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389281

registered interest
date	13/07/2015
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Criminal Proceedings: Fees and Charges
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent representations he has received on the effect of the criminal courts charge.
tabling member constituency	Shipley
tabling member printed	Philip Davies
uin	6615
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/07/2015 answer text <p>This government believes that convicted adult offenders should pay towards the costs of running the criminal courts. Recovering some of these costs from convicted offenders will reduce the burden on taxpayers.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>My department has received representations from the magistracy and defence practitioners about the criminal courts charge.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Only convicted offenders pay the criminal courts charge. This means that those who are found not guilty by the courts will not be required to pay the charge. We are confident that this mitigates against any adverse effects that may distort offenders’ decisions.</p><p> </p><p>The provisions are purely about recovering court costs and are completely separate from the offender’s sentence. It would therefore go against the principles of the legislation to allow judicial discretion regarding whether or not to impose the charge or the amount to impose.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The government recognises the need to make sure offenders are given a fair opportunity to pay the charge. The court is able to set payment terms in affordable instalments. Offenders can also contact a fines officer at any point to request variations in payment terms if their circumstances change. An offender can also apply to have the charge cancelled after two years where they take all reasonable steps to pay it and do not reoffend. It is for the court to decide whether all reasonable steps have been taken to pay the charge, having regard to the offender’s personal circumstances, such as unemployment or poor health.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The provisions include a requirement to review the policy after three years.</p> answering member constituency North West Cambridgeshire answering member printed Mr Shailesh Vara question first answered 30/07/2015 11:51:56 answering member 1496 label Biography information for Shailesh Vara
tabling member	1565 label Biography information for Sir Philip Davies

388697

registered interest
date	08/07/2015
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Appeals
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 time was for the Tribunals Service to administer a First-tier Tribunal-Social Security and Child Support appeal in respect of (a) personal independence payment, (b) employment and support allowance, (c) income support, (d) jobseeker's allowance and (e) tax credits in (i) Coventry, (ii) the West Midlands and (iii) England in the last period for which figures are available.
tabling member constituency	Coventry North East
tabling member printed	Colleen Fletcher
uin	6056
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/07/2015 answer text <p>The First-tier Tribunal – Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) administered by HM Courts &amp; Tribunals Service, hears appeals against Department for Work and Pensions’ decisions on a range of benefits.</p><p> </p><p>The table below shows the average length of time to administer appeals in respect of (a) personal independence payment (PIP), (b) employment and support allowance (ESA), (c) income support (IS), (d) jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) and (e) tax credits in (i) Coventry, (ii) the West Midlands and (iii) England between April 2014 and March 2015, the latest period for which figures are available.</p><p> </p><p>In 2014/15, due to falling receipts of new cases, the Tribunal Service began processing more older and more complex cases, hence the rise in the average length of time to administer appeals.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td colspan="6"><p><strong>Average length of time to administer appeals between April 2014 and March 2015</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td> </td><td><p><strong>PIP<sup>1</sup></strong></p></td><td><p><strong>ESA<sup>2</sup></strong></p></td><td><p><strong>IS</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>JSA</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Tax Credits<sup>3</sup></strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Coventry</strong></p><p> </p></td><td><p>17.9</p></td><td><p>39.9</p></td><td><p>33.3</p></td><td><p>28.3</p></td><td><p>17.6</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>West Midlands <sup>4</sup></strong></p></td><td><p>17.5</p></td><td><p>35.4</p></td><td><p>37</p></td><td><p>25.8</p></td><td><p>17.3</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>England <sup>5</sup></strong></p><p> </p></td><td><p>16.5</p></td><td><p>30.4</p></td><td><p>30.7</p></td><td><p>25.4</p></td><td><p>16.9</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p> </p><p>Notes:</p><p>SSCS data are normally registered to the venue nearest to the appellant's home address. We cannot retrieve data based on the appellant’s actual address, but can produce reports detailing the numbers of cases that were dealt with at one of our Regional centres or heard at a specific venue.</p><p>1. Personal Independence Payment (New Claim Appeals) which replaces Disability Living Allowance was introduced on 8 April 2013, also includes Personal Independence Claims (Reassessments)</p><p>2. Includes Employment Support Allowance and Employment Support Allowance (Reassessments)</p><p>3. Includes Working Family Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, Working Tax Credit.</p><p>4. West Midlands includes the venues in: Birmingham, Coventry, Hereford, Stoke, Wolverhampton, Worcester, Shrewsbury, Kidderminster, Leamington Spa, Nuneaton and Walsall.</p><p>5. Excludes SSCS Scotland processing centre and the following venues Aberystwyth, Bridgend, Cardiff, Caernafon, Carmarthen, Colwyn Bay, Cwmbran, Haverfordwest, Llandrindod Wells, Langstone, Llandudno, Llanelli, Llangefni, Llwynypia, Merthyr Tydfil, Neath, Port Talbot, Newtown, Pontypridd, Pontypool, Prestatyn, Swansea, Welshpool, Wrexham, Bargoed and Ebbw Vale</p><p>Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system and is the best data that is available.</p> answering member constituency North West Cambridgeshire answering member printed Mr Shailesh Vara question first answered 30/07/2015 11:23:58 answering member 1496 label Biography information for Shailesh Vara
tabling member	4378 label Biography information for Colleen Fletcher