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1612763

registered interest
date	20/04/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Senior Courts Costs Office
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases are awaiting review at the Senior Courts Costs Office; and if he will make an assessment of the impact of the number of cases on the work of the Court of Protection.
tabling member constituency	Wallasey
tabling member printed	Dame Angela Eagle
uin	181909
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/04/2023 answer text <p>The Senior Courts Costs Office (SCCO) assess bills of cost arising from proceedings in the High Court, London County Courts and Tribunals and the Court of Protection.</p><p> </p><p>The only cases currently being dealt with by the SCCO outside target timescales are those arising from Court of Protection proceedings.</p><p> </p><p>As of 14 April 2023, there were 5,975 Court of Protection bills of cost awaiting assessment.  This is made up of 5,544 bills under £35,000 with waiting times of 38 weeks and 431 bills with a value of between £35,000 and £100,000 with waiting times of 47 weeks.  The current time taken to issue a certificate in Court of Protection cases is 20 days from the assessment having been agreed.  The party then submits the certificate to the Office of Public Guardian to authorise payment from the protected party’s fund.</p><p> </p><p>Solicitors are not required to wait until the SCCO has assessed their bill and issued the certificate before receiving payment for costs. Court of Protection Rules enable solicitors to reimburse themselves for work undertaken in the first three-quarters of the year up to a maximum of 75% of the estimated annual charges. The total figure approved by the SCCO is adjusted to reflect any such payments made during the course of the year.</p><p> </p><p>The SCCO is running a pilot in which professional deputies appointed by the Court of Protection, their legal representatives and other legal professionals involved in Court of Protection cases, may file their bills in respect of general management and other applications electronically where the relevant authority has been obtained from the Court of Protection. The pilot of this electronic and expedited process is due to conclude on 28 April 2023.</p><p> </p><p>HMCTS is committed to reducing the time taken to deal with Court of Protection Bills and has also reallocated resource to help with this.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 26/04/2023 13:58:14 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	491 label Biography information for Dame Angela Eagle

1612927

registered interest
date	20/04/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Approved Premises
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Approved Premises in England house (a) women and (b) men with a home address in Wales.
tabling member constituency	Dwyfor Meirionnydd
tabling member printed	Liz Saville Roberts
uin	182035
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/04/2023 answer text <p>The 105 Approved Premises (AP) in England and Wales all accept offenders from either country. As there is no AP for women in Wales, any female offender from Wales requiring an AP placement would be accommodated in an AP in England.</p><p> </p><p>We endeavour to accommodate offenders who need an AP placement as close as possible to their home, but since a range of factors, including protection of victims, need to be taken into account, this is not always possible.</p><p> </p><p>When at full capacity, the four APs in Wales can accommodate 103 residents. As refurbishments are being undertaken, 14 places are currently unavailable. As of 20 April 2023, 78 offenders were resident in AP in Wales.</p><p> </p><p>As information about the home addresses of AP residents is not held centrally, it would not be possible to obtain figures on the number of residents with a home address in Wales or their average distance from home without incurring disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds grouped question UIN 182036 182037 182038 question first answered 25/04/2023 10:29:41 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	4521 label Biography information for Liz Saville Roberts

1612928

registered interest
date	20/04/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Approved Premises
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) women and (b) men with a home address in Wales are housed in Approved Premises.
tabling member constituency	Dwyfor Meirionnydd
tabling member printed	Liz Saville Roberts
uin	182036
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/04/2023 answer text <p>The 105 Approved Premises (AP) in England and Wales all accept offenders from either country. As there is no AP for women in Wales, any female offender from Wales requiring an AP placement would be accommodated in an AP in England.</p><p> </p><p>We endeavour to accommodate offenders who need an AP placement as close as possible to their home, but since a range of factors, including protection of victims, need to be taken into account, this is not always possible.</p><p> </p><p>When at full capacity, the four APs in Wales can accommodate 103 residents. As refurbishments are being undertaken, 14 places are currently unavailable. As of 20 April 2023, 78 offenders were resident in AP in Wales.</p><p> </p><p>As information about the home addresses of AP residents is not held centrally, it would not be possible to obtain figures on the number of residents with a home address in Wales or their average distance from home without incurring disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds grouped question UIN 182035 182037 182038 question first answered 25/04/2023 10:29:41 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	4521 label Biography information for Liz Saville Roberts

1612930

registered interest
date	20/04/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Approved Premises
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what is the average distance between the Approved Premises and home address for (a) women and (b) men currently housed in Approved Premises in England with a home address in Wales.
tabling member constituency	Dwyfor Meirionnydd
tabling member printed	Liz Saville Roberts
uin	182037
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/04/2023 answer text <p>The 105 Approved Premises (AP) in England and Wales all accept offenders from either country. As there is no AP for women in Wales, any female offender from Wales requiring an AP placement would be accommodated in an AP in England.</p><p> </p><p>We endeavour to accommodate offenders who need an AP placement as close as possible to their home, but since a range of factors, including protection of victims, need to be taken into account, this is not always possible.</p><p> </p><p>When at full capacity, the four APs in Wales can accommodate 103 residents. As refurbishments are being undertaken, 14 places are currently unavailable. As of 20 April 2023, 78 offenders were resident in AP in Wales.</p><p> </p><p>As information about the home addresses of AP residents is not held centrally, it would not be possible to obtain figures on the number of residents with a home address in Wales or their average distance from home without incurring disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds grouped question UIN 182035 182036 182038 question first answered 25/04/2023 10:29:41 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	4521 label Biography information for Liz Saville Roberts

1612931

registered interest
date	20/04/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Approved Premises: Wales
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what is the capacity of each Approved Premises in Wales; and how much of this capacity is in use as of 20 April 2023.
tabling member constituency	Dwyfor Meirionnydd
tabling member printed	Liz Saville Roberts
uin	182038
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/04/2023 answer text <p>The 105 Approved Premises (AP) in England and Wales all accept offenders from either country. As there is no AP for women in Wales, any female offender from Wales requiring an AP placement would be accommodated in an AP in England.</p><p> </p><p>We endeavour to accommodate offenders who need an AP placement as close as possible to their home, but since a range of factors, including protection of victims, need to be taken into account, this is not always possible.</p><p> </p><p>When at full capacity, the four APs in Wales can accommodate 103 residents. As refurbishments are being undertaken, 14 places are currently unavailable. As of 20 April 2023, 78 offenders were resident in AP in Wales.</p><p> </p><p>As information about the home addresses of AP residents is not held centrally, it would not be possible to obtain figures on the number of residents with a home address in Wales or their average distance from home without incurring disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency East Hampshire answering member printed Damian Hinds grouped question UIN 182035 182036 182037 question first answered 25/04/2023 10:29:41 answering member 3969 label Biography information for Damian Hinds
tabling member	4521 label Biography information for Liz Saville Roberts

1612986

registered interest
date	20/04/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Sexual Offences: Victim Support Schemes
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 estimate of the cost to the public purse of a free and independent legal advocate to support victims of sexual violence and abuse for one year.
tabling member constituency	Croydon North
tabling member printed	Steve Reed
uin	181976
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/04/2023 answer text <p>The Department is currently unable to make an estimate for costs in relation to a free and independent legal advocate to support victims as we are still considering the responses to a consultation that we undertook last year, which looked at ways to enhance legal support or advice for victims of rape or serious sexual assault regarding personal information requests.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 25/04/2023 11:42:29 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4268 label Biography information for Steve Reed

1612987

registered interest
date	20/04/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Domestic Abuse and Sexual Offences: Advisory Services
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 estimate of the average cost to the public purse of appointing (a) an independent sexual violence adviser and (b) a domestic abuse adviser.
tabling member constituency	Croydon North
tabling member printed	Steve Reed
uin	181977
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/04/2023 answer text <p>The Government does not centrally collate data on the average cost of appointing Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs) and Independent Domestic Violence Advisors (IDVAs). The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) collects information on the number of ISVA and IDVA posts funded by the Department through commissioning arrangements with local Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to recruit ISVAs and IDVAs. It does not hold information on posts funded through other sources of funding such as other government departments, local authorities or third sector organisations and bodies. As such, it is not possible to provide an estimate on the total number of ISVA and IDVA posts nationally and indeed the average cost to the public purse. Some ISVAs work in multiple courts, according to their area or case load, and therefore this cannot be broken down to individual courts.</p><p> </p><p>The MoJ has committed ringfenced funding to increase the number of ISVAs and IDVAs funded by the department by 300 to over 1000 by 2024/25 - a 43% increase on the number of ISVAs and IDVAs over this spending review period (2022/23 to 2024/25 inclusive). For 2022/23, we provided £34 million of ringfenced funding for ISVAs and IDVAs. PCCs are required to report bi-annually to MoJ as part of grant funding arrangements.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar grouped question UIN 181978 question first answered 25/04/2023 16:00:01 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4268 label Biography information for Steve Reed

1612988

registered interest
date	20/04/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Domestic Abuse and Sexual Offences: Advisory Services
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) independent sexual violence advisers and (b) domestic abuse advisers there are in each crown court location.
tabling member constituency	Croydon North
tabling member printed	Steve Reed
uin	181978
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/04/2023 answer text <p>The Government does not centrally collate data on the average cost of appointing Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs) and Independent Domestic Violence Advisors (IDVAs). The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) collects information on the number of ISVA and IDVA posts funded by the Department through commissioning arrangements with local Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to recruit ISVAs and IDVAs. It does not hold information on posts funded through other sources of funding such as other government departments, local authorities or third sector organisations and bodies. As such, it is not possible to provide an estimate on the total number of ISVA and IDVA posts nationally and indeed the average cost to the public purse. Some ISVAs work in multiple courts, according to their area or case load, and therefore this cannot be broken down to individual courts.</p><p> </p><p>The MoJ has committed ringfenced funding to increase the number of ISVAs and IDVAs funded by the department by 300 to over 1000 by 2024/25 - a 43% increase on the number of ISVAs and IDVAs over this spending review period (2022/23 to 2024/25 inclusive). For 2022/23, we provided £34 million of ringfenced funding for ISVAs and IDVAs. PCCs are required to report bi-annually to MoJ as part of grant funding arrangements.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar grouped question UIN 181977 question first answered 25/04/2023 16:00:01 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
tabling member	4268 label Biography information for Steve Reed

1612991

registered interest
date	20/04/2023
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, what estimate he has made of the average unused court capacity in each year since 2010 for which figures are available.
tabling member constituency	Croydon North
tabling member printed	Steve Reed
uin	181979
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/04/2023 answer text <p>Since 2015, HMCTS had the following number of sessions recorded as either available or unavailable to schedule and hold face to face hearings:</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Period</p></td><td><p>Available verified sessions</p></td><td><p>Unavailable verified sessions</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 15-16</p></td><td><p>1,552,490</p></td><td><p>42,692</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 16-17</p></td><td><p>1,512,424</p></td><td><p>36,811</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 17-18</p></td><td><p>1,387,270</p></td><td><p>37,598</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 18-19</p></td><td><p>1,347,648</p></td><td><p>36,507</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 19-20</p></td><td><p>1,302,006</p></td><td><p>38,408</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 20-21</p></td><td><p>1,062,856</p></td><td><p>130,071</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>FY 21-22</p></td><td><p>1,277,033</p></td><td><p>86,511</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>HMCTS record a session being unavailable for a number of reasons, including important alternative uses. This includes:</p><ul><li>box work</li><li>case-related unavailability</li><li>commercial use (e.g., filming)</li><li>community engagement</li><li>where the room is connected to chambers which are in use</li><li>court closures due to severe weather or security incidents, holidays (not public holiday) or formerly due to COVID-19</li><li>external meetings (e.g., Court User Group)</li><li>use for external organisations (e.g., Coroner)</li><li>Judges office, meeting space, mentoring and/or reading time</li><li>maintenance work</li><li>mediation (parties present)</li><li>overspill</li><li>room closed due to COVID outbreak</li><li>Single Justice Procedure</li><li>staff meetings and/or training</li><li>telephone conference (obsolete)</li><li>video link being used for hearing/trial (obsolete)</li><li>video link being used for other matter</li><li>writing judgment.</li></ul><p> </p><p>Data collection in OPT Courtroom Planner was introduced in April 2015. The data was suspended in April 2020 due to COVID-19 disruption and resumed in September 2020. The data between April and August 2020 is therefore incomplete.</p><p> </p><p>Please note all data provided is internal and subject to data quality issues inherent in any large-scale manual system.</p> answering member constituency Finchley and Golders Green answering member printed Mike Freer question first answered 27/04/2023 15:30:45 answering member 4004 label Biography information for Mike Freer
tabling member	4268 label Biography information for Steve Reed

1613044

registered interest
date	20/04/2023
answering body	Ministry of Justice
answering dept id	54
answering dept short name	Justice
answering dept sort name	Justice
hansard heading	Juries
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to the findings of a study by Royal Holloway, University of London of religious bias in jury outcomes with regard to different choices of oath; and whether they have any plans to update existing rules or guidance.
tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
uin	HL7331
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/04/2023 answer text <p>Trial by jury is a fundamental part of our justice system, and the Government is committed to ensuring juries are as representative as possible of the public at large. Juries are selected completely at random in order to ensure that a cross-section of society is reflected in their make-up. Successive academic studies have shown that juries deliver fair and impartial results.</p><p>We continually monitor proceedings in the criminal courts to ensure fair trials for defendants. There are currently no plans to change the rules or guidance around swearing an oath or making an affirmation in court.</p> answering member printed Lord Bellamy question first answered 27/04/2023 15:50:14 answering member 4941 label Biography information for Lord Bellamy
tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle