Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much the Legal Aid Agency has spent on equipment for staff to work from home in each of the last three years.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This information could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.
Heads of departments have agreed that 60% minimum office attendance for most staff continues to be the best balance of working for the Civil Service.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what representations she has received from the public on the use of reparations for those convicted of criminal offences.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Department has interpreted ‘representations’ to mean correspondence sent to the Secretary of State for Justice or her Ministers. One piece of correspondence related to this issue was received by the Department.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of prisoners eligible for release from prison on home detention curfew were released on home detention curfew (a) in the first month of eligibility and (b) at any time in each of the last three years.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The number of those released on home detention curfew (HDC) within 30 days of their HDC Eligibility Date in the latest published data period (between 01 October and 31 December 2024) in England and Wales was 2,827.
The number of those released on HDC each year is published in the Department’s Offender Management Statistics Quarterly (OMSQ) publication. This information can be found in Table 3_A_14:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/685492a1f812712f84581555/prison-releases-2024.ods
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when court room six at Shropshire Justice Centre will be re-opened.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The works to make courtroom six operational were completed on 7 June 2025, and the first sitting took place on 10 June 2025.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of criminal trials were heard before a jury in each of the last five years.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice does not centrally hold information on the numbers and proportion of criminal trials heard before a jury. However, the vast majority of criminal cases are heard in the magistrates’ courts without juries – with 90% of all criminal cases being dealt with by magistrates. Of the remaining defendants that do progress to the Crown Court for trial, most plead guilty, meaning their cases do not go before a jury. Therefore, the most accurate proxy available for how many cases are heard by a jury in the Crown Court is the number of defendants who plead not guilty. The table below provides a breakdown of this data over the past five years:
Defendants dealt with in trial cases disposed of in the Crown Court, 2020-2024
Year | Total number of defendants | Plea entered: Guilty | Plea entered: Not guilty | Guilty plea rate |
2020 | 50,353 | 34,341 | 7,404 | 72% |
2021 | 63,884 | 40,613 | 12,069 | 67% |
2022 | 61,193 | 37,340 | 11,964 | 64% |
2023 | 70,917 | 42,039 | 14,838 | 62% |
2024 | 76,653 | 44,288 | 15,638 | 61% |
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of trials by jury on levels of public confidence in the criminal justice system.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Sir Brian Leveson has published the first part of his Independent Review of the Criminal Courts, setting out a number of recommendations on the use of jury trials in the Crown Court. Jury trials are a cornerstone of our justice system and will remain in place for the most serious cases. However, we must consider bold action to tackle the rising backlog. There is evidence that significant delays undermine confidence in the system. Over 90% of criminal cases are heard without a jury and deliver swift justice. We will carefully consider Sir Brian’s proposals before setting out the Government’s full response in the autumn.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate she has made of the number of unfilled magistrate vacancies on 9 July 2025.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We do not have a set number of magistrate vacancies. Magistrate recruitment targets are set on an annual basis covering 1 April to 31 March. As of 1 April 2025, there were 14,636 magistrates in post. We are aiming to recruit around 2,000 magistrates in 2025/26, and we are currently considering our ongoing resourcing needs in light of the planned reform of the criminal courts.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much the Office of the Public Guardian has spent on equipment for staff to work from home in each of the last three years.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Information on the cost of equipment provided specially for home working cannot be obtained without incurring a disproportionate cost, due to the way these costs are recorded.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in the context of children under the age of two who are separated from their mothers in prison, if she will publish (a) a list of types of setting in which those children are looked after and (b) the (i) number and (ii) proportion of children looked after by setting type.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Data on the number of babies accommodated in Mother and Baby Units (MBUs) in England is published at Table 10.1 of the HMPPS Annual Digest 2023-2024:
The Annual Digest 2024 - 2025 is scheduled for publication at the end of July. Owing to our obligations under the Code of Practice for Statistics, we are unable to provide the latest data as this time, as they are intended for future publication.
Women who are pregnant, or who have children up to and around the age of 18 months, can apply for a place in an MBU. MBUs normally accommodate babies up until the age of 18 months, though in exceptional circumstances a child may remain beyond 18 months.
Data is not held on the number of mothers in prison who are separated from children under the age of two, or on the care arrangements for those children. While applications for MBU placements are recorded, there is no central record of children who are not placed in MBUs or the reasons for separation.
Care decisions are made by local authorities in accordance with their safeguarding responsibilities under the Children Act 1989 and the statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023.
We recognise that parental imprisonment is an adverse childhood experience. We are working closely with the Department for Education to determine how we identify these children effectively, and the best way to provide support for affected children and their parent in prison.
Asked by: Robert Jenrick (Conservative - Newark)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been (a) convicted and (b) prosecuted for immigration offences in each month since July 2024.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on prosecutions and convictions for a range of offences including immigration offences and those under the Nationality and Borders Act in the Outcomes by Offences data tool up to the end of 2024. The tool can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics.