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177546

registered interest
date	03/02/2015
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Asylum: Appeals
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many appeals against decisions (a) not to award and (b) to stop support provided under section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 there have been in each of the last five years.
tabling member constituency	Brent Central
tabling member printed	Sarah Teather
uin	223220
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/02/2015 answer text <p /> <p>Appeals relating to Asylum Support are heard in the First-tier Tribunal Social Entitlement Chamber (Asylum Support) which is administered by HM Courts &amp; Tribunals Service (HMCTS). The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) publishes official statistics on the operation of HMCTS which includes the number of Asylum Support appeals received in each of the last five years. These statistics are published on a quarterly basis and the most recent official statistical publication (covering the period up to the end of September 2014) can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.</p><p> </p><p>HMCTS does not collate information on the volume of cases received broken down by decision type. This information could only be provided at a disproportionate cost by manually checking individual tribunal files for the period in question.</p> answering member constituency North West Cambridgeshire answering member printed Mr Shailesh Vara question first answered 12/02/2015 17:34:11 answering member 1496 label Biography information for Shailesh Vara
tabling member	1170 label Biography information for Sarah Teather

177566

registered interest
date	03/02/2015
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Legal Aid Scheme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what criteria are applied to children and young people applying to the Exceptional Case Funding scheme.
tabling member constituency	Hammersmith
tabling member printed	Mr Andy Slaughter
uin	223066
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/02/2015 answer text <p /> <p>The Government is acutely aware of the importance of ensuring that vulnerable people such as children and young people have access to justice.</p><p> </p><p>The Lord Chancellor’s Guidance on Exceptional Funding sets out some of the points that caseworkers at the Legal Aid Agency should take into account when deciding any application for civil legal aid exceptional funding, including those from children and young people. These factors include the importance of the issues at stake, the complexity of the procedures and the capability of the applicant to present their case effectively. The age of the child or young person applicant is one factor which caseworkers will always consider and the Guidance sets out specific questions which may be relevant in the case of a child applicant.</p> answering member constituency North West Cambridgeshire answering member printed Mr Shailesh Vara question first answered 10/02/2015 12:52:58 answering member 1496 label Biography information for Shailesh Vara
tabling member	1516 label Biography information for Andy Slaughter

177567

registered interest
date	03/02/2015
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Legal Aid Scheme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will passport all (a) children and (b) young people aged from 18 to 24 through the Exceptional Case Funding scheme.
tabling member constituency	Hammersmith
tabling member printed	Mr Andy Slaughter
uin	223067
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/02/2015 answer text <p /> <p>Parliament agreed an exceptional case funding scheme to provide an avenue for providing legal aid to those cases that would normally be out of scope, in order to ensure we meet our obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and European Union law.</p><p> </p><p>The civil legal aid exceptional funding scheme does not provide a general power to fund cases or individuals that fall outside the scope of legal aid – that is not its purpose. We therefore have no current plans to passport all children and/or young people aged from 18 to 24 through the scheme.</p> answering member constituency North West Cambridgeshire answering member printed Mr Shailesh Vara question first answered 10/02/2015 12:56:51 answering member 1496 label Biography information for Shailesh Vara
tabling member	1516 label Biography information for Andy Slaughter

177574

registered interest
date	03/02/2015
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Legal Aid Scheme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many applications from people aged (a) under 18 and (b) 18 to 24 to the Exceptional Case Funding scheme have been successful.
tabling member constituency	Hammersmith
tabling member printed	Mr Andy Slaughter
uin	223099
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/02/2015 answer text <p>Table 1: Number of successful applications to the ECF funding scheme, October 2013 to September 2014.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td></tr><tr><td> </td><td><p>Under 18</p></td><td><p>18-24</p></td><td><p>Total</p></td><td> </td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2"><p>Grants</p></td><td rowspan="2"><p><del class="ministerial">9</del><ins class="ministerial">3</ins></p></td><td rowspan="2"><p><del class="ministerial">3</del><ins class="ministerial">9</ins></p></td><td rowspan="2"><p>12</p></td><td> </td></tr><tr><td> </td></tr><tr><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p>Note: Age data for Exceptional Case Funding was collected from October 2013 onwards. The latest available published data is to September 2014. The number of successful applications in this instance also corresponds to the number of applicants, i.e. unique individuals granted legal aid.</p><p> </p><p>These numbers assume that the date of birth recorded corresponds to the age of the applicant benefiting from the legal aid. In inquest cases this should be the date of birth of the applicant, not the deceased.</p> answering member constituency North West Cambridgeshire answering member printed Mr Shailesh Vara question first answered 10/02/2015 12:42:34 question first ministerially corrected 10/02/2015 14:07:40 answering member 1496 label Biography information for Shailesh Vara previous answer version 43713 answering member constituency North West Cambridgeshire answering member printed Mr Shailesh Vara answering member 1496 label Biography information for Shailesh Vara
tabling member	1516 label Biography information for Andy Slaughter

