Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners are being held under Imprisonment for the Public Protection sentences in HMP (a) Buckley Hall, (b) Forest Bank, (c) Hindley and (d) Manchester.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The number of prisoners serving indeterminate sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) in HMP Buckley, HMP Hindley, HMP Forest Bank and HMP Manchester, as at 30 June 2024, are set out in the table below.
Prison | Number of IPP Prisoners |
Buckley Hall | 49 |
Forest Bank | 27 |
Hindley | 18 |
Manchester | 24 |
Please note:
(1) Figures for the IPP population include both unreleased and recalled IPP prisoners.
(2) The figures in this table have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
This Government believes it is right that these sentences were abolished and is determined to make further progress towards a safe and sustainable release for those serving the IPP sentence, but not in a way that impacts public protection.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many open family cases there are in each Designated Family Judge area for public and private family law; and what proportion of those cases in each area involve litigants in person.
Answered by Mike Freer
Count of the Private and Public Law Open Caseload as at the 31st March 2023 broken down to include cases without a representative | ||||
DESIGNATED FAMILY JUDGE AREA | Public Law Open Caseload | Private Law Open Caseload | ||
Unrepresented1 | Total Cases | Unrepresented1 | Total Cases | |
Birmingham | 57 | 280 | 1211 | 1696 |
Blackburn/Lancaster | 80 | 373 | 751 | 1063 |
Bournemouth and Dorset | 17 | 91 | 202 | 335 |
Brighton | 36 | 270 | 946 | 1353 |
Bristol (A, NS and G) | 55 | 330 | 822 | 1190 |
Business Centres | 0 | 4 | 2 | 3 |
Carlisle | 14 | 114 | 131 | 220 |
Central London | 187 | 666 | 2691 | 3485 |
Cleveland and South Durham | 82 | 371 | 289 | 461 |
Coventry | 27 | 131 | 513 | 778 |
Derby | 36 | 223 | 461 | 711 |
Devon | 92 | 347 | 615 | 994 |
East London | 189 | 676 | 2313 | 3412 |
Essex and Suffolk | 68 | 374 | 2051 | 2939 |
Guildford | 31 | 149 | 559 | 854 |
Humberside | 74 | 297 | 372 | 570 |
Leicester | 23 | 186 | 451 | 679 |
Lincoln | 18 | 127 | 292 | 474 |
Liverpool | 200 | 799 | 959 | 1532 |
Luton | 28 | 172 | 520 | 704 |
Manchester | 234 | 882 | 1658 | 2483 |
Medway and Canterbury | 127 | 421 | 1291 | 1759 |
Milton Keynes | 53 | 272 | 604 | 923 |
North Wales | 39 | 144 | 183 | 310 |
North Yorkshire | 14 | 83 | 201 | 356 |
Northampton | 24 | 152 | 410 | 558 |
Northumbria and North Durham | 95 | 503 | 551 | 934 |
Norwich | 26 | 187 | 527 | 793 |
Nottingham | 47 | 246 | 705 | 1039 |
Peterborough and Cambridge | 26 | 145 | 423 | 650 |
Portsmouth (Hampshire and IOW) | 82 | 291 | 974 | 1362 |
Reading | 37 | 212 | 566 | 921 |
South East Wales | 73 | 284 | 645 | 1084 |
South Yorkshire | 70 | 391 | 418 | 705 |
Stoke on Trent | 68 | 320 | 653 | 965 |
Swansea | 39 | 155 | 351 | 713 |
Swindon | 15 | 93 | 291 | 435 |
Taunton | 21 | 113 | 251 | 412 |
Truro | 12 | 97 | 191 | 326 |
Watford | 13 | 90 | 566 | 847 |
West London | 96 | 524 | 1813 | 2556 |
West Yorkshire | 164 | 706 | 1079 | 1639 |
Wolverhampton | 99 | 471 | 947 | 1417 |
Worcester | 17 | 111 | 318 | 525 |
Grand Total | 2805 | 12873 | 31767 | 47165 |
Unrepresented1 data is a subset of Publish Management Information. This is Management Information; the data is taken from a live management information system and can change over time and may differ from previously published data.
