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1247812

registered interest
date	02/11/2020
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Rape: Prosecutions
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the recent report by the Office of the Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, what steps the Government plans to take to tackle the annual and proportionate decline in the (a) number of rape cases considered by the CPS and (b) conviction rate among those cases since 2016-17.
tabling member constituency	Streatham
tabling member printed	Bell Ribeiro-Addy
uin	110250
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/11/2020 answer text <p>The Government recognises that the decline in the number of rape and serious sexual offences being charged and prosecuted in England and Wales is a cause for significant concern. That is why we are carrying out an end-to end review of how the Criminal Justice System responds to rape. Through this review we are working with operational partners from across the Criminal Justice system including the police, CPS and victims’ groups to ensure we can improve the way rape cases are dealt with.</p><p>We welcome the Office of the Victims’ Commissioner’s research and will consider its findings carefully. The Government is intending to publish its initial findings and recommendations for action before the end of the year, and is committed to continuing to work after that publication to make further changes to improve the system in the longer term.</p> answering member constituency Cheltenham answering member printed Alex Chalk question first answered 10/11/2020 17:08:29 answering member 4481 label Biography information for Alex Chalk
tabling member	4764 label Biography information for Bell Ribeiro-Addy

1247816

registered interest
date	02/11/2020
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Victims: Administration of Justice
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what support his Department has given to victims of clerical abuse to access justice.
tabling member constituency	Foyle
tabling member printed	Colum Eastwood
uin	110279
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/11/2020 answer text <p>Rape and sexual abuse are devastating crimes that can have a life-long impact, and the Government is committed to ensuring the victims of these crimes have access to high-quality support services to help them cope and, as far as possible, recover. These services are available to all victims whether or not they report to the police.</p><p>In 2020/21, the Ministry of Justice awarded £12m to 91 rape support centres across England and Wales to provide independent, specialist support to female and male victims of sexual violence, an increase of £4m from 2019/20. This includes £1.8m of ringfenced funding for victims of recent and non-recent child sexual abuse.</p><p>The government has also recently doubled the financial support it provides to national organisations that support victims and survivors of child sexual abuse to £2.4m.</p><p>The new funding is in addition to the £4.79m provided to Police and Crime Commissioners by the Ministry of Justice to support victims of child sexual abuse (part of the £69m provided this year for them to commission victim support service based on local need).</p><p>We are committed to ensuring that victims can continue to access such support during the pandemic, and recently announced a £76m package of funding for victims, with £10 million ringfenced to provide support for victims of sexual violence specifically. This has helped fund technology to enable charities to offer services remotely.</p><p>The Government also recently announced that an additional £4m per annum until 2022 will be invested in recruiting more Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs) to help victims feel informed and supported at every stage of their recovery journey. ISVAs provide an important link between police, support services and criminal justice agencies.</p><p>We will continue to work with the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse to expose what went wrong in the past and to learn the lessons for the future.</p> answering member constituency Cheltenham answering member printed Alex Chalk question first answered 05/11/2020 16:49:51 answering member 4481 label Biography information for Alex Chalk
tabling member	4846 label Biography information for Colum Eastwood

1247891

registered interest
date	02/11/2020
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Courts and Tribunals: Coronavirus
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how long he plans to keep in place covid-19 flexible operating hours in courts and tribunals in England and Wales.
tabling member constituency	Lewisham West and Penge
tabling member printed	Ellie Reeves
uin	110219
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/11/2020 answer text <p>HM Courts &amp; Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has led the way internationally in continuing justice, restarting jury trials ahead of all other comparable systems.</p><p>We continue to make significant progress on Criminal Courts Recovery. Since August, magistrates’ courts have been consistently completing more cases than they are receiving, dealing with over 21,000 cases each week and tackling the backlog.</p><p>In the Crown Court, we are listing over 150 jury trials and conducting thousands of other hearings each week.</p><p>As part of the Criminal Courts Recovery we have considered adopting different operating hours to maximise HMCTS’ own estate. Magistrates’ courts are already responding flexibly at a local level, and a number of Crown Court buildings are now testing and refining a blended COVID Operating Hours model. It is important to note that COVID Operating Hours would be a time-limited measure and whilst they would mean that our buildings will be open for longer, no one party would be required to attend court for longer.</p><p>We identified seven Crown Court locations to test and refine the COVID Operating Hours model. We are monitoring the pilots and will assess them all by the end of November before a decision on further implementation is taken.</p> answering member constituency Croydon South answering member printed Chris Philp grouped question UIN 110220 question first answered 10/11/2020 15:44:44 answering member 4503 label Biography information for Chris Philp
tabling member	4620 label Biography information for Ellie Reeves

