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1691360

registered interest
date	23/02/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Administration of Justice
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to assess the potential vulnerability of people prosecuted under the single justice procedure.
tabling member constituency	Caerphilly
tabling member printed	Wayne David
uin	15409
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/02/2024 answer text <p>The Government does not intervene in individual cases, including Single Justice Procedure (SJP) cases, which are a matter for the independent judiciary.</p><p> </p><p>SJP is used by a number of approved prosecutors. It is a more proportionate way of dealing with straightforward, uncontested, summary-only non-imprisonable offences. The prosecuting body cannot choose this route for any case which falls outside of these criteria. SJP also cannot be used in cases where a defendant pleads not guilty.</p><p> </p><p>Where a guilty plea is submitted, defendants are able to enter mitigating circumstances, if they wish, alongside their guilty plea, to be considered by the magistrate dealing with their case. Cases where defendants have not responded to a notification that they are being prosecuted may also be dealt with under the SJP.</p><p>For prosecutors, guilty pleas and any entered mitigation are available on the system for them to review as soon as the plea is received online, or as soon as scanned into the system if received by post, however, prosecutors are not required to view this.</p><p> </p><p>Often the defendants’ circumstances and any potential vulnerability are not known until they provide their mitigation. Any mitigation provided under SJP is considered by the magistrate in the same way that it would be in open court. Although prosecutors decide whether to offer defendants the option of having their case dealt with under the SJP, magistrates may refer a case to open court if they think that would be more appropriate rather than continuing under the SJP.</p><p> </p><p>The mitigation provided sometimes suggests that the prosecution may not be in the public interest; a magistrate can then adjourn the case and ask the prosecution to review the mitigation. Alternatively, the magistrate can reduce the penalty imposed and even deal with the case by way of a conditional or absolute discharge. Guidance for magistrates on mitigating factors is provided in the sentencing guidelines.</p><p> </p><p>Support channels are also available to defendants who require clarification of information and processes ranging from web chat or telephone assistance to more intensive face-to-face assistance.</p><p> </p><p>The Government keeps all policies under review and listens to feedback from stakeholders on how they are working.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 28/02/2024 16:55:39 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	1398 label Biography information for Wayne David

1691361

registered interest
date	23/02/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Administration of Justice
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 cases under the single justice procedure were not progressed to prosecution because they were deemed to not be in the public interest due to the vulnerability of defendants in each year since 2021.
tabling member constituency	Caerphilly
tabling member printed	Wayne David
uin	15410
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/02/2024 answer text <p>Whilst information on the number of Single Justice Procedure (SJP) cases withdrawn or dismissed is available, we do not hold information on the number of prosecutions not progressed due to not being in the public interest due to the defendants' vulnerability.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 28/02/2024 16:47:46 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	1398 label Biography information for Wayne David

1691086

registered interest
date	22/02/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Legal Profession: Trade Unions
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to require law firms to recognise trade unions.
tabling member constituency	Liverpool, Riverside
tabling member printed	Kim Johnson
uin	15384
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/03/2024 answer text <p>The Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 outlines the process for recognising a trade union.</p><p>If trade unions wish to be recognised by a law firm, then they may follow the standard procedure in place. Information on this procedure can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/trade-union-recognition-employers/union-requests-recognition" target="_blank">Employers: recognise a trade union: When the union requests recognition - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).</a></p><p>The legal profession and its regulation are independent of government, and there are no plans to bring forward legislative proposals to require law firms to recognise trade unions.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 04/03/2024 12:57:55 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	4824 label Biography information for Kim Johnson

