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1607120

registered interest
date	24/03/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Pre-sentence Reports
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether it is his Department's policy to encourage the use of Standard Delivery formats in Pre-Sentence Reports.
tabling member constituency	Lewisham East
tabling member printed	Janet Daby
uin	173091
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/03/2023 answer text <p>The Probation Service is responsible for producing Pre-Sentence Reports (PSRs) when they are requested by the Court. A PSR includes a sentencing recommendation based on an offender's individual circumstances and consideration of public protection concerns, alongside suitable rehabilitative and punitive requirements.</p><p>A PSR can be delivered to Courts in a range of formats including the longer written Standard Delivery Report (SDR), and the Short Format Report (SFR) which can be delivered in written or oral format.</p><p>The key principles for decisions on the format of report delivery to Court are:</p><ol><li>What information is available to the PSR author and the Court on the day of sentence. Access to information regarding risk from other agencies does inform the risk assessment and so can affect proposals to the court. Where this information is not available on the day, the impact of this needs to be assessed to determine whether a longer adjournment is needed.</li><li>Complexity of the risk assessment. The presence of factors that require additional assessment, professional discussion, and / or multiple enquiries to aid risk assessment has an important bearing on whether reports should be delivered on the day of request or adjourned for further assessment.</li></ol><p>As a general rule all report types are suitable for use across the sentencing thresholds. Guidance is available for probation staff to assist them in determining when to request for a longer adjournment to facilitate an SDR report.</p><p>The Probation Service is working on a range of initiatives to increase the number of cases in which the Courts receive written reports. These are:</p><ul><li>A pilot scheme across fifteen courts, aimed at targeting written reports at specific cohorts where a more detailed exploration of complex issues relating to trauma, maturity and the loss of liberty may be needed.</li><li>Rolling out across England and Wales a scheme to provide PSRs on committal from magistrates’ courts to the Crown Court, following a successful pilot in Bristol. The Probation Service continues to utilise a PSR before plea process, which enables PSRs to be prepared on cases ahead of the first hearing if an indication of an intended guilty plea is given.</li><li>Supporting case progression in appropriate cases with PSRs prepared in advance of first hearing at both Crown and Magistrates’ Courts.</li></ul> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 29/03/2023 16:45:40 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4698 label Biography information for Janet Daby

1606688

registered interest
date	23/03/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Ministry of Justice: Minimum Wage
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 6 March 2023 to Question 156177 on Ministry of Justice: Minimum Wage, what the total value was of those companies' contracts.
tabling member constituency	Ellesmere Port and Neston
tabling member printed	Justin Madders
uin	172430
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/03/2023 answer text <p>The value of the relevant contracts are:</p><p>- Calor Gas, £307,000. Reference <a href="https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/134be1dc-a93f-4fc0-8159-c39aae7a3c2f?origin=SearchResults&amp;p=1" target="_blank">https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/134be1dc-a93f-4fc0-8159-c39aae7a3c2f?origin=SearchResults&amp;p=1(opens in a new tab)</a>.</p><p>- Centre Circle Event Management Ltd, £45,000. Reference <a href="https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/8ba63863-9e53-4f4d-8553-fcc32a38ea58?origin=SearchResults&amp;p=1(opens%20in%20a%20new%20tab)" target="_blank">https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/8ba63863-9e53-4f4d-8553-fcc32a38ea58?origin=SearchResults&amp;p=1(opens in a new tab)</a>.</p><p> </p><p>Our arrangement with Hays is a call-off arrangement with no guaranteed level of commitment, <a href="https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/6d97dc38-ef0d-451a-8fc6-f033444519d7?origin=SearchResults&amp;p=1" target="_blank">Call Off Contract from Public Sector Resourcing (PSR) - Contracts Finder</a>.</p><p>As previously noted, all the arrears identified has been cleared and adjustments made to the administrative processes of each company.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 28/03/2023 13:11:47 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	4418 label Biography information for Justin Madders

1606716

registered interest
date	23/03/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Ministry of Justice: Consultants
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much his Department spent on external recruitment consultants in 2022; and with which consultants the contracts were held.
tabling member constituency	Ashton-under-Lyne
tabling member printed	Angela Rayner
uin	172422
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/03/2023 answer text <p>The full spend data for calendar year 2022 is not yet available.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 28/03/2023 13:18:07 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	4356 label Biography information for Angela Rayner

1606735

registered interest
date	23/03/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Powers of Attorney: Scotland
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 that institutions and organisations in (a) England and (b) Wales are aware of the legal status of Scottish Powers of Attorney.
tabling member constituency	East Renfrewshire
tabling member printed	Kirsten Oswald
uin	172428
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/03/2023 answer text <p>Scottish powers of attorney are already recognised and have effect as a matter of law in England and Wales. The Government is currently supporting the Powers of Attorney Bill, which facilitates modernisation of the process for making and registering lasting powers of attorney (LPA) in England and Wales. Modernising this service will require engagement with third party organisations. This provides an opportunity to raise awareness of the importance of recognising LPAs and equivalent documents from Scotland, including how these documents can be recognised, and the appropriate authority to contact if further confirmation is needed.</p><p>I recently wrote to Patrick Grady MP on this issue as it came up during the passage of the Power of Attorney Bill. A copy of this letter will be available to read in the House library shortly and contains further relevant information.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 29/03/2023 16:30:30 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	4413 label Biography information for Kirsten Oswald

1606767

registered interest
date	23/03/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Family Courts: Legal Aid Scheme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment has he made of the impact of civil legal aid cuts on the number and proportion of litigants in person in the family courts.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	172402
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/03/2023 answer text <p>Information on legal representation (including the number of Litigants in Person) is published in Family Courts Statistics Quarterly with further information on legal representation status of applicants and respondents by case type:<br> <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2022" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2022</a>.</p><p>Information on the number of disposals and average time to first definitive disposal, broken down by parties with legal representation and case type is routinely published by the Ministry of Justice and can be found via Family Court Statistics Quarterly: <br> <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2022" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2022</a>.</p><p>The Review of Civil Legal Aid will consider the civil legal aid system in its entirety; from how services are procured, how well the current system works for users and how civil legal aid impacts the wider justice system.</p><p>Whilst the Review is not looking specifically at addressing delays in the family courts, more widely we are maximising sitting days to work through the outstanding caseload. In the family court, we sat to our highest ever level in 2021 – just under 56,000 days in public law and just under 83,000 days in private law. This is 2% higher than our sitting day levels in 2020 for public law and 16% higher than our sitting days in 2020 for private law.</p><p>We have significantly increased funding to improve waiting times in the family courts. This includes increasing funding to the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) by £8.4 million this financial year to deal with more open active cases.</p><p>We are modernising our systems through the HMCTS Reform programme to improve efficiency by removing unnecessary forms and duplication.</p><p>We have made greater use of fee-paid and part-time judges by lifting the number of days that fee-paid judges can sit.</p><p>We have also made provisions to ensure that fee-paid judiciary from elsewhere in England and Wales can now hear suitable cases remotely, to increase the judicial resource available to hear cases from London and the South East and reduce delays in those regions.</p><p>Legal aid is available in certain family matters, such as public family law cases which fall under the Children Act 1989. These types of cases include proceedings relating to whether a child should be taken into care or who should have parental responsibility or contact.</p><p>In March 2022, we published a detailed consultation on legal aid means-testing arrangements. The consultation proposed a broad suite of changes to the civil and criminal legal aid means test, with the aim of ensuring access to justice.</p><p>The Department for Education is working with the Public Law Working Group sub-group on care proceedings reform to bring learning from Family Drug and Alcohol Courts and other problem-solving approaches into public law proceedings, to make proceedings less adversarial and improve parents’ engagement in the process.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer grouped question UIN 172403 172404 172405 question first answered 28/03/2023 15:38:41 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1606768

registered interest
date	23/03/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Family Courts: Legal Representation
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 (a) trends in the level of legal representation in the family courts since the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 came into force and (b) trends on the timeliness of cases from commencement to disposal (c) the impact of lower levels of legal representation on the (i) timeliness of cases and (ii) court backlog.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	172403
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/03/2023 answer text <p>Information on legal representation (including the number of Litigants in Person) is published in Family Courts Statistics Quarterly with further information on legal representation status of applicants and respondents by case type:<br> <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2022" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2022</a>.</p><p>Information on the number of disposals and average time to first definitive disposal, broken down by parties with legal representation and case type is routinely published by the Ministry of Justice and can be found via Family Court Statistics Quarterly: <br> <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2022" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2022</a>.</p><p>The Review of Civil Legal Aid will consider the civil legal aid system in its entirety; from how services are procured, how well the current system works for users and how civil legal aid impacts the wider justice system.</p><p>Whilst the Review is not looking specifically at addressing delays in the family courts, more widely we are maximising sitting days to work through the outstanding caseload. In the family court, we sat to our highest ever level in 2021 – just under 56,000 days in public law and just under 83,000 days in private law. This is 2% higher than our sitting day levels in 2020 for public law and 16% higher than our sitting days in 2020 for private law.</p><p>We have significantly increased funding to improve waiting times in the family courts. This includes increasing funding to the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) by £8.4 million this financial year to deal with more open active cases.</p><p>We are modernising our systems through the HMCTS Reform programme to improve efficiency by removing unnecessary forms and duplication.</p><p>We have made greater use of fee-paid and part-time judges by lifting the number of days that fee-paid judges can sit.</p><p>We have also made provisions to ensure that fee-paid judiciary from elsewhere in England and Wales can now hear suitable cases remotely, to increase the judicial resource available to hear cases from London and the South East and reduce delays in those regions.</p><p>Legal aid is available in certain family matters, such as public family law cases which fall under the Children Act 1989. These types of cases include proceedings relating to whether a child should be taken into care or who should have parental responsibility or contact.</p><p>In March 2022, we published a detailed consultation on legal aid means-testing arrangements. The consultation proposed a broad suite of changes to the civil and criminal legal aid means test, with the aim of ensuring access to justice.</p><p>The Department for Education is working with the Public Law Working Group sub-group on care proceedings reform to bring learning from Family Drug and Alcohol Courts and other problem-solving approaches into public law proceedings, to make proceedings less adversarial and improve parents’ engagement in the process.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer grouped question UIN 172402 172404 172405 question first answered 28/03/2023 15:38:41 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1606771

registered interest
date	23/03/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Family Courts: Legal Aid Scheme
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 civil legal aid review helps tackle backlogs in the family courts.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	172404
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/03/2023 answer text <p>Information on legal representation (including the number of Litigants in Person) is published in Family Courts Statistics Quarterly with further information on legal representation status of applicants and respondents by case type:<br> <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2022" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2022</a>.</p><p>Information on the number of disposals and average time to first definitive disposal, broken down by parties with legal representation and case type is routinely published by the Ministry of Justice and can be found via Family Court Statistics Quarterly: <br> <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2022" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2022</a>.</p><p>The Review of Civil Legal Aid will consider the civil legal aid system in its entirety; from how services are procured, how well the current system works for users and how civil legal aid impacts the wider justice system.</p><p>Whilst the Review is not looking specifically at addressing delays in the family courts, more widely we are maximising sitting days to work through the outstanding caseload. In the family court, we sat to our highest ever level in 2021 – just under 56,000 days in public law and just under 83,000 days in private law. This is 2% higher than our sitting day levels in 2020 for public law and 16% higher than our sitting days in 2020 for private law.</p><p>We have significantly increased funding to improve waiting times in the family courts. This includes increasing funding to the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) by £8.4 million this financial year to deal with more open active cases.</p><p>We are modernising our systems through the HMCTS Reform programme to improve efficiency by removing unnecessary forms and duplication.</p><p>We have made greater use of fee-paid and part-time judges by lifting the number of days that fee-paid judges can sit.</p><p>We have also made provisions to ensure that fee-paid judiciary from elsewhere in England and Wales can now hear suitable cases remotely, to increase the judicial resource available to hear cases from London and the South East and reduce delays in those regions.</p><p>Legal aid is available in certain family matters, such as public family law cases which fall under the Children Act 1989. These types of cases include proceedings relating to whether a child should be taken into care or who should have parental responsibility or contact.</p><p>In March 2022, we published a detailed consultation on legal aid means-testing arrangements. The consultation proposed a broad suite of changes to the civil and criminal legal aid means test, with the aim of ensuring access to justice.</p><p>The Department for Education is working with the Public Law Working Group sub-group on care proceedings reform to bring learning from Family Drug and Alcohol Courts and other problem-solving approaches into public law proceedings, to make proceedings less adversarial and improve parents’ engagement in the process.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer grouped question UIN 172402 172403 172405 question first answered 28/03/2023 15:38:41 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1606773

registered interest
date	23/03/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Family Proceedings: Legal Opinion
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment has he made of the potential impact of providing more (a) scope for legal advice and (b) opportunities for input from parents at the pre-proceedings stage of public law proceedings on trends in the level of those proceedings.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	172405
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/03/2023 answer text <p>Information on legal representation (including the number of Litigants in Person) is published in Family Courts Statistics Quarterly with further information on legal representation status of applicants and respondents by case type:<br> <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2022" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2022</a>.</p><p>Information on the number of disposals and average time to first definitive disposal, broken down by parties with legal representation and case type is routinely published by the Ministry of Justice and can be found via Family Court Statistics Quarterly: <br> <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2022" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2022</a>.</p><p>The Review of Civil Legal Aid will consider the civil legal aid system in its entirety; from how services are procured, how well the current system works for users and how civil legal aid impacts the wider justice system.</p><p>Whilst the Review is not looking specifically at addressing delays in the family courts, more widely we are maximising sitting days to work through the outstanding caseload. In the family court, we sat to our highest ever level in 2021 – just under 56,000 days in public law and just under 83,000 days in private law. This is 2% higher than our sitting day levels in 2020 for public law and 16% higher than our sitting days in 2020 for private law.</p><p>We have significantly increased funding to improve waiting times in the family courts. This includes increasing funding to the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) by £8.4 million this financial year to deal with more open active cases.</p><p>We are modernising our systems through the HMCTS Reform programme to improve efficiency by removing unnecessary forms and duplication.</p><p>We have made greater use of fee-paid and part-time judges by lifting the number of days that fee-paid judges can sit.</p><p>We have also made provisions to ensure that fee-paid judiciary from elsewhere in England and Wales can now hear suitable cases remotely, to increase the judicial resource available to hear cases from London and the South East and reduce delays in those regions.</p><p>Legal aid is available in certain family matters, such as public family law cases which fall under the Children Act 1989. These types of cases include proceedings relating to whether a child should be taken into care or who should have parental responsibility or contact.</p><p>In March 2022, we published a detailed consultation on legal aid means-testing arrangements. The consultation proposed a broad suite of changes to the civil and criminal legal aid means test, with the aim of ensuring access to justice.</p><p>The Department for Education is working with the Public Law Working Group sub-group on care proceedings reform to bring learning from Family Drug and Alcohol Courts and other problem-solving approaches into public law proceedings, to make proceedings less adversarial and improve parents’ engagement in the process.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer grouped question UIN 172402 172403 172404 question first answered 28/03/2023 15:38:41 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1606839

registered interest
date	23/03/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Youth Custody: Staff
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 adequacy of staffing levels across the youth estate.
tabling member constituency	Cardiff North
tabling member printed	Anna McMorrin
uin	172488
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/03/2023 answer text <p>The Youth Custody Service’s first priority is the safety and well-being of the young people in its care. In the current challenging circumstances, that requirement continues to be paramount. Staff retention and recruitment is a challenge in all parts of HMPPS, not only within the youth secure estate. We are actively working to reduce high turnover of staff in the Young Offender Institutions. In addition to changes to national pay progression arrangements, we are focusing on action to improve retention. Exit interviews are made available to every leaver, to help us understand and address the reasons why staff may decide to leave.</p><p> </p><p>Since December 2022, there has been a reduction in resignations by frontline staff across the Young Offender Institution sector. Whilst staffing is challenging in the Secure Training Centre too, this has not affected the levels of regime for education or enrichment available to children.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 28/03/2023 16:37:18 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	4632 label Biography information for Anna McMorrin

1606884

registered interest
date	23/03/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Catalytic Converters: Theft
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 the number of prosecutions for theft of catalytic converters in Greater Manchester in each of the last three years.
tabling member constituency	Stockport
tabling member printed	Navendu Mishra
uin	172538
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/03/2023 answer text <p>This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 29/03/2023 16:51:10 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4811 label Biography information for Navendu Mishra