting times for appellants.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, we have recently launched a new digital service with a view to enabling speedier processing of appeals and provide a better service for all parties to the proceedings. Information on the new digital service can be found at:</p><p>https://www.gov.uk/appeal-benefit-decision/submit-appeal</p><p> </p><p>Latest figures for PIP (to December 2018) indicate that since it was introduced, 3.9 million decisions have been made. Of these, 10% have been appealed and 5% have been overturned at tribunals.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 24/06/2019 16:49:52 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
tabling member	483 label Biography information for Maria Eagle

1133366

registered interest
date	19/06/2019
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: Finance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much funding has been provided by the Department for Work and Pensions towards the cost of Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service in each of the last four years; and what proportion of the cost of the First Tier Tribunal (Social Security & Child Support) that funding represented in each of those years.
tabling member constituency	Bethnal Green and Bow
tabling member printed	Rushanara Ali
uin	266835
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/06/2019 answer text <p>Her Majesty’s Court and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) is responsible for the cost of administering First Tier Tribunals (SSCS). The tribunals hear appeals against decisions made by the Department for Work and Pensions on a range of benefits. The Department of Work and Pensions’ (DWP) contribute towards the cost of Attendance Allowance, Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payment appeals. The HMCTS gross cost of administering the tribunal and DWP income received for the last four years are detailed in the table below.</p><p> </p><p><strong>First Tier Tribunal (Social Security &amp; Child Support)</strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>£000s</strong></p></td><td><p>2014-15</p></td><td><p>2015-16</p></td><td><p>2016-17</p></td><td><p>2017-18</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Total Direct Expenditure</p></td><td><p>71,380</p></td><td><p>78,040</p></td><td><p>88,124</p></td><td><p>100,022</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Income from Department for Work and Pensions</p></td><td><p>11,000</p></td><td><p>16,000</p></td><td><p>12,433</p></td><td><p>29,156</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Proportion of Income to Expenditure</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>15%</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>21%</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>14%</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>29%</strong></p></td></tr></tbody></table> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 24/06/2019 16:51:13 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
tabling member	4138 label Biography information for Rushanara Ali

1133395

registered interest
date	19/06/2019
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Probate: Winchester
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) personal and (b) solicitor applications for probate to the Winchester registry office had been outstanding on 17 June 2019 for more than (i) 10 days and (ii) 10 weeks; and when that backlog of cases will have been resolved.
tabling member constituency	Christchurch
tabling member printed	Sir Christopher Chope
uin	266621
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/06/2019 answer text <p>The volume of outstanding probate cases at the Winchester Registry Office on 17 June was as follows: -</p><p> </p><p>Personal Applications</p><ul><li>997 more than 10 days</li><li>250 more than 10 weeks</li></ul><p> </p><p>Solicitors Applications</p><ul><li>3274 more than 10 days</li><li>211 more than 10 weeks</li></ul><p> </p><p>Cases outstanding for more than 10 weeks will include those in which the circumstances are beyond the Probate Service’s control. For example, applicants may be still waiting for their inheritance tax forms from Her Majesty’s Revenue &amp; Customs, or they may not have accounted for all executors named in the will. These requirements must be satisfied before the grant is issued.</p><p> </p><p>Urgent action has been taken to address delays - staffing has been increased and the digital service further improved to reduce the waiting times in order to return performance to normal levels as soon as possible.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 24/06/2019 16:47:36 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
tabling member	242 label Biography information for Sir Christopher Chope

1133397

registered interest
date	19/06/2019
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, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the increase in the target time for dealing with probate applications; and what regulatory impact assessment he has made of the effect of those changes on (a) applicants and (b) solicitors.
tabling member constituency	Christchurch
tabling member printed	Sir Christopher Chope
uin	266622
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/06/2019 answer text <p>There are no prescribed target times for dealing with probate applications. The recent increase in waiting times has been caused by a combination of an increased volume of incoming work and the transition to a new case management IT system. The move to the new system meant that staff had to spend time being trained and familiarising themselves with the system – which also had some initial performance issues that have been addressed.</p><p> </p><p>The change to the new case management system resulted in part from the expansion of the online probate service which was enabled by the 2018 amendments to the non-contentious probate rules. The Explanatory Memorandum for the 2018 Order amending the rules provided an assessment of the impact of the reforms. The memorandum explained that a formal impact assessment was not required as the aggregate impact of the measures was expected to be well below the £5million per annum financial threshold.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 24/06/2019 16:48:10 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
tabling member	242 label Biography information for Sir Christopher Chope

1133403

registered interest
date	19/06/2019
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Probate: Fees and Charges
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 to waive probate fees in cases where applications are not processed within ten days through no fault of the applicant; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Christchurch
tabling member printed	Sir Christopher Chope
uin	266623
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/06/2019 answer text <p>There are no statutory requirements or public commitments from Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service in relation to the timeframe for issuing grants of probate. There is a cost to the provision of grants of probate and it is appropriate that this cost is mainly recovered through the application fee, rather than the burden falling to the tax payer.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 24/06/2019 16:48:21 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
tabling member	242 label Biography information for Sir Christopher Chope

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

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

1132226

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
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many criminal cases have been referred to the Court of Appeal for review as a result of data manipulation at Randox Testing Services; and what was the outcome of those cases.
tabling member constituency	Sheffield, Heeley
tabling member printed	Louise Haigh
uin	264784
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/06/2019 answer text <p>The latest figures show that four road traffic cases have been taken to the Court of Appeal, of which one case was overturned, one resulted in a reduction in sentence, one appeal was unsuccessful, and the fourth is still to be decided. Re-testing has so far identified no impact on other criminal offences, such as sexual offences, violence, or homicide. The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) co-ordinates the national re-testing operation, and is responsible for providing regular updates.</p> answering member constituency Blackpool North and Cleveleys answering member printed Paul Maynard question first answered 24/06/2019 16:44:15 answering member 3926 label Biography information for Paul Maynard
tabling member	4473 label Biography information for Louise Haigh

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