177576

registered interest
date	03/02/2015
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Courts: Translation Services
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 reduce translation and interpretation costs in the courts.
tabling member constituency	Strangford
tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
uin	223191
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/02/2015 answer text <p /> <p>The Department provides interpreters in compliance with its international obligations to ensure that trials are fair.</p><p>Following a competitive process, the Department entered into a contract for language services which went live on 30<sup>th</sup> January 2012. The contract was introduced to tackle the inefficiencies and inconsistencies in the previous system. The contract has delivered significant improvements so far and we now have a system that is robust, sustainable and able to deliver a quality service at an affordable level. As a result of the contract, we spent £27m less in the first two years it was running.</p><p>The contract remains on target to achieve the forecasted savings over its whole life term.</p><p>We will of course continue work to further drive improvements in performance and to reduce the burden on taxpayers.</p> answering member constituency North West Cambridgeshire answering member printed Mr Shailesh Vara question first answered 10/02/2015 14:25:46 answering member 1496 label Biography information for Shailesh Vara
tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

177577

registered interest
date	03/02/2015
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Court Orders: Compensation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much compensation has been ordered to be paid by courts in North Wales in the last three years for which records are available; and how much of that sum has been recovered from those ordered to pay compensation.
tabling member constituency	Wrexham
tabling member printed	Ian Lucas
uin	223159
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/03/2015 answer text <p /> <p>This Government takes recovery and enforcement of financial impositions very seriously and remains committed to finding new ways to ensure impositions are paid and to trace those who do not pay. This is why there has been a year on year increase in the total amount of financial penalties collected over the last three years. The amount of money collected reached an all time high of £290 million at the end of 2013/14 and collections continue to rise. In 2013/14 the total outstanding balance of financial impositions reduced by £26.7m (5%) in the year.</p><p> </p><p>The table below shows the value of compensation orders imposed in North Wales over the last three years and the value that had been recovered by the end of the year imposed.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Year</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Compensation imposed</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Collected in same year of imposition</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Cancelled in same year of imposition </strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Outstanding at end of year of imposition</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2011/12</p></td><td><p>£508,150</p></td><td><p>£174,652</p></td><td><p>£29,241</p></td><td><p>£304,258</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2012/13</p></td><td><p>£485,074</p></td><td><p>£184,810</p></td><td><p>£24,535</p></td><td><p>£275,730</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2013/14</p></td><td><p>£562,557</p></td><td><p>£200,850</p></td><td><p>£9,230</p></td><td><p>£352,478</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>The value of the impositions that remain outstanding at the end of the year includes accounts that were not due to be paid by the end of the period specified (either because they were imposed close to the end of the year or because they had payment timescales set by the courts for beyond the end of the financial year) and those that were being paid by instalments on agreed payment plans.</p><p> </p><p>The values cancelled could be legal or administrative cancellations. Administrative cancellations only take place in certain circumstances and after all attempts to collect the amount outstanding have been made. These circumstances include where the offender has died, where they have emigrated with no prospect of return, where the offender has been sent to a mental institution for 12 months or more or where the offender cannot be traced and there has been at least 12 months from the point of imposition. It should be noted that administrative cancellations can be re-instated if the prospects of recovery improve (where, for example, a new address is found).</p><p> </p><p>Legal cancellations occur after the case has been reconsidered by a judge or magistrate and further evidence has been presented. Legal cancellations can be as a result of a successful appeal, a change in financial circumstances of the offender or a committal to prison for non payment. The majority of the cancellations applied within the same year of imposition will be as a result of legal cancellation.</p> answering member constituency North West Cambridgeshire answering member printed Mr Shailesh Vara question first answered 03/03/2015 12:33:20 answering member 1496 label Biography information for Shailesh Vara
tabling member	1470 label Biography information for Ian C. Lucas

177578

registered interest
date	03/02/2015
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Human Trafficking
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answers of 2 February 2015 to Questions 221907 and 221908 if he will review the provision of legal aid to potential victims of human trafficking in advance of their referral to the UK national referral mechanism.
tabling member constituency	Sheffield Central
tabling member printed	Paul Blomfield
uin	223156
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/02/2015 answer text <p /> <p>Provision of legal aid to victims of human trafficking in immigration matters is an exception to the general removal of immigration matters from the scope of civil legal aid, and one that we have extended to all victims of modern slavery through the Modern Slavery Bill. Applicants are required to have engaged in the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) process, which also provides specialist accommodation and support, to the point that a positive reasonable grounds or conclusive determination has been made, in order to ensure that limited resources are made available in the cases parliament identified as justifying public support.</p><p> </p><p>A review of the NRM, published in November 2014, recommended a range of changes to the current system including changes to align the referral process and the reasonable grounds decision. The point of access to legal aid will be considered as part of our wider consideration and piloting of the NRM review recommendations.</p> answering member constituency North West Cambridgeshire answering member printed Mr Shailesh Vara question first answered 09/02/2015 17:41:58 answering member 1496 label Biography information for Shailesh Vara
tabling member	4058 label Biography information for Paul Blomfield

177580

registered interest
date	03/02/2015
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Tribunals Service
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 whether the number of judges recruited in each year is sufficient to meet the needs of the Tribunal Service.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
uin	223237
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/02/2015 answer text <p /> <p>In April 2014 there were 6,084 people eligible to sit on Tribunal Panels. These comprise Judges and Members, of which 2,053 are Judges. The data is drawn from the Judicial Office’s database and is based upon an individual’s primary appointment, which is where they sit for the majority of their time.</p><p> </p><p>Judges and Members can also hold more than one post across Tribunal chambers. In addition the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, provides the Senior President of Tribunals the power to assign Judges between Tribunal chambers. This gives him the ability to meet pressures from fluctuating workload and allows the Tribunals to deal with work with greater flexibility.</p><p> </p><p>Where a shortfall in requirements is identified, which cannot be met within existing resource levels, external judicial recruitment will be requested. Judicial recruitment is the responsibility of the Judicial Appointments Commission and details of current and planned recruitment is published on their website which can be found at https://jac.judiciary.gov.uk/</p><p> </p><p>Current judicial resource levels are considered to be sufficient to deal with workload volumes across HMCTS.</p> answering member constituency North West Cambridgeshire answering member printed Mr Shailesh Vara question first answered 10/02/2015 13:01:48 answering member 1496 label Biography information for Shailesh Vara
tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe

177210

registered interest
date	02/02/2015
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Legal Aid Scheme: Domestic Abuse
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will take steps to ensure that all victims of domestic abuse access legal aid for family cases.
tabling member constituency	North Antrim
tabling member printed	Ian Paisley
uin	222992
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/02/2015 answer text <p /> <p>Legal aid in England and Wales is available to victims of domestic violence where they need it to help break free from the abusive relationship. Access to legal aid for protective injunctions to prevent domestic violence remains identical to that prior to the legal aid reforms. These matters continue to be funded without the need for evidence. In private family law cases (such as child or financial arrangements) legal aid continues to be available where there is evidence of domestic violence or child abuse - the list of acceptable evidence is wide and comprehensive.</p><p> </p><p>In a recent judgment, the High Court found that the domestic violence evidential requirements are lawful and reflect the intention of Parliament in providing legal aid for those victims of domestic violence who require assistance because they will be intimidated or materially disadvantaged by having to face their abuser in court.</p> answering member constituency North West Cambridgeshire answering member printed Mr Shailesh Vara question first answered 09/02/2015 17:37:33 answering member 1496 label Biography information for Shailesh Vara
tabling member	4129 label Biography information for Ian Paisley

176543

registered interest
date	28/01/2015
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Magistrates' Courts: Lewes
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what account he took of the fact that Killarney-Comércio Internacional, Lda is registered as an offshore company before deciding to proceed with the sale to them of the building until recently used as the Lewes Magistrates' Court; what due diligence was carried out into this company and its relationship with (a) Quora and (b) Whitbread Plc prior to the sale; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Lewes
tabling member printed	Norman Baker
uin	222469
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/02/2015 answer text <p /> <p>The Ministry of Justice was aware of the relationship between Quora and Killarney-Comércio Internacional, Lda during commercial negotiations and before exchange of contracts. The application for planning permission was submitted under both names. The disposal, including due diligence, is carried out in accordance with central guidance on the disposal of surplus property assets and we will ensure we get the best value for the taxpayer. We remain in commercial negotiations as the sale has not yet been completed.</p><p> </p><p>Whitbread PLC is not a party to the contract.</p> answering member constituency North West Cambridgeshire answering member printed Mr Shailesh Vara question first answered 10/02/2015 14:38:21 answering member 1496 label Biography information for Shailesh Vara
tabling member	28 label Biography information for Norman Baker