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1387789

registered interest
date	14/12/2021
answering body	Attorney General
answering dept id	88
answering dept short name	Attorney General
answering dept sort name	Attorney General
hansard heading	Trials
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Attorney General, whether (a) she or (b) the Crown Prosecution Service have set a maximum limit on the number of criminal cases awaiting trial, to act as a target for capping and reducing the current backlog of cases.
tabling member constituency	Islington South and Finsbury
tabling member printed	Emily Thornberry
uin	92849
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/01/2022 answer text <p>Neither the Attorney General nor the Crown Prosecution Service set maximum limits for the amount of time a criminal case should await trial.</p> answering member constituency Cheltenham answering member printed Alex Chalk question first answered 05/01/2022 09:00:47 answering member 4481 label Biography information for Alex Chalk
tabling member	1536 label Biography information for Emily Thornberry

1387790

registered interest
date	14/12/2021
answering body	Attorney General
answering dept id	88
answering dept short name	Attorney General
answering dept sort name	Attorney General
hansard heading	Trials
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Attorney General, whether (a) she or (b) the Crown Prosecution Service have set a maximum limit on the amount of time criminal cases should await trial, to act as a target for capping and reducing the increase in waiting times.
tabling member constituency	Islington South and Finsbury
tabling member printed	Emily Thornberry
uin	92850
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/12/2021 answer text <p>Neither the Attorney General nor the Crown Prosecution Service set maximum limits for the number of criminal cases awaiting trial.</p> answering member constituency Cheltenham answering member printed Alex Chalk question first answered 21/12/2021 09:41:20 answering member 4481 label Biography information for Alex Chalk
tabling member	1536 label Biography information for Emily Thornberry

1387791

registered interest
date	14/12/2021
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, whether his Department has set a maximum limit on the number of criminal cases awaiting trial, to act as a target for capping and reducing the current backlog of cases.
tabling member constituency	Islington South and Finsbury
tabling member printed	Emily Thornberry
uin	92851
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/01/2022 answer text <p>In the Crown Court we have seen the outstanding caseload stabilise at around 60,000 cases. The Spending Review provides an extra £477m funding for the criminal justice system. We estimate this will improve waiting times and reduce the number of outstanding cases to 53,000 by March 2025, ensuring that we do right by victims of crime.</p><p> </p><p>We developed the Criminal Justice Action Plan at rapid pace to improve performance of the Criminal Justice System as a whole. The Action Plan defines a set of actions being carried out which intends to improve timeliness of cases throughout the CJS, whilst reducing the outstanding caseload backlog.</p><p> </p><p>Judges continue to work to prioritise cases involving vulnerable complainants and witnesses, to seek to ensure that domestic abuse, serious sex cases and those with vulnerable witnesses (including youth cases) are listed at the first available opportunity. Judges also seek to list cases within their custody time limit, if applicable.</p><p> </p><p>Having the right data across the Criminal Justice System is crucial to recovery. We are committed to working with our partners across the justice system to ensure that it underpins our approach. As part of that, we have committed to publish quarterly Criminal Justice scorecards which will bring together data from across the system on key areas of performance including on timeliness. This will allow us to identify problem areas and take a cross-system response to dips in performance. We have a number of measures to monitor different aspects of timeliness so that we can identify where in the process delays are occurring. The first national scorecards were published in early December and can be viewed at <a href="https://data.justice.gov.uk/cjs-scorecard-all-crime" target="_blank">https://data.justice.gov.uk/cjs-scorecard-all-crime</a>.</p> answering member constituency South Suffolk answering member printed James Cartlidge question first answered 05/01/2022 12:50:07 answering member 4519 label Biography information for James Cartlidge
tabling member	1536 label Biography information for Emily Thornberry

1387792

registered interest
date	14/12/2021
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, whether his Department has set a maximum limit on the amount of time criminal cases should await trial, to act as a target for capping and reducing the increase in waiting times.
tabling member constituency	Islington South and Finsbury
tabling member printed	Emily Thornberry
uin	92852
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/12/2021 answer text <p>In the Crown Court we have seen the outstanding caseload stabilise at around 60,000 cases. The Spending Review provides an extra £477m funding for the criminal justice system. We estimate this will improve waiting times and reduce the number of outstanding cases to 53,000 by March 2025, ensuring that we do right by victims of crime.</p><p> </p><p>While we do not have set targets, we developed the Criminal Justice Action Plan at rapid pace to improve performance of the Criminal Justice System as a whole. The Action Plan defines a set of actions being carried out which intends to improve timeliness of cases throughout the CJS, whilst reducing the outstanding caseload backlog.</p><p> </p><p>Judges continue to work to prioritise cases involving vulnerable complainants and witnesses, to seek to ensure that domestic abuse, serious sex cases and those with vulnerable witnesses (including youth cases) are listed at the first available opportunity. Judges also seek to list cases within their custody time limit, if applicable.</p><p> </p><p>Having the right data across the Criminal Justice System is crucial to recovery. We are committed to working with our partners across the justice system to ensure that it underpins our approach. As part of that, we have committed to publish quarterly Criminal Justice scorecards which will bring together data from across the system on key areas of performance including on timeliness. This will allow us to identify problem areas and take a cross-system response to dips in performance. We have a number of measures to monitor different aspects of timeliness so that we can identify where in the process delays are occurring. The first national scorecards were published in early December and can be viewed at <a href="https://data.justice.gov.uk/cjs-scorecard-all-crime" target="_blank">https://data.justice.gov.uk/cjs-scorecard-all-crime</a>.</p> answering member constituency South Suffolk answering member printed James Cartlidge question first answered 22/12/2021 15:31:24 answering member 4519 label Biography information for James Cartlidge
tabling member	1536 label Biography information for Emily Thornberry

1386891

registered interest
date	10/12/2021
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Remote Hearings: Impact Assessments
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish his Department's most recent assessment of the impact of remote trials in criminal courts on access to justice, justice outcomes and the representation of defendants.
tabling member constituency	Islington South and Finsbury
tabling member printed	Emily Thornberry
uin	90838
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/12/2021 answer text <p>Remote hearings are a key part of reform of our courts and tribunals system, and how video technology is used in criminal proceedings is kept under regular review by HMCTS.</p><p> </p><p>Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) have published a large-scale multi-method evaluation of remote hearings during the pandemic.</p><p> </p><p>The study aimed to understand who attended remote hearings; how public users, the judiciary, legal representatives, HMCTS staff, intermediaries, support staff, and observers experienced remote hearings; and the perceptions and attitudes of these stakeholders towards remote hearings. This evaluation can be found <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmcts-remote-hearing-evaluation" target="_blank">here.</a></p><p> </p><p>More broadly, MoJ is currently conducting an evaluation of the HMCTS Reform programme. The evaluation will consider the effect of reform on fairness, access to justice and cost to users. This includes a process evaluation of the Video Hearings Service, which will explore how the hearings worked in practice and the perceptions and experiences of the parties involved, including the barriers faced and support required.</p><p> </p><p>Judicial decisions on whether to hold a hearing remotely are informed by the criminal procedure rules and criminal practice directions. The Department and HMCTS will continue to review the use of remote hearings.</p> answering member constituency South Suffolk answering member printed James Cartlidge grouped question UIN 90839 question first answered 20/12/2021 16:07:14 answering member 4519 label Biography information for James Cartlidge
tabling member	1536 label Biography information for Emily Thornberry

1386892

registered interest
date	10/12/2021
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Remote Hearings
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of commissioning an independent, public evaluation of the impact of remote trials in criminal courts on access to justice, justice outcomes, and the representation of defendants.
tabling member constituency	Islington South and Finsbury
tabling member printed	Emily Thornberry
uin	90839
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/12/2021 answer text <p>Remote hearings are a key part of reform of our courts and tribunals system, and how video technology is used in criminal proceedings is kept under regular review by HMCTS.</p><p> </p><p>Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) have published a large-scale multi-method evaluation of remote hearings during the pandemic.</p><p> </p><p>The study aimed to understand who attended remote hearings; how public users, the judiciary, legal representatives, HMCTS staff, intermediaries, support staff, and observers experienced remote hearings; and the perceptions and attitudes of these stakeholders towards remote hearings. This evaluation can be found <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmcts-remote-hearing-evaluation" target="_blank">here.</a></p><p> </p><p>More broadly, MoJ is currently conducting an evaluation of the HMCTS Reform programme. The evaluation will consider the effect of reform on fairness, access to justice and cost to users. This includes a process evaluation of the Video Hearings Service, which will explore how the hearings worked in practice and the perceptions and experiences of the parties involved, including the barriers faced and support required.</p><p> </p><p>Judicial decisions on whether to hold a hearing remotely are informed by the criminal procedure rules and criminal practice directions. The Department and HMCTS will continue to review the use of remote hearings.</p> answering member constituency South Suffolk answering member printed James Cartlidge grouped question UIN 90838 question first answered 20/12/2021 16:07:14 answering member 4519 label Biography information for James Cartlidge
tabling member	1536 label Biography information for Emily Thornberry