1. Unrepresented' refers to parties where no representative is recorded. Therefore, they should be considered as parties without a recorded representative, rather than 'litigants in person'.
Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the Legal Aid Agency’s methodologies are for assessing demand and capacity for civil legal aid for all categories of law.
Answered by Mike Freer
The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) is responsible for commissioning legal aid services in England and Wales. The LAA manages capacity in a number of ways. The LAA’s network of regional contract managers located throughout England and Wales provide intelligence-led information based on contact with legal aid service providers. In addition, the LAA frequently reviews market capacity to make sure there is adequate provision for legal aid, in all categories of law, and moves quickly where issues arise to secure provision.
The commissioning and monitoring of legal aid services are done by Procurement Area or Access Point, with Procurement Areas differing for different categories of law. The commissioning standard is to have at least one provider in each civil category per Procurement Area, outside Family Law where the minimum is five.
Information about the number of legal aid providers contracted to provide services are published as part of the LAA’s statistics. These statistics are used by the LAA as management information to monitor the capacity of legal aid services over time, in different areas of law and different regions of England Wales.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Criminal Legal Aid Advisory Board, what the timeline is for the appointment of a chair of that board; what assessment he has made of the diversity of the membership of that board; and how often that board is expected to meet.
Answered by Mike Freer
The Criminal Legal Aid Advisory Board (CLAAB) was established following Lord Bellamy’s Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review (CLAIR) recommendation that an Advisory Board be established to take a wider view and encourage a more joined-up approach to criminal legal aid within the criminal justice system.
Board meetings take place quarterly and there have been two meetings to date - the first on 28 October 2022 and the second on 24 January 2023.
The first CLAAB meeting took place in October 2022, where CLAAB membership was discussed.
The CLAAB’s membership covers the main representative bodies, including the Bar Council, the Law Society, Criminal Bar Association, London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association, Criminal Law Solicitors’ Association, Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEX) and Ministry of Justice officials, ensuring the Lord Chancellor receives a diverse range of expert views. In addition to the CLAAB, there are a series of sub-groups which include a wide range of subject matter experts to focus on specific areas of reform.
We are currently considering the issue of the Chair of the Board and will make an announcement in due course.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of potential regional disparities in legal aid provision across England and Wales.
Answered by Mike Freer
The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) regularly monitors capacity in the legal aid market and the provision of services and takes immediate action when gaps appear, working with providers to ensure provision nationally. Additionally, legal advice on a range of civil matters including housing, debt, discrimination and education is available, wherever people are, through the Civil Legal Advice telephone service.
The LAA has contracts with a range of legal aid providers of varying sizes and capacity to take on new cases. Demand for legal aid services may vary across different categories of law. The LAA will shortly open up a tender to allow additional legal aid providers to bid for a civil legal aid in all categories.
The Ministry of Justice continues to consider the long-term sustainability of the criminal and civil legal aid market and are taking a whole system approach to these important issues.
Our plans will put criminal legal aid on a sustainable footing and ensure there is a sustainable supply of practitioners. Criminal legal aid spend is expected to increase to £1.2 billion per year, which is the highest level since 2010.
We also recently launched a review of civil legal aid to identify evidence-based options which will help inform our longer-term strategy for improving the sustainability and effectiveness of the civil legal aid system.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to help increase recruitment of underrepresented groups into the legal profession.
Answered by Mike Freer
The legal profession in England and Wales is independent of Government. Statutory responsibility for encouraging a diverse legal profession sits with the approved regulators, overseen by the oversight regulator, the Legal Services Board (LSB).
