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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

1606279

registered interest
date	22/03/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Childcare
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to ensure the Government's proposals for free childcare for children aged over nine months, as announced in the Budget 2023, apply to parents who already have childcare arrangements in place.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	171398
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/03/2023 answer text <p>The department is expanding the current free childcare offer, so that eligible working parents in England will be able to access 30 hours of free childcare per week for 38 weeks per year from when their child is 9 months old to when they start school.</p><p>From April 2024, working parents of 2-year-olds will be able to access 15 hours of free childcare per week (across 38 weeks of the year). From September 2024 this will be extended to parents of 9 month to 3-year-olds, and from September 2025 working parents of 9 month to 3-year-olds will be able to access 30 free hours per week (38 weeks a year).</p><p>Parents who already have childcare arrangements in place will be able to benefit from this new offer, as well as benefiting from the government’s current range of childcare offers, which includes the free early education entitlements as well as Tax-Free Childcare and Universal Credit Childcare.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Surrey answering member printed Claire Coutinho question first answered 27/03/2023 16:44:37 answering member 4806 label Biography information for Claire Coutinho
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1606302

registered interest
date	22/03/2023
answering body	Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
answering dept id	211
answering dept short name	Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
answering dept sort name	Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
hansard heading	Investment Zones
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether funds provided to investment zones may be used to provide business rate relief to (a) shops and (b) other businesses.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	171399
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/03/2023 answer text <p>I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to Question <a href="https://gbr01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fquestions-statements.parliament.uk%2Fwritten-questions%2Fdetail%2F2023-03-16%2F167099&amp;data=05%7C01%7CParliamentary%40levellingup.gov.uk%7Cf1aca1cb26714a97663108db2ec1aa70%7Cbf3468109c7d43dea87224a2ef3995a8%7C0%7C0%7C638155181537735144%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=jow9IQlavN19UFJumwNsuDplQtKILIK26G7ODTljmiQ%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">UIN 167099</a> on 21st March 2023.</p><p>Places will be expected to set out how their Investment Zone proposals deliver value for money, additionality and avoid displacement.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bishop Auckland answering member printed Dehenna Davison grouped question UIN 171400 question first answered 27/03/2023 16:16:44 answering member 4737 label Biography information for Dehenna Davison
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1606303

registered interest
date	22/03/2023
answering body	Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
answering dept id	211
answering dept short name	Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
answering dept sort name	Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
hansard heading	Investment Zones
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of investment zones on the displacement of shops and other businesses.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	171400
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/03/2023 answer text <p>I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to Question <a href="https://gbr01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fquestions-statements.parliament.uk%2Fwritten-questions%2Fdetail%2F2023-03-16%2F167099&amp;data=05%7C01%7CParliamentary%40levellingup.gov.uk%7Cf1aca1cb26714a97663108db2ec1aa70%7Cbf3468109c7d43dea87224a2ef3995a8%7C0%7C0%7C638155181537735144%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=jow9IQlavN19UFJumwNsuDplQtKILIK26G7ODTljmiQ%3D&amp;reserved=0" target="_blank">UIN 167099</a> on 21st March 2023.</p><p>Places will be expected to set out how their Investment Zone proposals deliver value for money, additionality and avoid displacement.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bishop Auckland answering member printed Dehenna Davison grouped question UIN 171399 question first answered 27/03/2023 16:16:44 answering member 4737 label Biography information for Dehenna Davison
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1606304

registered interest
date	22/03/2023
answering body	Department for Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	217
answering dept short name	Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Swimming Pools: Finance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to paragraph 4.18 of the Spring Budget 2023, HC1183, published on 15 March 2023, whether the funds allocated to support swimming pools will be available for (a) new and (b) replacement facilities.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	171401
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/03/2023 answer text <p>At the Budget, we announced a dedicated £63 million support package for swimming pools which is targeted at addressing cost pressures facing public swimming pool providers. It will also help provide investment in energy efficiency measures to reduce future operating costs and make existing facilities sustainable in the long-term.</p><p>This fund will not be available for new and replacement facilities.</p> answering member constituency Pudsey answering member printed Stuart Andrew question first answered 27/03/2023 14:56:35 answering member 4032 label Biography information for Stuart Andrew
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1599288

registered interest
date	27/02/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Alternatives to Prison
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to implement the reforms to the adult out of court disposals framework in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	153750
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 02/03/2023 answer text <p>Implementation of the changes to adult Out of Court Disposals (OOCDs) set out in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 requires public consultation on a draft code of practice that covers the use, administration, and scrutiny of the revised framework of cautions. We are working towards finalising this draft code and will set out next steps on the consultation timetable in the coming weeks.</p><p> </p><p>The Government will consider the representations made, publish a response to those views, and finalise the Code of Practice. We do not want to prejudge the breadth or focus of the representations we receive, and the Government’s response to them. We will confirm the implementation date for the revised framework after the consultation process is complete.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds question first answered 02/03/2023 19:17:55 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham

1587756

registered interest
date	21/02/2023
answering body	Department of Health and Social Care
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health and Social Care
answering dept sort name	Health and Social Care
hansard heading	Cancer: Mortality Rates
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to to introduce a cancer-specific plan for increasing cancer survival in England as part of the Major Conditions Strategy.
tabling member constituency	Stockton North
tabling member printed	Alex Cunningham
uin	149468
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/02/2023 answer text <p>The Major Conditions Strategy will look at cancer, covering treatment, prevention and follow-up care. The strategy will look at a wide range of interventions and enablers to improve outcomes and experience for cancer patients.</p> answering member constituency Faversham and Mid Kent answering member printed Helen Whately grouped question UIN 149470 question first answered 24/02/2023 16:29:15 answering member 4527 label Biography information for Helen Whately previous answer version 57491 answering member constituency Faversham and Mid Kent answering member printed Helen Whately answering member 4527 label Biography information for Helen Whately
tabling member	4122 label Biography information for Alex Cunningham