Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of people leaving prison were released without a (a) bank account and (b) valid photo ID in each of the last twelve months

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

Data on the proportion of those released from prison without bank accounts or valid photo IDs is recorded in individual resettlement plans, but not collated centrally. To obtain this information would exceed cost limits.

We recognise the importance of valid photo IDs and bank accounts in supporting rehabilitation. Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC) are clearly responsible for their provision as part of Through the Gate support to prisoners on release. We have invested an additional £22 million per annum to improve delivery of these vital services for the remainder of the CRC contracts.

The Offender Banking Programme enables individuals to apply for a basic bank account whilst in custody, to use on release. On average, approximately 6000 accounts were opened each year between 2016 and 2019 as a result of this programme.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress has been made on his Department’s review of the Discharge Policy and £46 Discharge Grant; which stakeholders have been consulted as part of that review; and when that review will be published.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

Earlier this year, the Lord Chancellor asked officials to consider options for the Discharge Grant, and to contact stakeholders during the wider review of the discharge policy (Prison Service Instruction (PSI) 72/2011).

The review of the PSI and the Discharge Grant is ongoing and preliminary discussions have been held with Clinks and Switchback. Further consultation with stakeholders will take place in due course.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many convictions there have been for non-compliance with section 44 of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 in (a) Sussex and (b) England.

Answer (Chris Philp)

The number of offenders convicted for offences under section 44 of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 at courts in Sussex and England between 2015 and 2019 can be found in the table below.

The Ministry of Justice has published data on the number of prosecutions and convictions for offences in England and Wales for the years 2013 to 2019. This data is available in the Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code data tool available here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/888344/HO-code-tool-principal-offence-2019.xlsx

The Home Office offence code 81403 includes information on offences under section 44 of the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994, however please note that this offence code also includes a very low volume of offences (typically 1 or 2 a year) under sections 45 and 59 of the legislation.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what comparative assessment he has made of levels of (a) violence and (b) staffing in (i) public and (ii) private prisons.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

The Ministry of Justice does not hold data that makes a comparative assessment of staffing and assaults in public and privately managed prisons.

We publish details on staffing in public prisons every quarter in our HMPPS Workforce Statistics, the latest version is to June 2020 and is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/her-majestys-prison-and-probation-service-workforce-quarterly-june-2020. We do not hold data on staffing levels in private prisons.

There were 32,800 assaults in prisons in England and Wales in 2019, of which 26,960 were in public prisons (82% of total assaults) and 5,840 were in private prisons (18% of total assaults).

Violence in prisons remains unacceptably high, which is why we are spending £100 million to bolster prison security, clamping down on the weapons, drugs and mobile phones that fuel violence and crime behind bars. This will fund tough airport-style security, body scanners and phone-blocking technology.

We are giving officers tools like PAVA pepper spray and body-worn cameras to make their jobs safer.

Our Assaults on Emergency Workers Act increased the maximum penalty for those who attack them to 12 months and we recently announced we will double the penalty further to two years.

HMP Birmingham changed from a private prison to a public prison in July 2019. Therefore, the figures for Birmingham have not been split between the public prisons total and the private prisons total, all assaults in Birmingham for 2019 were recorded as being in private prisons.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases are in the backlog of the York Family Court; and what assessment he has made of trends in the level of the case backlog at that court since 2015.

Answer (Chris Philp)

The York family workload since 2015 has been on an upward trend and this is monitored regularly by the Local Family Justice Board. The increase is predominantly in Private Law applications, and this is a trend that is in line with the rest of the country. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March this year, York almost immediately moved to remote hearings to continue to deal with family work. Whilst a decline was initially seen in the receipt of applications around this time, this has since reverted to normal levels. The York County Court building is restrictive in terms of social distancing, however face to face hearings have recommenced and a Nightingale Court has been set up to provide additional accommodation to hear family cases, and in particular Public Law cases.

The data in the attachment is derived from the Family Courts Case Management system. It includes private and public law outstanding cases, evaluated by case rather than by child.

Data provided are part of management information and are not subject to the same level of checks as official statistics.

The data provided are the most recent available and for that reason might differ slightly from any previously published information. They have not been cross-referenced with case files.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases are in the backlog of the York Magistrate Court; and what assessment he has made of trends in the level of the case backlog at that court since 2015.

Answer (Chris Philp)

York is part of the North Yorkshire Local Justice Area, geographically the largest LJA in the country, though with a relatively low caseload for its size. It was created in January 2016, following the merger of a number of smaller LJAs. Subsequent changes to distribution of the LJA’s workload between court houses in the area will have affected the outstanding cases at York. This will, in part, account for some of the variance in outstanding caseload.

York Magistrates’ Court is a listed building with serious accessibility issues and challenges in maintaining social distancing. It was a suspended site between 30 March 2020 and 20 June and Priority 1 and 2 cases from York were listed at Leeds Magistrates’ Court, with extensive use made of video-linking for the attendance of parties.

Before COVID-19, two courtrooms sat daily at York, and an additional room sat on 4 days per week. Due to the constraints of the building it has been challenging to open courtrooms whilst maintaining social distancing. Currently two courtrooms sit daily (including one video-enabled courtroom); from 5^th October a third courtroom will be added, once social distancing mitigation measures have been put in place. This will take York’s weekly planned sittings above their pre-COVID-19 levels. Current plans are for all CPS cases (other than those requiring a trial) displaced by the COVID sitting reductions to have had a hearing by mid-October.

The data provided is the most recent available and for that reason might differ slightly from any previously published information.

This counts all cases where there are one or more offences that have not been completed by the date, for the given date, where the case receipt is after October 2007. The report for outstanding cases is a snapshot based on what is showing as outstanding at the close of business on the last calendar day of the month. Outstanding cases is not a calculation but is based on Receipts and Disposals and will be impacted on when cases are validated. Transferred cases may count for a period of time while they show in both sending and receiving courts; offences subsequently entered in error may change the categorisation of the case.

Data are management information and are not subject to the same level of checks as official statistics.

Data has not been cross referenced with case files.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases are in the backlog of the York Criminal Court; and what assessment he has made of trends in the level of the case backlog at that court since 2015.

Answer (Chris Philp)

Outstanding cases in York have been on a downward trend since 2015 until 2019. The downward trend during this period reflects a reduction in receipts along with additional sitting days for York work which have been sat in Leeds.

York Crown Court is a listed building that houses two Crown Courtrooms. York Crown Court was a suspended court site due to Covid-19 from 27 March and reopened on 22 June, however during this time remote hearings did continue to take place. Despite the restrictions resulting from it being a listed building, since reopening, York has recommenced much of its business, including face to face hearings, pre-trial preparation hearings and sentencing, and on the 20 July jury trials were recommenced in one of the courtrooms. Adaptations are being put in place to allow the second courtroom to be used for jury trials.

The volume of outstanding cases at the Crown Court in England and Wales is published by case type as part of the National Statistics bulletin Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly, see Table C1. The latest published data is available to March 2020 and the next release to June 2020 is planned for release on the 24 September 2020.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to introduce legislative proposals to extend the maximum sentence for causing death by dangerous driving.

Answer (Chris Philp)

As set out in the government’s White Paper, A Smarter Approach to Sentencing, we will be increasing the maximum penalties for causing death by dangerous driving and causing death by careless driving when under the influence of drink or drugs to life imprisonment. We will also create a new offence of causing serious injury by careless driving. We will introduce legislation on these changes in the near future.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

What assessment he has made of the adequacy of the response to the covid-19 outbreak in prisons.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

From the start of the pandemic our priority in prisons has been on protecting staff, prisoners, the NHS and the wider community from outbreaks in custody. Thanks to the hard work of prison staff we have so far been successful in achieving this, although we are not complacent and know challenges remain over the autumn and winter.