The LSB has a broad programme of work aimed at encouraging a diverse workforce, including guidance for legal services regulators, research on the experiences of legal professionals from different backgrounds and initiatives designed to address counter-inclusive practices that act as barriers to recruitment, retention and progression. The LSB will consult on updated expectations for regulators on their approach to equality, diversity and inclusion.
The Government’s response to the recommendations of the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review, published in 2022, said that we will explore what can be done to make duty solicitor work easier for those with caring responsibilities to improve the gender balance among duty solicitors. We will also ask the Criminal Legal Aid Advisory Board to investigate the disparities in income based on gender and race.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of the scope of legal aid on covering legal representation for individuals and families impacted by domestic abuse in relation to family law cases, including arrangements for children and finances.
Answered by Mike Freer
We want to support victims of domestic abuse, for whom legal proceedings can be both traumatic and costly. The scope of legal aid is set out in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012. Subject to eligibility criteria and evidence requirements, legal aid is available to domestic abuse victims in private family matters, including child custody cases.
We recently laid draft secondary legislation to broaden the evidence requirements for domestic abuse victims applying for legal aid. From 1 March 2023, a letter/report following a telephone or video conference with a GP will now be accepted.
Under our plans, domestic abuse victims applying for a protective order or other proceedings would benefit from the more generous means test for civil legal aid. And any disputed assets – including property – will not be included in a means assessment. This is much fairer for domestic abuse victims who are contesting a property and who cannot use their equity in that property to fund the legal proceedings.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many solicitors were on the Legal Aid Agency’s January 2023 criminal duty rota who had not been present on the Legal Aid Agency’s criminal duty rotas in the previous 12 months.
Answered by Mike Freer
Of the 4023 members included in the Legal Aid Agency’s (LAA) Duty Solicitor Rota commencing on 3 January 2023, there were approximately 86 members who had not been present on rotas which had commenced in the previous 12 months. This figure is based on a comparison of published member lists, which are compiled using data captured in duty solicitor application forms.
The LAA frequently reviews market capacity to make sure there is adequate provision of legal aid, in all categories of law, throughout England and Wales. The LAA moves quickly, where issues arise, to secure additional provision and to ensure demand for legal aid services is met across the country.
The LAA is satisfied that there continues to be sufficient duty solicitor coverage across all duty schemes. Provision under the duty scheme is demand led and so there may be variations in numbers across each local rota or other fluctuations in numbers depending on prevailing market conditions, and other factors such as the internal management and updating of contract schedules.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the size of the backlog in (a) family courts case and (b) all courts cases.
Answered by Mike Freer
The number of outstanding cases is published in the monthly HMCTS Management Information, accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmcts-management-information.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to help improve the diversity of the judiciary.
Answered by Mike Freer
The Ministry of Justice, as a member of the Judicial Diversity Forum (JDF), works closely with the judiciary, the Judicial Appointments Commission, the Legal Services Board and the legal professions to take actions to increase judicial diversity.
In December, the Judicial Diversity Forum published its priorities and actions for 2023 https://judicialappointments.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/JDF-Priorities.pdf which includes MoJ’s priorities: :
Leading the Pre-Application Judicial Education programme, which support lawyers from groups under-represented in the judiciary to be prepared for applying for a future judicial role.
Publishing comprehensive data in the annual combined Diversity of the Judiciary Statistics
Implementing the necessary steps for increasing CILEX lawyers eligibility for a wider range of judicial roles
Reviewing the application processes and barriers for non-traditional lawyers seeking judicial office.
The Government has also invested over £1 million to support the recruitment of new and diverse magistrates, the Government’s top priority for the magistracy. A new digitised recruitment process alongside an inclusive marketing campaign was launched in January 2022 as part of this programme of work, targeting underrepresented groups to ensure the magistracy is reflective of the communities it serves. A new Applicant Tracking System (ATS) was also introduced, allowing the MoJ to monitor the diversity of applicants which will help inform future recruitment activity.