Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the Government has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Government of Saudi Arabia on judicial cooperation.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Justice signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Justice of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in September 2014.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the cost to the public purse of employment tribunal cases brought in relation to the failure of companies to follow redundancy consultancy procedures required by law in each of the last three years.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested is not held centrally.
Costs directly attributable to each claim / case type are not separately identifiable as current financial systems do not allow us to link costs to claims / cases.
Employment tribunal cases can vary in nature and complexity and some can last over more than one year, particularly where collective disputes are involved. Claims in employment tribunals can be classified into either single or multiple claims. Multiple claims being where two or more people bring proceedings arising out of the same facts, usually against a common employer. Where claims are grouped as multiples, they are processed administratively and managed judicially together. Claims can be disposed of in a variety of ways, including being rejected either because they are out of time, or have no reasonable chance of success. A minority of cases are disposed of at a full hearing. There are therefore many ways an employment tribunal case can be interpreted.
As a result, it is not possible to provide costs for each of the last three years for employment tribunal cases brought in relation to the failure of companies to follow redundancy consultancy procedures required by law.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 21 May 2018 to Question 144209 on Personal Independence Payment: Appeals, what solutions his Department is exploring to increase the capacity of the Tribunals Service in relation to personal independence payment; and what the digital reform initiatives referred to in that Answer are.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has been working with the tribunal judiciary both to appoint additional judges and panel members and to list more Personal Independence Payment (PIP) appeals into each tribunal session.
For example, the Social Security and Child Support tribunal has recruited extra fee-paid judicial office holders: 250 judges across the First-tier Tribunal, 125 disability qualified members and up to 230 medical members. In addition, we are listing more PIP appeals per session and have introduced case-management “triage” sessions, with the aim of reducing the time taken for appeals to reach final determination. All these measures will increase the capacity of the tribunal, with the aim of reducing waiting times for appellants.
We are also developing a new digital system with a view to enabling speedier processing of appeals and a better service for all parties to the proceedings. Information on the new digital service can be found at www.gov.uk/government/news/new-online-service-launched-for-pip-appeals. This service is now also live for Employment and Support Allowance appeals.
Finally, we are working with the Department for Work and Pensions to understand what could be done to reduce the number of appeals being submitted to the Tribunal, through their focus on improving decision-making and the mandatory reconsideration process. Latest figures (to September 2018) indicate that since PIP was introduced, 3.7 million decisions have been made, and of these 10% have been appealed and 5% have been overturned at tribunals.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps the Government is taking to uphold the constitutional importance of judicial review.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The Government’s reforms to judicial review provide a more balanced and practicable approach that will ensure cases with merit can proceed quickly through to resolution and unmeritorious claims which abuse the system and cause unnecessary delays are filtered out at the earliest opportunity.
There is nothing in the reform package which undermines the constitutional role of judicial review as a vital check on the State.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what forecasts the Government has made of future trends in the prison population.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
Projections of the prison population are published annually in November. We are currently seeing a higher population driven by changes in the case mix, including more sex offenders being sentenced to custody. Updated projections will be published on 27 November. As these are National Statistics, I cannot comment on what they will show.
I can assure the House we will always have enough prison capacity for those committed by the courts. We currently have over 2,000 spare prison places, a further 2,000 by April, Wrexham in 2017, and by the end of this Parliament will have 3,000 more adult male places than we inherited.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many hours per week prisoners in HM Prison (a) Blundeston, (b) Brinsford, (c) Bristol, (d) Bullingdon and (e) Bullwood Hall spent in (i) cells and (ii) working.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
Up until the end of 2011-12 information was collected on the average hours per weekday that prisoners were unlocked. By subtracting the average hours unlocked from the 24 hours in a day it is possible to estimate hours spent locked in cell. Figures for each prison establishment for the three years from 2009-10 to 2011-12 have been placed in the library of the House.
It should be noted that time in cell includes hours when prisoners are asleep. Time unlocked includes time where a prisoner is either out of their cell or where the cell door is unlocked allowing them to move freely in and out of the cell. Figures 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.
Time unlocked was discontinued as a performance indicator for prisons at the end of 2011-12 because it was not used in the day-to-day management of prisons and NOMS had concerns over the burden on the frontline of collecting the data. Indicators introduced into prison SLAs in respect of rehabilitation, resettlement and work in prisons provide a better demonstration of efforts to prepare prisoners for release and reduce reoffending. Figures for time in cell for the years 2012-13 and 2013-14 could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Work in prisons is a key priority to ensure prisoners are engaged purposefully whilst they are in custody. It also gives them the opportunity to learn skills and a work ethic which can increase their chances of finding employment on release, a key element to reducing reoffending.
The number of prisoners working in industrial activity across public sector prisons increased from around 8,600 in 2010-11 (the first year for which figures are available) to around 9,700 in 2012-13. This delivered an increase in the total hours worked in industrial activities from 10.6 million hours to 13.1 million hours. Private sector prisons have also been supporting this agenda and have reported that they delivered over 1½ million prisoner working hours in commercial and industrial workshops in 2012-13 which provided work for over 1,200 prisoners. In addition there are substantial numbers of prisoners who work to keep prisons running on tasks such as cooking, serving meals, maintenance and cleaning.
Figures for public sector prisons are published in the NOMS Annual Report Management Information Addendum: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/225225/mi-addendum.pdf
The establishment-level breakdown of weekly hours worked is not available centrally for 2011-12 and 2012-13 and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Our reforms to the Incentives and Earned Privileges national policy framework came into effect in adult prisons on 1 November 2013. Prisoners will be expected to engage in purposeful activity, as well as demonstrate a commitment towards their rehabilitation, reduce their risk of reoffending, behave well and help others if they are to earn privileges.