1247892

registered interest
date	02/11/2020
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Courts and Tribunals: Coronavirus
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 effectiveness of the covid-19 flexible operating hours pilots.
tabling member constituency	Lewisham West and Penge
tabling member printed	Ellie Reeves
uin	110220
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/11/2020 answer text <p>HM Courts &amp; Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has led the way internationally in continuing justice, restarting jury trials ahead of all other comparable systems.</p><p>We continue to make significant progress on Criminal Courts Recovery. Since August, magistrates’ courts have been consistently completing more cases than they are receiving, dealing with over 21,000 cases each week and tackling the backlog.</p><p>In the Crown Court, we are listing over 150 jury trials and conducting thousands of other hearings each week.</p><p>As part of the Criminal Courts Recovery we have considered adopting different operating hours to maximise HMCTS’ own estate. Magistrates’ courts are already responding flexibly at a local level, and a number of Crown Court buildings are now testing and refining a blended COVID Operating Hours model. It is important to note that COVID Operating Hours would be a time-limited measure and whilst they would mean that our buildings will be open for longer, no one party would be required to attend court for longer.</p><p>We identified seven Crown Court locations to test and refine the COVID Operating Hours model. We are monitoring the pilots and will assess them all by the end of November before a decision on further implementation is taken.</p> answering member constituency Croydon South answering member printed Chris Philp grouped question UIN 110219 question first answered 10/11/2020 15:44:44 answering member 4503 label Biography information for Chris Philp
tabling member	4620 label Biography information for Ellie Reeves

1247893

registered interest
date	02/11/2020
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Trials: Coronavirus
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many jury trials were completed in each of the last six months.
tabling member constituency	Lewisham West and Penge
tabling member printed	Ellie Reeves
uin	110221
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/11/2020 answer text <p>HMCTS publishes quarterly official statistics for the criminal courts here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2020/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2020" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2020/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2020</a>.</p><p>HMCTS also publishes weekly Management Information for all jurisdictions, including the Magistrates’ Court, Crown Court and Employment Tribunal here:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/hmcts-weekly-management-information-during-coronavirus-march-to-september-2020" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/hmcts-weekly-management-information-during-coronavirus-march-to-september-2020</a>.</p><p>These weekly MI figures reflect the data held on the relevant case management systems and hence have some definitional and timing differences from any official statistics.</p> answering member constituency Croydon South answering member printed Chris Philp grouped question UIN 110222 question first answered 10/11/2020 15:52:00 answering member 4503 label Biography information for Chris Philp
tabling member	4620 label Biography information for Ellie Reeves

1247894

registered interest
date	02/11/2020
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Courts
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) receipts and (b) disposals there were in (a) magistrates courts, (b) Crown courts and (c) employment tribunals in each of the last 12 months.
tabling member constituency	Lewisham West and Penge
tabling member printed	Ellie Reeves
uin	110222
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/11/2020 answer text <p>HMCTS publishes quarterly official statistics for the criminal courts here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2020/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2020" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2020/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2020</a>.</p><p>HMCTS also publishes weekly Management Information for all jurisdictions, including the Magistrates’ Court, Crown Court and Employment Tribunal here:</p><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/hmcts-weekly-management-information-during-coronavirus-march-to-september-2020" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/hmcts-weekly-management-information-during-coronavirus-march-to-september-2020</a>.</p><p>These weekly MI figures reflect the data held on the relevant case management systems and hence have some definitional and timing differences from any official statistics.</p> answering member constituency Croydon South answering member printed Chris Philp grouped question UIN 110221 question first answered 10/11/2020 15:52:00 answering member 4503 label Biography information for Chris Philp
tabling member	4620 label Biography information for Ellie Reeves

1247917

registered interest
date	02/11/2020
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Courts: Disability
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many courts in England and Wales are accessible for disabled users; and what steps he has taken to improve access for disabled users of the courts system.
tabling member constituency	Kingston upon Hull East
tabling member printed	Karl Turner
uin	110118
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/11/2020 answer text <p>We are committed to ensuring our courts are accessible to all our users and we aim to list cases at suitable venues when there are access needs. We are unable to provide information on the number of courts that are accessible for disabled users in the time allocated.</p><p>HMCTS will provide reasonable adjustments for court and tribunal users with disabilities and takes steps to avoid treating people less favourably because of their disability. Court and tribunal users are encouraged to get in touch before a hearing to discuss any particular adjustments they may need. Various mitigations will be explored, depending on the support required. For buildings, adjustments may include use of video-conferencing from a remote site, ensuring venues have ramps or accessible toilets, lifts able to accommodate wheelchairs, or hearing loops.</p><p>The modernisation and investment taking place across the justice system will mean that fewer people will need to attend court, as we make use of technology such as video-conferencing and online services. We have rapidly expanded our audio and video technology capability in direct response to the impacts of coronavirus (COVID-19), enabling more remote hearings which reduce the need for people to attend a physical court building.</p> answering member constituency Croydon South answering member printed Chris Philp question first answered 05/11/2020 16:51:15 answering member 4503 label Biography information for Chris Philp
tabling member	4030 label Biography information for Karl Turner

1247929

registered interest
date	02/11/2020
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Solicitors: 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 firms of solicitors held a criminal legal aid contract as of 1 November 2020.
tabling member constituency	Kingston upon Hull East
tabling member printed	Karl Turner
uin	110119
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/11/2020 answer text <p>Please note for the figures provided that some firms may have more than one office. There are currently 1,130 firms which hold a Criminal Legal Aid Contract. There are currently 1,466 firms which hold a Civil Legal Aid Contract. This data is correct as at 2 November 2020.</p><p>Information on legal aid expenditure is published in the Legal Aid Agency’s National Statistics, available at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/legal-aid-statistics" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/legal-aid-statistics</a>. At the time of writing, the most recent period for which data has been published covers up to and including March 2020; pre-publication laws preclude us from releasing figures for subsequent months at this time. Figures are also available under the closed claim expenditure measure in the same release with data up to June 2020 available. This provides only the total value of payments made to legal aid providers in relation to pieces of work that are completed in the period, and which could cover wide time periods, but does not include income received or expenditure in relation to debt write-offs.</p><p>The Legal Aid Agency frequently reviews market capacity to make sure there is adequate provision around the country and moves quickly to ensure provision where gaps may appear.</p><p>Earlier this year we announced an independent review to look at the sustainability of the legal aid market and have introduced changes to inject up £51m per year.</p> answering member constituency Cheltenham answering member printed Alex Chalk grouped question UIN 110120 110121 110122 question first answered 05/11/2020 16:46:13 answering member 4481 label Biography information for Alex Chalk
tabling member	4030 label Biography information for Karl Turner

1247934

registered interest
date	02/11/2020
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Solicitors: 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 firms of solicitors held a civil legal aid contract as of 1 November 2020.
tabling member constituency	Kingston upon Hull East
tabling member printed	Karl Turner
uin	110120
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/11/2020 answer text <p>Please note for the figures provided that some firms may have more than one office. There are currently 1,130 firms which hold a Criminal Legal Aid Contract. There are currently 1,466 firms which hold a Civil Legal Aid Contract. This data is correct as at 2 November 2020.</p><p>Information on legal aid expenditure is published in the Legal Aid Agency’s National Statistics, available at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/legal-aid-statistics" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/legal-aid-statistics</a>. At the time of writing, the most recent period for which data has been published covers up to and including March 2020; pre-publication laws preclude us from releasing figures for subsequent months at this time. Figures are also available under the closed claim expenditure measure in the same release with data up to June 2020 available. This provides only the total value of payments made to legal aid providers in relation to pieces of work that are completed in the period, and which could cover wide time periods, but does not include income received or expenditure in relation to debt write-offs.</p><p>The Legal Aid Agency frequently reviews market capacity to make sure there is adequate provision around the country and moves quickly to ensure provision where gaps may appear.</p><p>Earlier this year we announced an independent review to look at the sustainability of the legal aid market and have introduced changes to inject up £51m per year.</p> answering member constituency Cheltenham answering member printed Alex Chalk grouped question UIN 110119 110121 110122 question first answered 05/11/2020 16:46:13 answering member 4481 label Biography information for Alex Chalk
tabling member	4030 label Biography information for Karl Turner

1247939

registered interest
date	02/11/2020
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Air Pollution
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 effect of reforms to the judicial review system on the numbers of legal cases brought against the Government on illegal levels of air pollution.
tabling member constituency	Swansea West
tabling member printed	Geraint Davies
uin	110038
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/11/2020 answer text <p>I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given to PQ97451 on 9<sup>th</sup> October 2020. Further to that answer the Government has also committed to undertaking a review of the Environmental Costs Protection Regime, and will set out further details in due course.</p> answering member constituency Croydon South answering member printed Chris Philp question first answered 05/11/2020 16:52:29 answering member 4503 label Biography information for Chris Philp
tabling member	155 label Biography information for Geraint Davies