1386893

registered interest
date	10/12/2021
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 criminal court trials have been cancelled as a result of the withdrawal of support for prosecutions by victims in (a) 2017, (b) 2018, (c) 2019, (d) 2020 and (e) 2021 to date; and how many of those trials had been pending for (a) 0 to 12 months, (b) 12 to 24 months, (c) 24 to 36 months or (d) longer than 36 months at the point of cancellation, in each of those years.
tabling member constituency	Islington South and Finsbury
tabling member printed	Emily Thornberry
uin	90840
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/12/2021 answer text <p>Data on the number of cracked trials (those that are cancelled without needing to be rearranged) is published in our Criminal Court datasets trials tool available here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-court-statistics" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-court-statistics</a> and shows a range of reasons why cases crack, including where the prosecution end the case due to the witness being absent or withdrawing.</p><p> </p><p>Waiting times can also be found in the above link. However, it is not possible to estimate the duration of ‘waiting time’ for cracked trials by specific reasons from the data centrally collated by the Ministry of Justice. To do so would incur disproportionate costs.</p> answering member constituency South Suffolk answering member printed James Cartlidge grouped question UIN 90841 question first answered 20/12/2021 16:13:02 answering member 4519 label Biography information for James Cartlidge
tabling member	1536 label Biography information for Emily Thornberry

1386894

registered interest
date	10/12/2021
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Sexual Offences: Trials
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many criminal court trials for sexual offences, disaggregated by case type, have been cancelled as a result of the withdrawal of support for prosecutions by victims in (a) 2017, (b) 2018, (c) 2019, (d) 2020 and (e) 2021 to date; and how many of these trials had been pending for (a) 0 to 12 months, (b) 12 to 24 months, (c) 24 to 36 months or (d) longer than 36 months at the point of cancellation in each of those years.
tabling member constituency	Islington South and Finsbury
tabling member printed	Emily Thornberry
uin	90841
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/12/2021 answer text <p>Data on the number of cracked trials (those that are cancelled without needing to be rearranged) is published in our Criminal Court datasets trials tool available here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-court-statistics" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-court-statistics</a> and shows a range of reasons why cases crack, including where the prosecution end the case due to the witness being absent or withdrawing.</p><p> </p><p>Waiting times can also be found in the above link. However, it is not possible to estimate the duration of ‘waiting time’ for cracked trials by specific reasons from the data centrally collated by the Ministry of Justice. To do so would incur disproportionate costs.</p> answering member constituency South Suffolk answering member printed James Cartlidge grouped question UIN 90840 question first answered 20/12/2021 16:13:02 answering member 4519 label Biography information for James Cartlidge
tabling member	1536 label Biography information for Emily Thornberry

1386895

registered interest
date	10/12/2021
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 proportion of outstanding criminal court cases concern (a) sexual offences, disaggregated by case type and (b) hate crime, disaggregated by protected characteristic strand, as of 1 December 2021.
tabling member constituency	Islington South and Finsbury
tabling member printed	Emily Thornberry
uin	90842
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/12/2021 answer text <p>The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has published information on the number of outstanding criminal court cases as part of the National Statistics release ‘Criminal court statistics quarterly’.</p><p> </p><p>The data is available by case type and offence group for Crown Court cases as part of the ‘Crown Court cases received, disposed and outstanding tool’ – with the latest data available to June 2021. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2021" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2021</a></p><p> </p><p>At the end of June 2021 there were 6,429 outstanding sexual offence cases at the Crown Court. This represents an increase of 54% on the previous year (Q2 2020). Data to the end of December 2021 is provisionally intended for publication on 31<sup>st</sup> March 2022.</p><p> </p><p>It is not possible to separate this for hate crime. Hate crimes are usually prosecuted under the specific offence in legislation that they fall under, and the ‘hate’ element is an aggravating factor in that crime rather than the offence itself. Court data held in the department does not separately identify these.</p> answering member constituency South Suffolk answering member printed James Cartlidge question first answered 20/12/2021 16:17:55 answering member 4519 label Biography information for James Cartlidge
tabling member	1536 label Biography information for Emily Thornberry

1386896

registered interest
date	10/12/2021
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Police: Fraud
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police staff in England and Wales were dedicated to working on fraud cases as of (a) 1 January 2017, (b) 1 January 2018, (c) 1 January 2019, (d) 1 January 2020, (e) 1 January 2021 and (f) 9 December 2021.
tabling member constituency	Islington South and Finsbury
tabling member printed	Emily Thornberry
uin	90843
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/12/2021 answer text <p>The Home Office collects and publishes data annually on the primary role of officers, staff and PCSOs in the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin, available here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales</a></p><p>Function 7c – “Investigations (Economic Crime)” - includes officers, staff, and PCSOs working primarily in the following roles:</p><ul><li>Financial Investigation Unit – responsible for investigation of all confiscation cases, deal with cash seizures over £1,000 and investigate drug trafficking and money laundering offences.</li><li>Cheque and credit card fraud unit, responsible for processing all reports of theft / misuse of chequebooks and credit / debit cards.</li><li>Regional Asset Recovery Team – dealing with confiscation cases but on a regional basis.</li><li>All Financial Investigators.</li><li>POCA (proceeds of Crime Act) money</li></ul><p>Tables F1, F2 and F3 of the data tables that accompany the police workforce statistics contain this information, and are available in each annual publication here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales</a></p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 15/12/2021 16:45:18 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	1536 label Biography information for Emily Thornberry