1691096

registered interest
date	22/02/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Ministry of Justice: Domicil
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether any non-executive directors employed in his Department are non-domiciled.
tabling member constituency	Leicester South
tabling member printed	Jonathan Ashworth
uin	15283
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/02/2024 answer text <p>Non-executives’ personal data, including those relating to personal taxation or status, are protected by the UK General Data Protection Regulation. Collection of personal data on non-dom status is not routinely collected and is generally not required for making public appointments. If any such data was held, it could only be published if doing so was in compliance with data protection law.</p><p>Non-executive board members are not employees of the Ministry of Justice and act in an advisory capacity.</p><p>Data relating to public appointments are covered by the Public Appointments Privacy Statement found here: <a href="https://apply-for-public-appointment.service.gov.uk/privacy" target="_blank">https://apply-for-public-appointment.service.gov.uk/privacy</a>.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 27/02/2024 17:49:17 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	4244 label Biography information for Jonathan Ashworth

1691149

registered interest
date	22/02/2024
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 estimate he has made of when the processing time of probate applications will be reduced to less than 16 weeks.
tabling member constituency	City of Durham
tabling member printed	Mary Kelly Foy
uin	15367
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/02/2024 answer text <p>HMCTS are focused on increasing outputs to reduce overall timeliness on all types of applications and the average mean length of time taken for a grant of probate, following receipt of the documents required, is 13 weeks during July to September 2023.</p><p> </p><p>During the same period the average mean length of time take for a grant of probate, following receipt of the documents required is (a) 10.1 weeks digital and (b) 21.8 weeks paper.</p><p> </p><p>The probate service received record levels of applications during 2022 and this has continued to grow with higher levels of receipts during January to September 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.</p><p>HMCTS has increased staffing levels, streamlined internal processes and continued to invest in further improving the digital service.</p><p> </p><p>As a result, the number of grants issued for recent months has been at record levels, with over 15,500 more grants issued than applications received during the last four months (September to December) using more recent management information published by HMCTS (which does not go through the same level of quality assurance and analysis as the Family Court Statistics Quarterly).</p><p>Average waiting times for probate grants are routinely published on gov.uk via Family Court Statistics Quarterly and currently cover the period up to September 2023.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer grouped question UIN 15368 question first answered 29/02/2024 16:48:02 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	4753 label Biography information for Mary Kelly Foy

1691153

registered interest
date	22/02/2024
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, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of the time taken to process (a) online and (b) paper probate applications.
tabling member constituency	City of Durham
tabling member printed	Mary Kelly Foy
uin	15368
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/02/2024 answer text <p>HMCTS are focused on increasing outputs to reduce overall timeliness on all types of applications and the average mean length of time taken for a grant of probate, following receipt of the documents required, is 13 weeks during July to September 2023.</p><p> </p><p>During the same period the average mean length of time take for a grant of probate, following receipt of the documents required is (a) 10.1 weeks digital and (b) 21.8 weeks paper.</p><p> </p><p>The probate service received record levels of applications during 2022 and this has continued to grow with higher levels of receipts during January to September 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.</p><p>HMCTS has increased staffing levels, streamlined internal processes and continued to invest in further improving the digital service.</p><p> </p><p>As a result, the number of grants issued for recent months has been at record levels, with over 15,500 more grants issued than applications received during the last four months (September to December) using more recent management information published by HMCTS (which does not go through the same level of quality assurance and analysis as the Family Court Statistics Quarterly).</p><p>Average waiting times for probate grants are routinely published on gov.uk via Family Court Statistics Quarterly and currently cover the period up to September 2023.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer grouped question UIN 15367 question first answered 29/02/2024 16:48:02 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	4753 label Biography information for Mary Kelly Foy

1691186

registered interest
date	22/02/2024
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, if he will make it his policy that original probate documents are permanently preserved.
tabling member constituency	Romford
tabling member printed	Andrew Rosindell
uin	15248
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/03/2024 answer text <p>The Government has just undertaken a consultation on the storage and preservation of wills and other documents submitted in applications for probate. We will be publishing our response, setting out the outcome of the consultation, later this year.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 01/03/2024 12:10:36 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	1447 label Biography information for Andrew Rosindell

1691222

registered interest
date	22/02/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Prisons: Education
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 14 December 2023 to Question 5663 on Garth Prison: Education, how (a) many hours of teaching time were lost and (b) much money was recovered from education providers as a result of prison education classes not going ahead in HMP (i) Garth, (ii) Bristol, (iii) Pentonville and (iv) Ranby during the second quarter of the 2023-24 financial year.
tabling member constituency	City of Durham
tabling member printed	Mary Kelly Foy
uin	15369
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/02/2024 answer text <p>We have introduced robust contractual levers into the current education contract which has seen a decrease in the teaching time lost through the education provider. The introduction at site level of Heads of Education, Skills and Work will increase the focus on ensure operational staff are able to ensure learners arrive in education.</p><p> </p><p>The table below shows the number of planned learning hours lost in the second quarter of 2023-24 due teacher vacancy or sickness (Ed), or for operational reasons (Op), at HMP Bristol, HMP Garth, HMP Pentonville and HMP Ranby.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Learning hours lost, 1 July – 30 September 2023</strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>HMP</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Hours lost (Ed)</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Hours lost (Op)</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Bristol</p></td><td><p>263</p></td><td><p>134</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Garth</p></td><td><p>183</p></td><td><p>140</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Pentonville</p></td><td><p>53</p></td><td><p>507</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Ranby</p></td><td><p>8</p></td><td><p>376</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Total</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>507</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>1157</strong></p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>*These are preliminary data and have not yet been reconciled with the provider</p><p> </p><p>In total, 507 hours of teaching were lost owing to a failure by the provider to deliver against the commissioned provision. £60,047 has been recovered from the providers. The cost of hours lost for operational reasons is not recoverable from the provider.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 27/02/2024 17:46:31 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4753 label Biography information for Mary Kelly Foy

1691260

registered interest
date	22/02/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Ministry of Justice: Software
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much his Department has (a) budgeted for and (b) spent on software updates to legacy computer systems in each of the last three financial years.
tabling member constituency	Llanelli
tabling member printed	Dame Nia Griffith
uin	15259
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/02/2024 answer text <p>Please see the figures for budget and spending by the Ministry of Justice and HMCTS.</p><p>The Ministry of Justice does not record its budgets and expenditure to a level of granularity that permits it to identify spend that is specifically for software updates to legacy computer systems.</p><p>The Ministry of Justice maintains a fund specifically for the reduction and eradication of technical debt – this fund focusses on improving and replacing legacy infrastructure and software applications; migrating business-critical applications from legacy hosting arrangements to the cloud, which is much more modern and secure; and bringing its digital and technology estate up to required standards.</p><p>The table below sets out the Ministry of Justice budget and expenditure of the Technical Debt fund for the past three full financial years – 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p>Budget</p></td><td><p>Expenditure</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 20/21</p></td><td><p>£15.08m</p></td><td><p>£19.17m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 21/22</p></td><td><p>£32.78m</p></td><td><p>£26.56m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 22/23</p></td><td><p>£67.64m</p></td><td><p>£60.32m</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Total:</p></td><td><p>£115.5m</p></td><td><p>£106.05m</p></td></tr></tbody></table> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 27/02/2024 17:47:22 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	1541 label Biography information for Dame Nia Griffith

1690719

registered interest
date	21/02/2024
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Television Licences: Non-payment
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been prosecuted for non-payment of TV licence fees in each of the last five years.
tabling member constituency	Strangford
tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
uin	15067
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/02/2024 answer text <p>The Ministry of Justice holds information on prosecutions for non-payment of TV licence fees, covering the period requested. The latest data available, until year ending June 2023, can be obtained in the following published tool: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65bd0675704282000d752143/outcomes-by-offence-june-2023.xlsx" target="_blank">Outcomes by Offence tool: June 2023</a>.</p><p>In the data tool, navigate to the ‘Prosecutions and convictions’ tab. In the ‘Offence’ filter, select ‘191A Television licence evasion’.</p><p>The pivot table will now present the number of prosecutions at all courts from year ending June 2011, including the requested last five years, from year ending June 2019 to year ending June 2023.</p> answering member constituency Orpington answering member printed Gareth Bacon question first answered 29/02/2024 16:45:09 answering member 4798 label Biography information for Gareth Bacon
tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon