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1433676

registered interest
date	21/02/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Aiding and Abetting
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department has taken to collect data on the number of cases brought under joint enterprise since the Supreme Court judgment in the case of Jogee, which was handed down in February 2016.
tabling member constituency	Croydon North
tabling member printed	Steve Reed
uin	126658
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/02/2022 answer text <p>The Ministry of Justice only collects information on how many defendants are prosecuted and convicted for each offence in any given year. Information is not collated on whether a prosecution or conviction relied on the law of joint enterprise. Such information may be held on court records but could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency South Suffolk answering member printed James Cartlidge question first answered 24/02/2022 17:58:39 answering member 4519 label Biography information for James Cartlidge
tabling member	4268 label Biography information for Steve Reed

1433715

registered interest
date	21/02/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Magistrates' Courts: Closures
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many closed magistrates' courts has his Department considered using as Nightingale courts.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	126626
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/02/2022 answer text <p>HMCTS considered over 20 former magistrates’ court buildings for potential use as temporary Nightingale courts. These were courts which either HMCTS still owned, or where the new owners had not yet redeveloped the building.</p><p> </p><p>Social distancing rules severely restricted our ability to carry out face-to-face hearings. In response, one of our recovery measures was to establish Nightingale courts that could meet social distancing requirements. Nightingale courts have proven to be essential to supporting the justice system throughout the pandemic.</p><p> </p><p>Nightingale courts are large courts, designed to operate with safe social distancing in place. Few, if any, of our former magistrates’ courts were large enough to meet this requirement. Nightingale courts have been set up in locations where there is an operational need, with a particular focus on enabling Crown Court jury trials to maximise our recovery plans. Very few former magistrates’ courts were able to meet our requirements and would have required significant investment and time to complete the necessary works before the court could become operational.</p> answering member constituency South Suffolk answering member printed James Cartlidge question first answered 24/02/2022 17:55:17 answering member 4519 label Biography information for James Cartlidge
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1433717

registered interest
date	21/02/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Magistrates' Courts: Closures
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many closed magistrates' courts have not yet been repurposed for another use.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	126627
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/02/2022 answer text <p>HMCTS does not hold information about the current use of courts that it has sold.</p><p>Of the seven former magistrates’ court buildings which have been closed and are still owned by HMCTS, one is in use as a Nightingale Court and two have sales due to complete in April 2022. The remaining sites are in the process of being sold.</p><p>The decision to close any court is not taken lightly. It only happens following full public consultation and only when effective access to justice can be maintained. Courts that have closed were either underused, dilapidated or too close to one another.</p> answering member constituency South Suffolk answering member printed James Cartlidge question first answered 24/02/2022 17:56:34 answering member 4519 label Biography information for James Cartlidge
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1433766

registered interest
date	21/02/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Domestic Abuse
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent progress he has made on creating a statement of practice on domestic abuse.
tabling member constituency	Barnsley Central
tabling member printed	Dan Jarvis
uin	126645
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/02/2022 answer text <p>In response to the MoJ expert panel’s report, published in 2020, the Government committed to working with all key partners in the family justice system to design a statement of practice for cases raising issues of domestic abuse or other risks of harm. This statement of practice will take into account provisions made in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, and learning from the development of the Integrated Domestic Abuse Courts. This is being progressed jointly by system leaders with oversight from the Family Justice Board.</p> answering member constituency Corby answering member printed Tom Pursglove question first answered 24/02/2022 20:02:08 answering member 4369 label Biography information for Tom Pursglove
tabling member	4243 label Biography information for Dan Jarvis

