Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what measures they are taking to ensure that the prisons system's new 'early release scheme' includes comprehensive support for prisoners with programs for (1) employment, (2) training and, (3) rehabilitation to reduce the likelihood of reoffending.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Unlike the previous Government’s End of Custody Supervised Licence scheme, the change to the Standard Determinate Sentence release point has an eight week implementation period. This give probation and other agencies enough time to properly prepare release plans for offenders and ensure they are less likely to reoffend.
Ahead of implementation of the change to the Standard Determinate Sentence release point in September, we are working closely with the Department of Work and Pensions to ensure that prisons and Jobcentres are prepared to support temporarily higher volumes of prisoners approaching release as they transition into the community.
We will collectively ensure that relevant staff in prisons and Jobcentres will have the right data on prisoners who are being released, when and from which prisons. We will provide guidance and regular communications to those staff so they are aware of what actions to take.
This will ensure that prisoners are supported to prepare for release and supported in the community through the provision of bank accounts and ID, referrals to work programmes on release, arranging employment pre-release, and timely access to benefits where appropriate.
This work supports our aim to break the cycle of reoffending, and ensuring those who leave prison are supported as they transition into the community, helping to turn lives around and cut crime.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure a fair and accessible system for resolving employment disputes which is not restricted by financial burdens.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
The Government is committed to ensuring an effective, efficient, and affordable justice system for all. We have taken various steps to increase capacity in the Employment Tribunals, such as the recruitment of an additional 19 salaried ET judges and 150 fee-paid ET judges in 2022/23. Additionally, the Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022 will transfer Employment Tribunal rule-making powers to the Tribunal Procedures Committee. This will allow the judiciary to manage their workloads more flexibly, maximising the capacity of the Employment Tribunal.
The Government is also investing in the development of new digital processes. The Employment Tribunal Reform project will provide a simple, fair and accessible service with simplified channels for engaging with the service, a focus on early resolution of cases, transparency for all the parties as the case progresses, and a reduction in the time taken to resolve employment disputes.
In addition, the Government supports the resolution of employment disputes via early conciliation, where possible. The Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) provides free and impartial advice to assist parties in resolving their employment disputes. Acas received £56m in 2022/23 from the Department of Business and Trade (DBT), with c.£24m directed towards individual dispute resolution activity.
The Government is currently consulting on introducing modest fees in the Employment Tribunal and the Employment Appeal Tribunal. The Ministry of Justice recognises that the ET fees established in 2013 and quashed in 2017 by the Supreme Court were too high, and has carefully considered the lessons of the Unison Supreme Court judgment when developing this proposal.
The proposal of introducing modest fees seeks to ensure user-contribution towards the tribunals, which are currently fully funded from direct taxation, while ensuring that the principles of affordability, proportionality and simplicity underpinning the proposed fees continue to preserve access to justice for all.
Those who cannot afford to pay the proposed fees will be supported by our fee remission scheme, Help with Fees (HwF). In 2022/23, the scheme provided £80m in financial support to those on low incomes and with little to no savings. The scheme was recently reformed in November 2023 to provide for a much more generous scheme. In exceptional circumstances, the Lord Chancellor can exercise his power to remit a fee, which further ensures that access to justice is protected.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what legislative changes they intend to make, if any, to reverse the effects of the Supreme Court's ruling on litigation funding in R (on the application of PACCAR Inc and others) v Competition Appeal Tribunal and others in July 2023.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
The Government is committed to mitigating the impacts of the UK Supreme Court judgment of PACCAR and returning to a pre-PACCAR regime for third party litigation funding at the first legislative opportunity. We are actively looking to find appropriate legislative vehicles.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce concerns about violence and personal safety for prison officers and prisoners in England and Wales.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
The safety of staff and prisoners is a key priority, and we continue our efforts to address the levels of violence in prison.
We are equipping our staff with the right tools and training to maintain safety in our prisons. We have rolled out a new Body Worn Video Camera system and we are rolling out PAVA – a synthetic pepper spray – in the adult male estate alongside SPEAR, a personal safety training package.
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 doubled the maximum penalty to up to two years’ imprisonment for those who assault emergency workers, including prison officers.
We continue to support prisoners at risk of violence to move away from violent behaviours and we are delivering a £100m Security Investment Programme to disrupt smuggling of illicit items such as drugs and weapons that can fuel prison violence.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to introduce regulations to help legal professionals, including those working in both in-house legal teams and law firms, adapt to the influence of generative artificial intelligence in the legal profession.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
In March, the Office for Artificial Intelligence (OAI) published a white paper which set out a principles based, pro-innovation approach to regulating AI. This would be delivered through the UK’s established regulators operating in their existing remits and sectors. The OAI have been working with expert stakeholders to develop guidance for businesses on the types of skills and knowledge that non-technical employees need to use to interact with AI. The guidance, which will be published later this year, will enable employers to identify skills gaps and training needs within their business. This will then be developed into a detailed framework for training providers to design courses meeting such business needs.
Legal Services regulation is independent of Government and overseen by the Legal Services Board (LSB). The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is working closely with the OAI and LSB to support legal regulators to implement the proposed approach. The MoJ sees the adoption of technology in the delivery of legal services as vital to the continuing success of our world-renowned legal sector. We support the growth of the lawtech sector through the LawtechUK programme, in which we are investing £3 million from April 2023 – 2025.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to increase the use of community sentencing.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
Sentencing is a matter for the independent judiciary and it is right that they have a broad range of sentencing powers, including discharges, fines, community sentences, suspended sentences and custodial sentences, to deal effectively and appropriately with offenders based on the circumstances of the case.
To strengthen the option of community sentences for sentencers, this Government introduced reforms through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Act 2022 to make them tougher, better monitored, and more effective for punishing offenders, tackling the underlying drivers of offending, and providing support for those who want to turn their lives around.
This includes the option for tougher and more flexible use of electronically monitored curfews to better reflect the punishment intended, better support rehabilitation, and better protect victims. The Government is also piloting Problem-Solving Courts (PSC) for specific cohorts with underlying needs through robust supervision and interventions delivered by a multi-agency team with judicial oversight.
Beyond the Act, we are: increasing the use of community sentence treatment requirements which require offenders to engage with mental health, drug/alcohol treatment as part of their community sentence; investing up to £120m to get more offenders engaged in treatment; completing and evaluating the Pre-Sentence Report (PSR) Pilots to continue the development of higher quality and timely PSRs to support judicial decision making; implementing our refreshed Integrated Offender Management Strategy to align police and probation in rigorous supervision of specific offenders within the community; and exploring options to increase the availability of robust residential requirements for women.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to fund free (1) advice, and (2) law, centres; and how long any such funding will be available.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
Since 2015, the Ministry of Justice has invested more than £25 million in support for litigants in person and funding a broad range of free legal support services.
This week, the Ministry of Justice announced a new £10.4m ‘Improving Outcomes Through Legal Support’ grant. This grant will run from July 2023 until March 2025 and will be administered by the Access to Justice Foundation on behalf of the Ministry of Justice. The grant will continue to help thousands of people get access to early legal support from organisations who provide legal advice.
More broadly, Legal Aid provides free or low-cost legal advice and representation to people who cannot afford to pay for a lawyer, subject to the relevant means and merits criteria. Legal aid is available for legal advice on criminal, family, housing, immigration and welfare law.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many restorative justice services they plan to have set up by the end of 2023, broken down by the location of those services.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
The Ministry of Justice is more than quadrupling funding for victim and witness support services by 2024/25, up from £41m in 2009/10.
This includes grant funding for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to commission local practical, emotional, and therapeutic support services for victims of all crime types. It is at the PCCs’ discretion to allocate this funding for local services, based on their assessment of local need, which could include Restorative Justice services.
We collect data and information from PCCs on funding activities and impact on a bi-annual basis, throughout the financial year; we therefore do not yet have any data for 2023.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase the use of online court sittings.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
Whether a hearing is held remotely or not is a judicial decision. HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) supports the judiciary to conduct hearings in their preferred method, be that wholly remote, wholly in person or a combination of remote and physically present participants, enabling justice that is unrestricted by physical location. However, it is ultimately a judicial decision. We are facilitating this through continuing investment in audio and video technology to ensure our courtrooms and tribunal buildings are digitally enabled.
Remote hearings provide additional capacity to ensure cases can be heard quickly, while freeing up space for cases that must be heard in person. Having increased in use during the pandemic, remote hearings are continuing to be used to support court and tribunal recovery.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support greater use of early interventions for those in the criminal justice system to prevent recidivism.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
The Beating Crime Plan 2021 highlighted the importance of early intervention for all young people; targeted support for those at risk of involvement in criminality; and targeted interventions for those who have started to offend. Intervening earlier is more effective, and cheaper.
It is better for children that they do not enter the justice system at all, and that is why my department works with partners across government to support the design, delivery and evaluation of programmes which provide help earlier on. For example, the Supporting Families programme shows a return on investment of £2.28 for every £1 spent, and an 18% reduction in juvenile convictions and 38% reduction in juvenile prison sentences.
To further build up the evidence base, and support innovative projects targeted at children on the cusp of the justice system, we are also providing £5m for 200 voluntary and community projects. These will engage children at risk of involvement in crime through mentoring and sport activities, with the aim of reducing crime in local communities.