In March Public Health England (PHE) modelled an expected 2,300 deaths in prisons. We took decisive action to avoid thousands of prisoners and staff becoming infected with the virus. These included minimising movement between prisons and introducing measures to shield the vulnerable, isolate those with symptoms, and quarantine new entrants to custody.

As a result further modelling by PHE showed that our measures were being effective in controlling the spread of the virus, and avoiding widespread local outbreaks. There have to date been 23 prisoner deaths from Covid-19, and in recent months we have begun to ease restrictions in prison establishments. All our actions have been informed by the advice of experts from PHE and will be kept under constant review.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

What plans he has to include proposals on strengthening non-custodial sentences in the forthcoming sentencing White Paper.

Answer (Chris Philp)

The Sentencing White Paper sets out our plans for more effective community sentencing that offers punishment and responds to the underlying drivers of offending.

We will better identify individual needs, provide treatment options where appropriate and utilise technology to drive compliance. These measures will support offenders to change their lifestyles for good and protect the public.

The reforms will be underpinned by our ongoing probation reform, to deliver effective, tailored and responsive supervision of offenders in the community.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

What steps he is taking to tackle recent trends in the level of self-harm in prisons.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

There are encouraging signs that self-harm has started to reduce in recent months, but it remains a concern.

We have given over 25,000 prison staff better training to spot and prevent self-harm;

We have refreshed our partnership with the Samaritans which supports the Listeners scheme, whereby selected prisoners are trained to provide emotional support to their fellow prisoners;

We have also piloted improvements to Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT), the multidisciplinary case management approach to supporting prisoners thought to be at risk of self-harm or suicide. We are currently planning the resumption of roll-out of the revised ACCT across the prison estate.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

What steps his Department is taking to help ensure that the public are protected from terrorists.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

All terrorist offenders are subject to specialist multi-agency case management which utilises our network of counter-terrorism specialists. We use tailored interventions to facilitate disengagement and share risk assessment with security partners.

Since the latest terror attacks we have acted swiftly and decisively to review those multi-agency arrangements, and significantly invested in CT capability in the sector.

We have already taken an emergency Act through Parliament to end automatic early release of terrorists and we will introduce tougher sentencing and release measures through the Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Bill.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

What steps he is taking to improve the rehabilitation of offenders on release from prison.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

Everyone leaving prison should have the tools they need to avoid a life of crime, including a job, a home and treatment for substance misuse issues.

Offenders typically have complex needs, many of which drive offending. The prison and probation system provides an opportunity to address these, but we also need a concerted effort across Government to rehabilitate individuals on release from prison.

For example, we are working with NHS England to develop their care after custody service, RECONNECT, to engage and support more people into treatment upon release.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

What steps his Department has taken to ensure that courts can continue to operate effectively during the covid-19 outbreak.

Answer (Chris Philp)

The Justice system has operated throughout the pandemic.
o Jury trials, the part of the system we did have to suspend, restarted in May

o By Monday 14 September 2020, jury trials will have resumed in 72 Crown Courts

Our buildings are ‘Covid secure’ and social distancing measures are in place

o By rolling out plexiglass and other measures, we are on track to open 250 Crown courtrooms by the end of October.
o 110 jury trial rooms are currently in use.

We have swiftly expanded our use of technology so that we can hold more video and audio hearings across all jurisdictions, subject to judicial discretion.

We are rolling out Nightingale Courts across the country, undertaking Saturday sittings, and piloting Covid operating hours in further efforts to support access to justice.

The progress made to introduce online access to services through reform has made a substantial difference in maintaining the operation of the courts and tribunals, enabling more work to continue where reform is more advanced, and underlining the wider value of reform in supporting a more resilient and adaptable service.

Those services which have already been reformed, notably divorce, probate, SSCS, IAC, and jurisdictions using CE-File have proved more resilient to the impact of the pandemic and still been able to process thousands of applications.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

What steps he is taking to tackle the backlog of family court hearings accrued during the covid-19 outbreak.

Answer (Chris Philp)

The protection of vulnerable children is a top priority, and I am extremely grateful for the dedication of family justice professionals at this unprecedented time.

At the start of the pandemic the family courts quickly prioritised the most urgent cases, and moved to hear the majority of cases remotely. More court rooms are reopening, and a record number of sitting days were sat in June and July.

I recognise there is more to do. We are working with the judiciary and operational partners to agree further measures for the sustained recovery of the family justice system, building on the robust actions already taken, to meet the challenges we continue to face.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

What recent progress has been made on the Independent Review of Administrative Law.

Answer (Alex Chalk)

The independent and expert panel has begun its work, issuing a call for evidence which closes in October.

The panel will then move to consider this evidence and make their report.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of (a) private and (b) public proceedings in family courts have been attended in person by parties litigant in each of the last ten years.

Answer (Alex Chalk)

While a party to private or public law court proceedings may not be legally represented, they may have previously received legal advice.

The Department does not collect information on litigants in person in the family courts. This information could only be obtained from analysis of individual case files at disproportionate cost.

However, an indication of self-representation in family cases is identified in the case management systems used by Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service by the legal representation field being left blank. By focusing on cases with at least one hearing, the parties with no legal representative recorded give an approximation to the information requested. This is provided in the attached table which covers the year 2011 to 2019.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases of violence against prison officers have been recorded in each of the last 10 years.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

The number of recorded cases of violence against prison staff is published as part of the Safety in Custody statistics, the figures for each of the last ten years are provided below:

2010 - 2,848

2011 - 3,132

2012 - 2,987

2013 - 3,266

2014 - 3,640

2015 - 4,963

2016 - 6,844

2017 - 8,417

2018 - 10,203

2019 - 10,033

Figures for the first quarter of 2020, up until the end of March, show there were 2,290 incidents of violence against prison staff, a decrease of 4% from the previous quarter.

Violence against our hardworking prison officers is unacceptable, and we work closely with the police and Crown Prosecution Service to bring the perpetrators to justice. Additionally, our new Assaults on Emergency Workers Act means that those who attack them can expect an additional 12 months behind bars.

We are also giving officers PAVA pepper spray and body-worn cameras to make their jobs safer, as well as access to post incident care teams, occupational health support and counselling for those who need it. More widely, we are spending £100 million to bolster prison security, clamping down on the weapons, drugs and mobile phones that fuel violence and crime behind bars. This will fund tough airport-style security, body scanners and phone-blocking technology.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 14 September 2020 to Question 84991, on Prisons: Coronavirus, what responsibilities his Department holds on (a) the fair treatment of staff throughout the prison estate, (b) the public health effects of his Department's policies and (c) prison staff health and well-being with respect to the management of private prisons in England and Wales .

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

Public Sector Prisons’ Covid-19 HR processes and policies are driven by Civil Service HR guidance which is based on Government advice and Trade Union engagement. The Health and Safety function are a key partner in determining specific operational guidance and their expertise is the driver for HR decision making. It is accepted that Government guidance is based on the principles of effectiveness and fairness and that the existing support networks, focus groups and HR processes will steer any actions into an inclusive and supportive outcome.

As we have previously stated, all staffing matters, including the responsibility for ensuring the fair treatment of staff and their well-being, lie with contractors. There is no requirement in the contracts to agree such matters with the Ministry of Justice.

Private providers continue to play an important role in the prison estate, and I can assure you that performance of all providers is closely monitored. Further we will not hesitate to take action where standards fall short.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of trends in the retention of experienced (a) prisons and (b) probation staff in the last five years.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

Overall resourcing levels are monitored through a number of processes which provide the appropriate level of information for staffing decisions to be made. At a local level, the workforce planning processes which are in place for prison groups and probation regions have the level of detail needed to manage current staffing levels and make accurate predictions around future needs.

A link to national resourcing is in place to ensure the accurate forecasting of Prison Officer Entry Level Trainees (POELT) and Professional Qualification in Probation (PQiP) new starters needed to maintain the recruitment pipelines and allow for the required qualification and training standards to be met. This is monitored nationally and feeds into national workforce planning decisions. Specialist staff are also in place to monitor major organisational changes.

We have created a retention programme which is linked to wider activities around employee experience, employee lifecycle and staff engagement at work. In parallel, we are looking at leaver trend data and using exit interview outcomes to establish the drivers of attrition in Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service. This work consists of reviewing existing policy, process and benefit arrangements for staff and establishing how best to optimise them order to retain a leading presence in the labour market, as an employer of choice.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Community Rehabilitation Company staff have appealed against the indicative role assignments to (a) the National Probation Service or (b) the dynamic framework that they have been issued by their Community Rehabilitation company director.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) are currently undertaking the assignment activity for their staff and are due to send their outputs to the Probation Reform Programme from the end of September 2020. CRCs are responsible for communicating with their staff the outcome of assignment and for dealing with any appeals against an assignment outcome from staff. Once the assignment activity is concluded each CRC will know how many appeals they have processed.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases of illegal substance misuse have been record in English and Welsh prisons in each year since 2010.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

The number of individual cases of illegal substance misuse is not recorded, however, data and information on drug testing is routinely published and is available on the link below. Data on drugs tests in 2020/21 will be published in due course.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmpps-annual-digest-april-2019-to-march-2020

Illicit substances pose significant challenges in our prisons which is why we have developed a comprehensive drugs strategy which provides prisons with guidance and examples of good practice to support them tackling drugs.

A crucial part of this strategy is the use of drug testing as it provides us with robust evidence on the prevalence of drug misuse and can be used to support security measures, identify and signpost into drug treatment, monitor treatment compliance and act as an incentive to engage in treatment and recovery.

We are also supporting prisons with £100 million of investment in additional airport-style security, including x-ray body scanners, designed to stop drugs entering prisons in the first place.

These measures are part of our wider investment to make jails safer, while working closely with healthcare providers to ensure prisoners have the support they need to live free of the influence of drugs upon release.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have been released in error in each of the last 10 years.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

A release in error may occur from prison or from court. A prisoner is released in error if they are released earlier than their correct release date. They will be unlawfully at large until they are returned to custody, unless they are subsequently released correctly.

Releases in error are rare and the vast majority are returned to custody very quickly. We work closely with the police to recapture offenders at large and investigate each of these incidents thoroughly to see what lessons can be learned.

Please find below the number of prisoners released in error in England and Wales, since 2010. The data is the 12 months ending March 2010 to 12 months ending March 2020.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress his Department is making on meeting the 2.3 per cent public sector apprenticeship target; and when his Department will meet that target.

Answer (Chris Philp)

As of 31 March 2020, the Civil Service has achieved a total of 2.1% of its total workforce as apprentices against the legislative target for the public sector of 2.3% by March 2021. The Ministry of Justice has achieved 1.3% of the total staff employed within the department.

The Ministry of Justice’s Apprenticeship Strategy, designed to meet the allocated targets consists of 3 strands:

1. Promoting the use of Cabinet Office approved apprenticeships programmes to develop professional skills;
2. Designing and delivering operational apprenticeship standards for specific operational roles; and
3. Promoting the use of apprenticeships as an entry route / development of career pathways for staff at all levels of the organisation.

In March 2020 the MoJ reported a year on year increase in apprenticeships starts vs 2018-19 by 31%; and it was expected that this trend would continue into the new financial year, with the recruitment of c2,700 prison officer apprentices nationally throughout 2020-21.

Unfortunately, Covid-19 has significantly impacted the delivery of our apprenticeship strategy; particularly in the prison operational roles, with activity being paused in the short term. Plans are in place to rapidly re-start operational apprenticeships as soon as it is both safe and operationally viable to do so.

Given this target is a percentage of the total workforce, the percentage changes in line with workforce fluctuations over time, therefore making it challenging to predict when a department will meet it. The data for 2018/19 can be found here. The data for 2019/20 will be released on gov.uk by the end of September 2020.

Departments are committed to increasing the number of apprentices across the Civil Service and continue to work towards the 2.3% target. The impact of the current pandemic has slowed recruitment due to priority work and logistics. With the current strategy and targets coming to an end in April 2021, the Civil Service is already focusing on how to continue to support the apprenticeship agenda and drive forward apprenticeship recruitment, pulling on the Plan for Jobs initiative and considering the current economic situation.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases of violence against court staff have been recorded in each of the last 10 years.

Answer (Chris Philp)

HMCTS takes the safety and security of its staff very seriously. Court and tribunal buildings, the policy and operating procedures in place across the organisation, and training programmes are all designed to ensure a safe working environment. There are specific controls in place to manage the risks faced by court and tribunal staff.

The data available on instances of physical violence against court and tribunal staff goes back to 2013-14. Before that, data was not systematically recorded. For the seven-year period for which we have data, the number of incidents of violence towards HMCTS court staff totals 171. This is broken down between financial years as follows:

2019-20 - 35

2018-19 - 30

2017-18 - 18

2016-17 - 26

2015-16 - 26

2014-15 - 19

2013-14 - 17

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, which contractors have received tenders from his Department in the last 12 months.

Answer (Chris Philp)

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. The name of each contractor which has submitted a bid on a running tender is not held centrally.

The MoJ will consider each contractor bid within the necessary criteria and award the tender based on the most suitable candidate to provide the required goods or service, ensuring value for money.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the reduction in court capacity as a result of court closures in the last 10 years.

Answer (Chris Philp)

Since 2010, the permanent court and tribunal estate has reduced from a total of 605 operational court and tribunal buildings to 330 operational court and tribunal buildings.

The closure of any court is not taken lightly – it only happens following full public consultation. We have been clear that courts have only closed where they were underused, dilapidated or too close to one another and in each case, we have only agreed to close the court where sufficient capacity existed in other nearby courts to accommodate the work of the closing courts.

HMCTS has published an update on their response to Covid-19 in the criminal courts in England and Wales (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/court-and-tribunal-recovery-update-in-response-to-coronavirus). This includes details on the use of Nightingale courts and our plans to open additional locations.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much revenue has been raised by the court closure programme in the last 10 years.

Answer (Chris Philp)

Since 2010, £322m has been raised from the sale of surplus court and tribunal buildings. Since 2015 sale proceeds totalling £211m have been reinvested as part of the HMCTS reform programme.

The closure of any court is not taken lightly – it only happens following full public consultation. We have been clear that courts have only closed where they were underused, dilapidated or too close to one another.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish the cases in the crown court backlog by type of case.

Answer (Chris Philp)

The volume of outstanding cases at the Crown Court is published by case type as part of the National Statistics bulletin Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly.

The latest published data is available to March 2020.

National Statistics for the period to June 2020 will be published on September 24, 2020.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many jury trials were outstanding in each of the last 12 months.

Answer (Chris Philp)

The table below provides the number of outstanding trial cases at the Crown Court by month, between March 2019 and March 2020.

March 2020 is the latest period for which National Statistics broken down by type of case are published in England and Wales. National Statistics for the period to June 2020 will be published on September 24, 2020.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of number of suspected offenders who were likely to be released early without the custody time limit extension.

Answer (Chris Philp)

Temporary legislation has been introduced to extend the length of the Custody Time Limit in the Crown Court by 56 days for 9 months. It does not apply retrospectively and defendants retain the right to apply for bail. The decision to release a defendant on bail is one taken by our independent Judiciary based on the specific circumstances of the case. There is therefore, no reliable statistic that answers this question.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the rule of law and negotiations on the UK's future relationship with the EU.

Answer (Alex Chalk)

The Lord Chancellor speaks frequently with Cabinet colleagues on a range of matters. The Lord Chancellor remains committed to the Rule of Law, and through the Ministerial Code, all Ministers are required to consider their obligations against the overarching duty to comply with the law. The statement published on 10 September sets out the government’s legal position in relation to specific clauses in the UK Internal Market Bill.

The Government, as a whole, continues to pursue negotiations on the UK's future relationship with the EU and concluded the 8th round of negotiations on 10 September. Our position remains unchanged; we want a relationship with the EU which is based on friendly cooperation between sovereign equals and centred on free trade.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many children have been released from custody without a confirmed permanent address in the last 12 months.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

Decisions on accommodation for children under the age of 18 who leave custody are taken at local level, so this data is not held centrally by MoJ. Local Authority-led Youth Offending Teams work closely with young offender institutions, secure training centres and secure children’s homes on accommodation arrangements so that any issues can be identified and resolved as early as possible before release. Arrangements for the child or young person’s accommodation are reviewed at regular intervals and in addition to the statutory ‘Duty To Refer’ requirements, local protocols have been developed to allow for cases of particular concern to be escalated within the relevant local authority. The Local Authority has a duty to accommodate children upon their release from custody.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women have been released from prison without a confirmed permanent address in the last 12 months.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

The latest available and validated data for the accommodation status of women released from prison up to March 2020 are published at the following link under Table 11: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-performance-quarterly-update-to-march-2020.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of proceedings before the First-Tier Social Entitlement Chamber were attended by parties litigant in each of the last 10 years.

Answer (Chris Philp)

The information requested is not held centrally.

The term “litigant in person” (“party litigant” in Scotland) applies to appellants without a legal representative. In the First-tier Tribunal, Social Entitlement Chamber (SEC) any person may be permitted to act as a representative, including a friend or a relative.

The case management systems used in the tribunals of the SEC (Social Security and Child Support; Criminal Injuries Compensation; and Asylum Support) cannot provide a breakdown between different types of representative.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of proceedings before the (a) First-Tier Immigration and Asylum Tribunal and (b) Upper-Tier Immigration and Asylum Tribunal were attended by parties litigant in each of the last 10 years.

Answer (Chris Philp)

The information requested is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The term “litigant in person” (“party litigant” in Scotland) applies to appellants without a legal representative. In the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) and Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) any person may be permitted to act as a representative, including an immigration advisor, friend, relative or litigation friend. The case management system cannot provide a statistical breakdown between different types of representative.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of employment tribunals have been attended by parties litigant in each of the last 10 years.

Answer (Chris Philp)

The information requested is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The term “litigant in person” (“party litigant” in Scotland) applies to Claimants without a legal representative. In the Employment Tribunal any person may be permitted to act as a representative, including a friend or relative.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he has taken to (a) develop an online information hub for victims and (b) improve the allocation of funding for victims services as part of the Victims Strategy.

Answer (Alex Chalk)

(A) An online hub for victims is already available: https://www.victimandwitnessinformation.org.uk/ providing information based on victim need. It also provides a search facility so victims can access free local support based on their needs.

(B) The Government has taken steps to improve the funding for victims services as part of the Victims Strategy. We have brought greater sustainability to the sector through multi-year grant settlements, awarding three-year funding (2019-2022) to provide sexual violence services with greater stability and security to ensure they can focus on delivering their essential services.

During the COVID-19 outbreak, £25 million out of the £76 million government package of support to charities supporting vulnerable people, was ringfenced for sexual violence and domestic abuse support services to ensure they continue providing their vital services.

More recently, in recognition of the complexity of the wider victim support funding landscape, the Government has committed to developing a Victims Funding Strategy underpinned by a new delivery model. This will consider how to place the victim support sector on a more sustainable footing, ensuring that commissioning is joined up and not fragmented between departments and agencies, and to improve service provision.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to introduce independent regulation of bailiffs to tackle (a) harmful and unnecessary bailiff visits and (b) bailiffs breaking the rules.

Answer (Alex Chalk)

The Ministry of Justice is reviewing the implementation of reforms, contained in the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 and introduced in 2014, which govern how enforcement agents take control of goods. This includes considering complaints handling and regulation in the sector.

We have been focusing on our response to the Covid-19 pandemic, but we will provide a response to the review as soon as we are able.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions he has had with (a) Cabinet colleagues and (b) the Law Commission on the Law Commission's consultation reforming the offence of misconduct in public office, which opened in September 2016.

Answer (Alex Chalk)

The Law Commission expects to publish their final response and recommendations on Misconduct in Public Office law reform in 2020. The Government will consider and respond to those recommendations in due course.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when the Law Commission will publish its response to the consultation on reforming the offence of misconduct in public office, which opened in September 2016.

Answer (Alex Chalk)

The Law Commission expects to publish their final response and recommendations on Misconduct in Public Office law reform in 2020. The Government will consider and respond to those recommendations in due course.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much of the funding allocated by his Department through the survivors of sexual violence fund has been (a) allocated to and (b) received by organisations to date.

Answer (Alex Chalk)

We are committed to ensuring that sexual violence services are funded to provide victims with the support they need during this challenging time.

£76 million of funding to support victims has been made available during the COVID-19 outbreak with £10 million of this funding ringfenced for sexual violence support services. Of this, £5 million has been allocated by Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and £5 million through the national Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund.

As part of the pandemic response PCCs have received £4,177,891 specifically for sexual violence support services in their respective areas. Sexual violence support services funded through the national Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund have also received £2,605,157 based on their submissions of need.

£233,762 of Covid-19-related funding has also been made available for national remote services providers to enable the expansion and national roll out of digital and helpline services, to ensure that all victims have access to services during this challenging time.

We continue to work across government, with the sector and local bodies through our COVID-19 Victims and Witnesses Silver Command to identify ongoing needs and ensure support is available for victims and witnesses.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to make an assessment of the potential effect on capacity in young offender institutions of proposed changes to youth sentencing before bringing forward legislative proposals.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

The Smarter Approach to Sentencing White Paper, which was published on 16 September 2020, included impact assessments which outline the impact the proposed changes would have on Youth Custody Services (YCS).

The Government is aware that the Youth Custody Service may face an increased population due to some individuals spending longer in custody than they otherwise would. However, our assessment has shown that reform of the Detention and Training Order will result in an increase in the youth custody population of fewer than 50 offenders in steady state by 2024/25.

The impact assessments can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-smarter-approach-to-sentencing.

The YCS regularly reviews capacity of youth secure establishments, engaging with secure settings to ensure that children continue to be placed based on their needs and requirements, which may change over time.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average length of time from (a) offence to charge and (b) offence to completion in the youth courts was in each quarter since the second quarter of 2015.

Answer (Chris Philp)

The data requested is published by the Youth Justice Board and can be found here (in Annex E-average time from offence to completion): https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/youth-justice-statistics-2018-to-2019

Please note that the figures for 2020 have not yet been published.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how long the backlog in youth courts was in each quarter since the second quarter of 2015.

Answer (Chris Philp)

Data show number of outstanding youth cases in each quarter. It should be noted that this data has only been captured nationally since April 2016

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate his Department has made of the number of orders for repossession of a residential property under section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 that are currently live.

Answer (Chris Philp)

The information requested is not held centrally.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many appellants are waiting for the Tribunals Service to list their First Tier Tribunal Social Security and Child Support appeal in relation to personal independence payment in (a) Coventry, (b) West Midlands and (c) England.

Answer (Chris Philp)

Information about appeals to the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) is published at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.

As at March 2020 (the latest period for which data are available) there were a total of 440 Personal Independence Payment (PIP) ¹ appeals waiting to be listed in the Coventry venue; 2,466 in the West Midlands²; and 21,005 in England³.

Social Security & Child Support (SSCS) data is normally registered to the venue nearest to the appellants home address. We cannot retrieve data based on the appellants actual address, but can produce reports detailing the numbers of cases that were dealt with at one of our Regional centres or heard at a specific venue.

1. PIP (New Claim Appeals) which replaces Disability Living Allowance was introduced on 8 April 2013, also includes PIP Claims (Reassessments)

2. West Midlands includes the venues: Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Walsall, Coventry, Nuneaton, Stoke, Shrewsbury, Hereford and Worcester.

3. Data excludes SSCS Scotland Region and Wales Region.

Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system and are the best data available.

The data may differ slightly to that of the published statistics as these data were run on a different date.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to make an assessment of the effectiveness of short-term custodial sentences below six months in duration for children before bringing forward legislative proposals on sentencing.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

The reoffending rate for children is the highest in the criminal justice system and particularly for those children sentenced to short periods in custody. That is why we are proposing changes to strengthen community sentences, which can be more effective at reducing reoffending, to give courts more confidence in their ability to act as a robust sentencing option. However, we are clear that the courts must always have the option to impose custody, including short custodial sentences where necessary.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 7 September 2020 to Question 84223 on Employment Tribunals Service: Finance, what the outstanding caseload was for Employment Tribunals in quarter 1 of 2020-21.

Answer (Chris Philp)

The information requested is a subset of the Tribunal Quarterly Statistics which were due to be published on 10 September 2020, however they have been delayed.

It is intended that full publication will be released as soon as practicably possible and will cover the period up to June 2020.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service publish management information on outstanding workload and average clearance time for single Employment Tribunals. The figures reflect the data held on the case management system and will have some definitional and timing differences from the official statistics. This information can be found here:

www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/hmcts-management-information-july-2020

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 9 September 2020 to Question 84222 on Employment Tribunals Service: Applications, what the (a) median and (b) mean clearance times were for single and multiple Employment Tribunal claims in quarter 1 of 2020-21.

Answer (Chris Philp)

The information requested is a subset of the Tribunal Quarterly Statistics which were due to be published on 10 September 2020, however they have been delayed.

It is intended that full publication will be released as soon as practicably possible and will cover the period up to June 2020.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service publish management information on outstanding workload and average clearance time for single Employment Tribunals. The figures reflect the data held on the case management system and will have some definitional and timing differences from the official statistics. This information can be found here:

www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/hmcts-management-information-july-2020

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average cost to the public purse is to administer a First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support Appeal) in respect of personal independence payments.

Answer (Chris Philp)

Information is held on the overall cost of the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support Appeal), which includes the cost of administering Personal Independence Payment appeals, but not at the requested level of granularity. The information that is available can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hm-courts-tribunals-service-annual-report-and-accounts-2019-to-2020

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what comparative assessment he has made of levels of (a) violence and (b) staffing between (i) public and (ii) private prisons.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

The Ministry of Justice does not hold data that makes a comparative assessment of staffing and assaults in public and privately managed prisons.

We publish details on staffing in public prisons every quarter in our HMPPS Workforce Statistics, the latest version is to June 2020 and is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/her-majestys-prison-and-probation-service-workforce-quarterly-june-2020. We do not hold data on staffing levels in private prisons.

There were 32,800 assaults in prisons in England and Wales in 2019, of which 26,960 were in public prisons (82% of total assaults) and 5,840 were in private prisons (18% of total assaults).

Violence in prisons remains unacceptably high, which is why we are spending £100 million to bolster prison security, clamping down on the weapons, drugs and mobile phones that fuel violence and crime behind bars. This will fund tough airport-style security, body scanners and phone-blocking technology.

We are giving officers tools like PAVA pepper spray and body-worn cameras to make their jobs safer.

Our Assaults on Emergency Workers Act increased the maximum penalty for those who attack them to 12 months and we recently announced we will double the penalty further to two years.

HMP Birmingham changed from a private prison to a public prison in July 2019. Therefore, the figures for Birmingham have not been split between the public prisons total and the private prisons total, all assaults in Birmingham for 2019 were recorded as being in private prisons.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent representations her Department has received on (a) delays and (b) inadequacies in the delivery of clean prison kit from HMPPS stores.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

No recorded delays or inadequacies have been recorded recently with the supply of clothing and/or equipment from the HM Prison and Probation stores at Branston.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisons recorded cockroach infestations in each month from January to August 2020.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

For the period January to August 2020, six prisons reported pests at their establishments.

Each prison in England and Wales has a pest control contract in place managed by the relevant provider and monitored by HMPPS contract management staff. Where any infestation takes place, appropriate action is taken to eradicate the problem.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to support prisoners with (a) dyslexia and other Specific Learning Difficulties, (b) speech and language difficulties and (c) other special educational needs and disabilities.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) is committed to meeting the needs of all vulnerable offenders, including those with learning disabilities, difficulties and speech, language and communication needs. All individuals who come into contact with the Criminal Justice System (CJS) need to be able to access the right support to help them engage with their sentence.

For those who go into learning and where screening indicates an issue, education suppliers assess them to ensure the right adaptations and support arrangements are put in place.

The available data on offender learning participation, and learner characteristics, is published by the Department for Education. Data on learning difficulties and/or disabilities amongst those prisoners who engage in prison education is available via the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-education-and-training

In addition, prison officer training covers disabilities and responding sensitively and appropriately to behaviours.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate his Department has made of the level of undiagnosed (a) dyslexia, (b) other specific learning difficulties, (c) speech and language difficulties and (d) other special educational needs and disabilities in prisons.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) is committed to meeting the needs of all vulnerable offenders, including those with learning disabilities, difficulties and speech, language and communication needs. All individuals who come into contact with the Criminal Justice System (CJS) need to be able to access the right support to help them engage with their sentence.

For those who go into learning and where screening indicates an issue, education suppliers assess them to ensure the right adaptations and support arrangements are put in place.

The available data on offender learning participation, and learner characteristics, is published by the Department for Education. Data on learning difficulties and/or disabilities amongst those prisoners who engage in prison education is available via the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-education-and-training

In addition, prison officer training covers disabilities and responding sensitively and appropriately to behaviours.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners in England and Wales have (a) dyslexia and other Specific Learning Difficulties, (b) speech and language difficulties and (c) other special educational needs and disabilities.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) is committed to meeting the needs of all vulnerable offenders, including those with learning disabilities, difficulties and speech, language and communication needs. All individuals who come into contact with the Criminal Justice System (CJS) need to be able to access the right support to help them engage with their sentence.

For those who go into learning and where screening indicates an issue, education suppliers assess them to ensure the right adaptations and support arrangements are put in place.

The available data on offender learning participation, and learner characteristics, is published by the Department for Education. Data on learning difficulties and/or disabilities amongst those prisoners who engage in prison education is available via the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-education-and-training

In addition, prison officer training covers disabilities and responding sensitively and appropriately to behaviours.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effect of the reduction of standard monthly payments to criminal legal aid firms on those firms.

Answer (Alex Chalk)

At present, 17% of all crime accounts are paid under the Standard Monthly Payment (‘SMP’) model. The remainder have opted for Variable Monthly Payments, which pays the actual value of the claim submitted each month. Firms can elect to be paid by either model, according to which may be most advantageous to them. SMPs relate to Controlled Work services only, and therefore reflect a proportion of a provider’s total revenue.

The number of those accounts paid via SMP which have seen a reduction in payments since July 2020 represents 6% of all crime accounts. Where a reduction is necessary, this takes effect following the Legal Aid Agency notifying providers of this in advance. Firms facing financial hardship can discuss payment options further with their LAA Contract Manager.

The LAA has implemented several changes to maintain cashflow to firms and to allow firms to be paid more quickly – through these changes we can inject up to £51 million per year into criminal legal aid. We have begun a review into how criminal lawyers are compensated for their work: https://consult.justice.gov.uk/criminal-legal-aid/criminal-legal-aid-review/.

In addition to the support schemes offered by the government, we have continued to pay providers on time and introduced a number of measures to speed up payments to providers. All of the measures taken by the LAA are set out on our gov.uk page: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-legal-aid-agency-contingency-response#financial-relief-page.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the Bar Council's July 2020 survey which found that 38 per cent of criminal barristers are uncertain whether they will still be practising law in 2021.

Answer (Alex Chalk)

Criminal defence lawyers play a crucial role in upholding the rule of law and the Government greatly values the work they do.

To support the profession through the Covid-19 pandemic, we sought to improve the cashflow for the profession and provide support for legal aid practitioners. The changes made ensured that for work done in the Crown Court, practitioners were able to claim hardship payments for £450 worth of work done instead of £5,000, from 1 month after instruction (as opposed to 6 months). The LAA have also halted debt collection and increased the limits for payments on account claims.

The Crown Court resumed jury trials in May with the full support of Public Health England and Public Health Wales. This was ahead of all other comparable systems. Since then we have significantly expanded our capacity, opening more than 100 jury trial courtrooms safely. The Court Recovery plan, published on Monday 7 September, outlines the steps we will take to open 250 rooms by the end of October.

More recently, we announced in August that we would be taking forward the policy proposals from the accelerate areas of the Criminal Legal Aid Review (CLAR) that practitioners told us mattered most. These areas were: unused material, cracked trials, paper-heavy cases, sending cases to the Crown Court, and pre-charge engagement. These policies allowed us to inject between £36million to £51million into criminal legal aid.

As the pandemic has thrown into sharp focus the concerns about the sustainability of the market, in announcing the conclusions to the accelerated areas we also announced that the next phase of CLAR should involve an independently-led review. This review will be ambitious and far reaching in scope, assessing the criminal legal aid system in its entirety, and will aim to improve transparency, efficiency, sustainability and outcomes in the legal aid market.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the change in the custody recall rate since 2015 for (a) women and (b) men.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

The introduction of the Offender Rehabilitation Act (ORA) 2015 meant that offenders serving sentences of under 12 months were released on licence, thereby significantly increasing the overall number of offenders on licensed supervision in the community and thus liable to be recalled for breaching their licence conditions. Consequently, and as predicted, ORA led to an increase in the number of recalls. The number of quarterly recalls throughout 2016 and 2017 was relatively stable and below a peak of about 6000 in 2015 quarter 3.

From 2018, the number of quarterly recalls started increasing noticeably and reached a peak of about 7000 in 2019 quarter 3, although we have seen consecutive quarterly decreases in recalls up to 2020 quarter 1 (the latest period for which data are available).

There are a number of reasons for the increase in recalls in 2018 and 2019, including the greater numbers of prisoners released on in the Home Detention Curfew (HDC) Scheme, after changes were made to that Scheme in 2018, thereby increasing the number liable to be recalled. Additionally, HM Prison and Probation Service issued essential fresh guidance on recall, in response to evidence that some probation officers did not fully understand the purpose of recall and the threshold which had to be met for recall.

(a) The number of quarterly recalls of females increased generally, going from about 350 in 2015 quarter 3 to about 520 in 2019 quarter 3. Because a higher proportion of female offenders fall within the ORA category, ORA has had a disproportionate

upward effect on the number of females recalled. However, the number of quarterly recalls of females has trended downwards from early 2019 to 2020 quarter 1.

(b) The number of quarterly recalls of males reduced from about 5,650 in 2015 quarter 3 and stayed relatively stable throughout 2016 and 2017. It started to increase in 2018 to a peak of about 6,500 in 2019 quarter 3, although we have seen consecutive quarterly decreases in recalls of males up to 2020 quarter 1.

Public protection is our priority. Offenders on licence are subject to strict licence conditions and supervision. When an offender breaches a condition of their licence the Probation Service will undertake a thorough risk assessment to determine whether it is necessary, for the protection of the public, to recall that offender to prison.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask Her Majesty's Government what provisions have been made in Her Majesty’s Prisons for visiting rights for prisoners since the introduction of restrictions to address the COVID-19 pandemic; how many (1) visits, and (2) visitors, are permitted for each category of prisoner each week; and what special protective measures have been introduced for (1) visitors, and (2) prisoners, to ensure their protection against COVID-19.

Answer (Lord Keen of Elie)

We fully recognise the importance of family contact for those in custody in line with the recommendations of Lord Farmer’s Reviews. This is why following the necessary suspension of prison visits in March, to keep prisoners, their families and staff safe during the pandemic, we introduced a range of measures. We rolled-out more than 1,200 secure mobile PIN phone handsets which are being used to contact family and friends, bolstered support for the Prisoner’s Families Helpline and introduced secure video calls which are currently operating in over 100 prisons across England and Wales, including all female and youth establishments.

We published arrangements for the recommencement of face-to-face social visits in the National Framework for Prison Regimes and Services, and visits recommenced in early July, in an adapted, Covid-secure manner. Currently most prisons have now commenced physical visits.

Currently, up to two adults and two children are permitted to visit for a minimum of 45 minutes in prisons where it is safe to do so. Guidance on visits protocols for each prison, including steps we are taking to keep visitors safe, is published on GOV.UK at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/visit-someone-in-prison-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic

This sets out differences in the adult and youth estates but otherwise this applies for visits to all categories of prisoner. We aim to continue to expand visit arrangements as part of further relaxations to prison regimes, as it is safe to do so, and in line with public health advice.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak and lockdown on trends in the level of average hours of contact time with family members per week through (a) face-to-face, (b) telephone and (c) video contact for those in (i) adult male, (ii) adult female and (ii) youth custody.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

While we do not collate national data on hours of family contact, we absolutely recognise the importance of family contact for those in custody in line with the recommendations of Lord Farmer’s Reviews. This is why, following the necessary suspension of prison visits in March in response to Covid-19 in order to keep prisoners, their families and staff safe, we introduced a range of measures to minimise the impacts. This included introducing over 1,200 secure mobile PIN phone handsets which are being used to contact family and friends, bolstered support for the Prisoner’s Families Helpline and introduced secure video calls which are currently operating in over 100 prisons across England and Wales.

We have reintroduced face-to-face visits in line with the National Framework for Prison Regimes and Services with prisons commencing when it was safe to do so in a Covid-secure manner and will continue to expand visits capacity in line with Public Health advice and monitoring of local circumstances.

Currently, up to two adults and two children are permitted to visit for a minimum of 45 minutes in prisons where it is safe to do so. Guidance on visits protocols for each prison, including steps we are taking to keep visitors safe, is published on GOV.UK at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/visit-someone-in-prison-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic.

This sets out differences in the adult and youth estates, but otherwise this applies for visits to all categories of prisoner. We aim to continue to expand visit arrangements as part of further relaxations to prison regimes, as it is safe to do so, and in line with public health advice.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the Government will seek to change the terms of reference for the Law Commission's review of marriages in response to the High Court judgement in R (Harrison and others) v Secretary of State for Justice [2020] EWHC 2096 (Admin).

Answer (Alex Chalk)

The Law Commission’s terms of reference make it clear that it will not be making recommendations as to whether new groups should be allowed to conduct legally binding weddings. However, they will consider how marriages by humanist and other non-religious belief organisations could be incorporated into a revised scheme for all marriages that is simple, fair and consistent. The Government will decide on provision on the basis of the Law Commission's recommendations.

The Law Commission published its consultation paper on 3 September and will welcome contributions from all stakeholders.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the effect of the closure of the Birmingham probate registry office on the processing times for probate claims.

Answer (Chris Philp)

The closure of Birmingham probate registry office in August 2019 coincided with the opening of a Courts and Tribunals Service Centre (CTSC) in Birmingham. The result is a current net increase of 51 full time equivalent staff employed in probate offices and there has been no direct effect from the closure on waiting times.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what comparative assessment he has made of the average length of waiting time for applicants to receive a grant of probate (a) before and (b) after the introduction of HM Courts & Tribunals Service new case management system.

Answer (Chris Philp)

The introduction of a new digital case management system in March 2019 changed the business process for accounting for the receipt date of applications which need to be held due to errors or missing documentation. The change enabled more transparent and accurate reporting of waiting times and these timings are now included in published official statistics.

It also coincided with legislative change to the probate application process which removed the need for applicants to travel to town centre locations to swear an oath before a court officer or a commissioner for oaths. The receipt date was previously recorded from the date an application had been checked whereas it is now recorded from the date of first receipt by the probate service.

The figures since the introduction of the new digital case management system are therefore not directly comparable to the old system.

The current waiting times are published on gov.uk via Family Court Statistics Quarterly (Table 26).

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many firms of solicitors hold a civil legal aid contract as of 1 September 2020.

Answer (Alex Chalk)

Please note for the figures provided that some firms may have more than one office. There are currently 1,138 firms who hold a Criminal Legal Aid Contract. There are currently 1,478 firms who hold a Civil Legal Aid Contract. This data is correct as at 7 September 2020.

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.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many firms of solicitors hold a criminal legal aid contract as at 1 September 2020.

Answer (Alex Chalk)

Please note for the figures provided that some firms may have more than one office. There are currently 1,138 firms who hold a Criminal Legal Aid Contract. There are currently 1,478 firms who hold a Civil Legal Aid Contract. This data is correct as at 7 September 2020.

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.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what reason a coroner's inquest is not held in circumstances where someone has been convicted in relation to the death of that individual.

Answer (Alex Chalk)

Schedule 1 to the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 provides that where a coroner’s investigation is suspended because there are relevant criminal proceedings, the investigation may only be resumed if the coroner thinks there is sufficient reason for doing so. This is a judicial decision for the coroner.

In most circumstances a homicide trial will fulfil the function of the inquest in answering the four statutory questions (of who died and how, when and where they died) and any information needed to register the death.

Where the investigation or inquest is resumed, its conclusion on the cause of death must be consistent with the outcome of the criminal trial.

Further information can be found in our “Guide to Coroner Services for Bereaved People” which can be accessed at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/859076/guide-to-coroner-services-bereaved-people-jan-2020.pdf

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 1 September 2020 to Question 78820 on Nightingale courts, how many cases have been heard at each of the active nightingale court locations; if he will publish the ongoing running costs for each of those locations; and when the final remaining nightingale court locations will be operational.

Answer (Chris Philp)

HMCTS has published an update on their response to covid-19 in the criminal courts in England and Wales (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/court-and-tribunal-recovery-update-in-response-to-coronavirus). This provides a comprehensive update on recovery plans and includes details about Nightingale courts and our plans to open additional locations.

HMCTS has been tracking the utilisation of each of the Nightingale courts for the first weeks of operation and this is shown in the table below. Utilisation gives a better view of how much the courts are used than figures on cases heard – where courts are deliberately designed to hear longer cases, ‘cases heard’ might be low despite the court being in constant use. These estimates have been compiled from local records and compared very favourably with the utilisation of permanent courts prior to Covid-19.

*The venue in Hertfordshire was hired for a specific period to meet a targeted operational need. This site is now closed.

** Estimated utilisation based on forward listing.

The first 18 Nightingale courts will have an overall cost at the end of the financial year of £10m, excluding judicial costs.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for the Justice, how many people were (a) prosecuted and (b) convicted of human trafficking and modern slavery offences as the principal offence; of those people how many were EEA or Swiss nationals excluding UK nationals; how many additional people flagged by the CPS as being investigated for human trafficking and modern slavery offences were (i) prosecuted and (ii) convicted of other offences; and of those people how many were EEA or Swiss nationals excluding UK nationals in each calendar year from 2016 to 2019.

Answer (Alex Chalk)

The Ministry of Justice has published data on the number of people prosecuted and convicted in England and Wales up to the year ending December 2019 for the following human trafficking-related offences and offences under the Modern Slavery Act 2015, available at the link below:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/888344/HO-code-tool-principal-offence-2019.xlsx

Filter ‘Offence’ by:

• 72 Human trafficking for sexual exploitation
• 78.1 Human trafficking for non-sexual exploitation
• 106 Modern Slavery

The resulting table will then display the those prosecuted and convicted for the above offences over the 2013-2019 period.

However, it is not possible to identify the nationality of the defendants as this information is not held in the courts proceedings database.

Moreover, CPS flagged data relating to individuals prosecuted for human trafficking or modern slavery does not identify the specific offences prosecuted or convicted.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has taken recent steps to review sentencing policy for dangerous driving.

Answer (Chris Philp)

The government has committed to increase the maximum penalty for causing death by dangerous driving and causing death by careless driving when under the influence of drink or drugs to life imprisonment and create a new offence of causing serious injury by careless driving. We will legislate as soon as possible.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of re-opening recently closed Courts in order to help tackle the backlog in cases arising from the covid-19 outbreak.

Answer (Chris Philp)

On 19 July, HM Courts & Tribunals Service announced ten Nightingale court locations to provide additional capacity for the courts and tribunals estate on a temporary basis. We assessed the merits of using unsold former court buildings as Nightingale courts and are using the former Fleetwood Magistrates’ Court and former Telford County Court buildings for this purpose.

HMCTS has published an update on their response to covid-19 in the criminal courts in England and Wales (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/court-and-tribunal-recovery-update-in-response-to-coronavirus). This includes details on the use of Nightingale courts and our plans to open additional locations. We will continue to consider former court buildings as we work to increase our capacity.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to help improve communications between (a) probate registry offices and (b) solicitors.

Answer (Chris Philp)

As part of the £1bn HMCTS reform programme a new online service has been introduced for use by probate professionals. The service is available 24 hours a day and enables professionals access to real time information about the progress of their digital case without the need to contact HMCTS.

In addition to the online system, as of March 2020, all calls are now answered by the Courts & Tribunals Service Centres which are equipped with modern technology to monitor performance levels and make improvements to the service being offered.

HMCTS also regularly meets with a variety of probate legal professional representative bodies to consult and update on forthcoming changes whilst gathering and responding to feedback.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign national offenders convicted of human trafficking or modern slavery offences were returned to their country of origin under (a) the Early Removal Scheme, (b) an EU Prisoner Transfer Framework Decision, (c) the Additional Protocol to the Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons and (d) bilateral prisoner transfer agreements in each year from 2016 to 2019; and under each scheme how many returned offenders were EEA or Swiss nationals in each of those years.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

We continue to remove foreign national offenders where routes are available.

Since 2010, we have removed over 55,000 foreign national offenders from our prisons, immigration removal centres and the community, with 4,743 removed in 2019/20.

We are absolutely committed to removing foreign national offenders from the UK and continue to work closely with international governments to maximise the removal of serious and persistent offenders.

We are constantly reviewing progress to ensure that all options are being pursued and that our early removal mechanisms are working as effectively as possible.

The latest published information on foreign national offenders returned under the Early Removal and Facilitated Returns Schemes is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-enforcement-data-august-2020 (Table FNO_09 in Transparency data Immigration Enforcement data: August 2020, provides the numbers of foreign nationals removed under the Early Removal Scheme every year since 2010 but that there is no published data that breaks down these numbers by nationality or offence type).

All five prisoners repatriated under the EUPTFD were EEA nationals.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what lessons he has learnt from the implementation of his Department’s accommodation support scheme for prison leavers.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

Everyone leaving prison should have somewhere safe and secure to live; accommodation enables offenders to hold down a job and reduces the likelihood of them reoffending.

As part of its response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Justice secured £8.5 million to support individuals at risk of homelessness on their release from prison and help them to move on into permanent accommodation. The scheme ran between 18^th May and 31^st August and provided up to 56 nights’ accommodation meaning some prison leavers can be accommodated up until the 26^th October. While it was designed as an emergency, temporary response to support prison leavers at risk of homelessness during the pandemic, the department is keen to develop longer-term improvements. We will review the scheme over the coming months and use those lessons as we develop and roll out our wider reforms to probation services over the coming year.

As part of its COVID-19 response, Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) set up seven Homelessness Prevention Taskforces to work with local authorities and other partners to find accommodation for offenders released from prison; these taskforces are still active. While we are currently reviewing the operation of these taskforces, the operational benefits of the taskforces are such that we are considering how to continue them in the long-term.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the effect on (a) fair treatment of staff, (b) rates of absence, (c) staff morale and (d) staff retention of the absence of Payment Plus Bonus Scheme payments during the covid-19 outbreak, in private prisons in England and Wales.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

We put a range of measures in place to support our prisons and to safeguard staff and offenders during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Covid Payment Plus Special Bonus Scheme, was available for all prison staff, in any establishment, including privately run prisons, where additional hours are required due to staff absence. Annual leave buy-back was the only element of the scheme that was not available to staff in privately run prisons. For staffing working in privately run prisons, all staffing matters, including bonus payment schemes, are managed by their employers.

We are very grateful to prison staff, who have continued to work hard through extraordinary circumstances. This includes staff working out our private prisons, which continue to play an important role in the prison estate. We have and will continue to work closely with private providers throughout the pandemic.

Question to the Ministry of Justice

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of covid-19 sick pay policies implemented by G4S at (a) Altcourse Prison and (b) other private prisons managed by G4S, with regard to (i) fair treatment of staff across the prison estate in England and Wales, (ii) the public health necessity of self-isolation and household isolation for covid-19 symptoms and (iii) the effect on staff health and wellbeing if staff members who have suffered from covid-19 symptoms return to work before they are fit to do so.

Answer (Lucy Frazer)

All staffing matters, including sick pay, sit with contractors. There is no requirement in the contracts to agree such matters with the Ministry of Justice.

Offenders who commit alcohol-fuelled crime can be banned from drinking & made to wear alcohol tags for up to 120 days. But how do alcohol tags work? To find out, watch @BBCCrimewatch and skip to 31:34s ⬇️ https://t.co/BKA5mbwquv

An est 39% of violent crime involve an offender under the influence of alcohol. Offenders who commit alcohol-fuelled crime can be banned from drinking & made to wear alcohol tags for up to 120days. But how do they work? Watch @BBCCrimewatch Skip to 31:34s https://t.co/BKA5mbwquv

Congratulations to @unlockedgrads on placing 36th in the Times’ Top 100 Graduate Employers for 2020! Our #HiddenHeroes in the prison service continue to work incredibly hard throughout the pandemic. Find out more about opportunities: https://t.co/UxPt1vt2gx https://t.co/tOyhhi5qEP https://t.co/62XtEETnFN

Nearly 1/3 of those on community orders reported having mental health or drug addiction issues & 38% an alcohol problem. #Sentencing reforms will expand Community Sentence Treatment Requirements to support those with complex needs to turn away from crime. https://t.co/hclFLhcJ50 https://t.co/75iIDsH3II

There are 100 days until the end of the UK’s Transition Period. Join webinars with @TheLawSociety in Sep & Oct to learn about changes to: - EU-UK data flows - Family law - Cross-border civil & commercial judgments Search ‘Transition’ at https://t.co/lvHAJRbEDW #CheckChangeGo https://t.co/ei3ugBtCbX

Across all Nightingale courts now announced there will be 32 additional courtrooms. These sites, alongside remote hearing technology & installing plexiglass screens, are ensuring the safety of all our court users & reducing outstanding cases. https://t.co/nlis00rpHh

Emergency workers risk their lives to protect us. Assaults on them should never be part of the job and are unacceptable. We’re doubling the maximum penalty to 2 years for anyone who assaults an emergency worker. https://t.co/hclFLhcJ50 #ProtectTheProtectors #Sentencing https://t.co/9Af1BhLMAx

Making a will is important if you live with a partner and you're not married. It allows you to set out your wishes and what your partner receives. To find out more about making a will, visit 👇 https://t.co/M9rPuD7tth https://t.co/UMoVkzg77s

If you’ve been affected by tonight’s @bbceastenders, help is available. #YouAreNotAlone Watch our videos to hear from support services across England & Wales, including @Refuge, on how you can access help. https://t.co/TozAwLQtAI #DomesticAbuse #BBCEastenders #Chantelle https://t.co/FEa6UaT7M5

If you’ve experienced #DomesticAbuse, talk to someone & get the support you need today. ➡️ How to get support: https://t.co/PVuOKWdRkx ➡️ Help on reporting domestic abuse: https://t.co/vXn8AfxEeD ➡️ Support for bereaved families: https://t.co/ZgphwdxjoQ #YouAreNotAlone

We’re committed to improving diversity within the judiciary – watch below to find out how. For more on why the JDF action plan & joint narrative is needed, see today’s report on representation in the legal professions, judicial appointments & judiciary: https://t.co/D9fDUhD5WT. https://t.co/e1ek1sU1qm

We’re increasing the maximum penalty to life imprisonment for motorists who cause death by dangerous driving. Dangerous driving can include speeding, racing or using a mobile phone behind the wheel. https://t.co/hclFLhuktA #Sentencing https://t.co/0CG4kEON3R

No-one should ever feel unsafe in their own home. We’re trialling GPS electronic tags to monitor offenders on release from prison who serve sentences for burglary and robbery, to deter future offending and help keep the public safe. #Sentencing https://t.co/hclFLhuktA https://t.co/iw5W5IAl7n

“The first duty of any government is to keep the public safe from harm.” - @RobertBuckland Today the Lord Chancellor introduced the #Sentencing White Paper in a speech @csjthinktank. Read the speech here: https://t.co/wnOhRZpGdf https://t.co/w04gyr65an

The first duty of government is to keep people safe. #Sentencing is the way victims, the public and offenders see justice being done. Today we are unveiling the biggest reforms to sentencing in almost 20 years. Read more: https://t.co/hclFLhuktA 1/5 https://t.co/HK0yrMXDEE

Public protection is the key principle of #sentencing. Reforms will: - Make Whole Life Orders default position for premeditated murder of children - Reduce Whole Life Order min age to 18 in exceptional cases - Stop auto release for prisoners who may become a future danger 2/5 https://t.co/r83LFDWuGs

Victims deserve a justice system they can trust where #sentencing reflects the crime. Reforms incl: - Trialling GPS tags for burglars when leaving prison - Improved community orders to reduce future offending - Abolishing auto halfway release for certain serious offenders 3/5 https://t.co/Z3Ee7SVqXf

#Sentencing reforms will help individuals turn their backs on crime and get themselves into work by: - Reducing the time it takes for some convictions to become spent for basic checks. 4/5 https://t.co/w3YDxBb3zn

#Sentencing must support rehabilitation of offenders with complex needs. Reforms will: - Expand programmes for those with mental health, drug & alcohol needs - Launch call for evidence on improving help for those with neurodivergent conditions incl. learning disabilities 5/5 https://t.co/Jkqgz9HA6I