1433770

registered interest
date	21/02/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Ministry of Justice: Coronavirus
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 mandate individual risk assessments for all employees in his Department before they return to the workplace following the easing of covid-19 restrictions; and how many individual risk assessments for people returning to work have been conducted by his Department as of 21 February 2022.
tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
uin	126713
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/02/2022 answer text <p>All employers are required to conduct a health and safety risk assessment that includes the risks of COVID-19 in the workplace. Within the Civil Service, managers are also encouraged to conduct an individual risk assessment with their employees, ensuring that personal risk factors are considered and, where identified, control measures are put in place to reduce their level of risk when returning to the workplace.</p><p> </p><p>A decision on whether it is safe for an employee to return to the workplace will be based on the outcomes of those risk assessments.</p><p> </p><p>Information concerning the number of individual risk assessments for people returning to work can only be provided at disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency South Suffolk answering member printed James Cartlidge question first answered 24/02/2022 17:57:36 answering member 4519 label Biography information for James Cartlidge
tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1433848

registered interest
date	21/02/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisons: Safety
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 breakdown of data held by his Department on the number of adult safeguarding concerns recorded in prisons.
tabling member constituency	West Lancashire
tabling member printed	Rosie Cooper
uin	126601
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/02/2022 answer text <p>It is essential that safeguarding concerns regarding prisoners are recorded and acted upon. Action needs to be taken at local level, so the information requested is held within establishments. A variety of different systems and processes are used for this purpose. As records are held locally rather than centrally, to gather the information requested it would be necessary to make individual enquiries of every prison establishment, and this could not be done without incurring disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Louth and Horncastle answering member printed Victoria Atkins grouped question UIN 126602 question first answered 24/02/2022 17:23:57 answering member 4399 label Biography information for Victoria Atkins
tabling member	1538 label Biography information for Rosie Cooper

1433851

registered interest
date	21/02/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisons: Safety
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many adult safeguarding concerns were recorded in prisons in England in (a) 2019, (b) 2020 and (c) 2021.
tabling member constituency	West Lancashire
tabling member printed	Rosie Cooper
uin	126602
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/02/2022 answer text <p>It is essential that safeguarding concerns regarding prisoners are recorded and acted upon. Action needs to be taken at local level, so the information requested is held within establishments. A variety of different systems and processes are used for this purpose. As records are held locally rather than centrally, to gather the information requested it would be necessary to make individual enquiries of every prison establishment, and this could not be done without incurring disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Louth and Horncastle answering member printed Victoria Atkins grouped question UIN 126601 question first answered 24/02/2022 17:23:57 answering member 4399 label Biography information for Victoria Atkins
tabling member	1538 label Biography information for Rosie Cooper

1423195

registered interest
date	18/02/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Trials
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many trials were abandoned (a) from their start dates and (b) due to a lack of (i) prosecution and (ii) defence advocates in each of the last five years.
tabling member constituency	Islington South and Finsbury
tabling member printed	Emily Thornberry
uin	125044
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/02/2022 answer text <p>Data collated centrally by MOJ does not include a count of ‘abandoned’ trials; instead we collect data on trials that are rescheduled for a future listing (ineffective).</p><p>An ineffective trial is a trial that does not go ahead on the scheduled trial date and a further listing is required. This can be due to action or inaction by one or more of the prosecution, the defence or the court.</p><p>This data is published as part of the Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly release and the latest data is available to September 2021: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2021" target="_blank">Criminal court statistics quarterly: July to September 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a></p><p> </p><p>There are a number of reasons why a trial might be ineffective. For example, 16% of ineffective trials in 2021 are caused by either the prosecution or defence not being ready to proceed, and 12% are caused by the prosecution witness being absent.</p><p>We continue to work with Criminal Justice System partners to increase compliance with Better Case Management, a set of best practice principles published in 2015, and – in doing so – reduce the ineffective trial rate by ensuring all parties are fully prepared for the trial.</p> answering member constituency South Suffolk answering member printed James Cartlidge question first answered 24/02/2022 18:00:08 answering member 4519 label Biography information for James Cartlidge
tabling member	1536 label Biography information for Emily Thornberry

1423307

registered interest
date	18/02/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Criminal Proceedings
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 (a) mean and (b) median number of days taken from offence to completion of criminal cases for (i) Crown and (ii) Magistrates Court in England and Wales, broken down by individual court and region for each of the last three years for which figures are available.
tabling member constituency	Croydon North
tabling member printed	Steve Reed
uin	125187
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/02/2022 answer text <ul><li>Please see the attached tables with the mean and median timeliness from offence to completion, as follows:</li></ul><p>o <strong>Table 1</strong> – Days from offence to completion at Crown Court, by year (the latest available data, broken down by region and Crown Court)</p><p>o <strong>Table 2</strong> – Days from offence to completion at Magistrates, by year (the latest available data, broken down by region and Local Justice Area (LJA))</p><p> </p><p>The pandemic is the primary cause of the increased caseload in our courts. The outstanding caseload reduced significantly pre-pandemic – from over 55,000 in late 2014 to c.33,000 in late 2018.</p><p> </p><ul><li>Timeliness from offence to completion is a complex picture as it involves several partners across the Criminal Justice System. The Police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have both committed to a programme of work on more efficient case progression, more information on which can be found here: <a href="https://www.cps.gov.uk/publication/national-case-progression-commitment-college-policing-national-police-chiefs-council" target="_blank">National Case Progression Commitment: College of Policing, National Police Chiefs' Council and Crown Prosecution Service, March 2021 | The Crown Prosecution Service (cps.gov.uk)</a></li></ul><p> </p><ul><li>We invested a quarter of a billion pounds to support recovery in the last financial year (20/21); extended 32 Crown Nightingale courtrooms until the end of March 2022; opened two new ‘super courtrooms’ in Manchester and Loughborough; removed the limit on the number of days the Crown Court can sit in the 21/22 financial year, and our rapid roll out of video technology, which equipped over 70 per cent of all courtrooms with the video hardware to use Cloud Video Platform, enabled up to 20,000 cases to be heard virtually each week at the height of the pandemic.</li></ul><p> </p><ul><li>These measures are working – the backlog in the Crown Court has reduced from around 61,000 cases in June 2021 to around 58,400 cases at the end of December 2021 (Source: HMCTS Monthly MI).</li></ul><p> </p><ul><li>In the magistrates’ court, the criminal caseload has fallen from 436,000 in June 2020 to 375,700 in December 2021 – a reduction of 14% (Source: HMCTS Monthly MI).</li></ul><p> </p><ul><li>Looking ahead, as part of the Spending Review, we will be investing £477 million in the Criminal Justice System over the next three years which will allow us to reduce Crown Court backlogs to an estimated 53,000 by March 2025.</li></ul><p> </p><ul><li>In the next financial year we expect to get through 20% more Crown Court cases than we did pre-Covid (117,000 in 22/23 compared to 97,000 in 19/20).</li><li>We are also extending magistrates’ court sentencing powers from 6 to 12 months for a single Triable Either Way offence to allow more cases to be heard in the magistrates' court.</li></ul> answering member constituency South Suffolk answering member printed James Cartlidge question first answered 24/02/2022 17:59:20 answering member 4519 label Biography information for James Cartlidge attachment 1 file name 2022-02-23 PQ 125187 data V2.xlsx title Table
tabling member	4268 label Biography information for Steve Reed

1422166

registered interest
date	10/02/2022
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisoners' Release: Females
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Prison Reform Trust report Safe Homes for Women Leaving Prison, published in October 2020, particularly the recommendation that official data should account for women falling into "hidden homelessness" after leaving prison.
tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
uin	HL6184
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/02/2022 answer text <p>We welcome the findings from the Safe Homes for Women Leaving Prison report and while there is no specific recommendation regarding “hidden homelessness”, we recognise the importance of consistent data as referenced within the report.</p><p>To ensure consistent and accurate data recording, HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), in collaboration with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing &amp; Communities (DLUHC) and the Welsh Government, has recently updated the Accommodation Recording Guidance to ensure probation regions have a clear and consistent understanding of the accommodation status definitions, and how to record accurately. The Guidance defines homelessness as where an individual is rough sleeping, squatting, residing in night shelters, emergency hostels or campsites.</p><p>Data on accommodation outcomes for supervised prison leavers disaggregated by gender is currently recorded and published in the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-performance-annual-update-to-march-2021" target="_blank">Community Performance Annual, update to March 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a>.</p><p>The Target Operating Model for probation services in England and Wales, published in February 2021, included a target on the number of individuals being housed on release from custody (90%), and a target concerning settled accommodation for all supervised individuals (those released from prison and those on community sentences) three months after commencement of their supervision (80%).</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Wolfson of Tredegar question first answered 24/02/2022 16:43:20 answering member 4901 label Biography information for Lord Wolfson of Tredegar
tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett