Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Southgate and Wood Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the crown court backlog.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We are funding a record allocation of Crown Court sitting days to deliver swifter justice for victims – 110,000 sitting days this year, 4,000 higher than the last Government.
We have launched an independent review into the efficiency of the criminal courts, led by Sir Brian Leveson, to deliver once-in-a-generation reform.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Southgate and Wood Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will update the HM Prison and Probation Service Strategy for Care-Experienced People to include a specific focus on race.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
We are updating our strategy for people with care experience in the criminal justice system, to ensure we are using care-experienced people’s time in the criminal justice system to support them to lead crime-free lives.
This will include a focus on race and its role in shaping the experiences and outcomes of those with care experience in the criminal justice system, and will link to wider departmental efforts to address racial disproportionality in the criminal justice system.
We are aiming to publish this strategy later this year.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Southgate and Wood Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to help reduce waiting times for grant of probate.
Answered by Mike Freer
The probate service received record levels of applications during 2022 and this has continued to grow with higher levels of receipts during January to June 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.
HMCTS has significantly increased staffing levels in Probate over the past year to help process applications faster. The training and upskilling of those new and existing staff have led to applications taking longer in the short term.
HMCTS have streamlined internal processes to cut down on administrative delay and reduce processing times. We are continuing to invest in improving digital systems and online filing capabilities so users can track progress more easily.
Average waiting times for probate grants are routinely published on gov.uk via Family Court Statistics Quarterly and currently cover the period up to June 2023.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Southgate and Wood Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the level of need for (a) all civil legal aid services and (b) education-related legal aid services as of 14 March 2022.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) keeps market capacity under constant review, ensuring access across England and Wales and taking immediate action where required.
Wherever you are in England and Wales, legal advice is available through the Civil Legal Advice (CLA) telephone service, which provides specialist telephone advice in education as well as on other civil and family matters within the scope of legal aid.
There is currently at least one provider in every procurement area for the education category, contracted to deliver services via face-to-face advice or remote advice according to client preference.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Southgate and Wood Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the impact of civil legal aid capacity on (a) individuals who are entitled to legal aid but cannot access a legal aid provider and (b) the voluntary sector in England; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
The Legal Aid Agency keeps market capacity under constant review, ensuring access across England and Wales and takes immediate action where required. Wherever you are in England and Wales, legal advice is available through the Civil Legal Advice (CLA) telephone service.
We recognise the vital role not-for-profit organisations play in ensuring people can access advice and information and through 2020 and 2021 we provided a total of £7.4m to the not-for-profit sector.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Southgate and Wood Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to help ensure the prompt rectification of errors that are identified in reports submitted in family court proceedings.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The manner in which errors or alleged errors contained within a report submitted in family court proceedings are rectified is a matter for the court to decide, however in all cases the court will seek for such errors to be dealt with promptly and without undue delay.
Under the Family Procedure Rules 2010 (FPR) Part 1 “the overriding objective” requires the court to deal with cases expeditiously and fairly and for the parties to assist the court in this objective. This general obligation could require the court, or the parties, to act to ensure any issues with a report are rectified.
Depending on the nature of the error contained within a report, if the court considers that the error needs to be rectified in the written report, the court could use its general case management powers (FPR rule 4.1) to direct that an amended or addendum report be submitted to the court.
Where it is alleged by one or more of the parties that a report contains errors, the accuracy and veracity of the information included within the report can be tested during the court hearing, in order for the court to make a determination on this issue.
Proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth. (FPR, rule 17.6)
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Southgate and Wood Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to help ensure that accurate information is provided to the family courts by the criminal courts when allegations of abuse or criminal convictions are made in family court proceedings.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The ‘2013 Protocol and Good Practice Model’ for disclosure of information in cases of alleged child abuse provides for the local authority to notify the police on issue of family court proceedings, if not before. This notification serves as a request for disclosure to the police.
In April 2021, amendments were made to rules 3.3 and 3.5 of the Criminal Procedure Rules. These changes imposed a duty on parties to criminal proceedings to alert the criminal court to any related family proceedings and encourage the exchange of relevant information with a court dealing with those proceedings. Information about criminal proceedings may be obtained from criminal courts under Part 5 of the Criminal Procedure Rules by those who are parties to the criminal proceedings and by members of the public generally.
The Government regularly considers how the join up between the criminal and family jurisdictions can be improved. In 2022, we aim to pilot a new “one family, one judge” approach to hearing cases where the same judge will hear the criminal and family court proceedings.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Southgate and Wood Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to tackle the backlog of cases in the family courts.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The protection of children, particularly those who are most vulnerable, is a priority for this government and this has never been more important than during this period. The family courts were quick to respond to the pandemic and I am extremely grateful for the dedication of family justice professionals at this unprecedented time.
In March, we launched the £1 million Family Mediation Voucher Scheme, to encourage and support separating parents to explore mediation before coming to court. We want to ensure that every parent coming to court is able to resolve their case in the most effective way, including through mediation where safe and appropriate. Last month, we invested a further £800,000 into the scheme, which is expected to help around 2000 more families.
We continue to focus on bringing down the outstanding caseload by investing in more judicial sitting days and increasing the overall level of disposals. Cases with the most significant safeguarding issues remain our priority, and where suitable, cases are being heard remotely to continue maximising our use of our estate.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Southgate and Wood Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many temporary accommodation cells were installed in the women's prison estate since April 2020 as part of the Government's plans to limit the spread of covid-19 in prisons.
Answered by Alex Chalk
A total of 112 temporary accommodation cells have been installed in the women’s estate at HMP & YOI Drake Hall, HMP & YOI East Sutton Park, HMP Foston Hall and HMP & YOI Askham Grange to limit the spread of covid-19 in the women’s prison estate.
Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Labour - Southgate and Wood Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether temporary cells were installed in women's prisons since April 2020 as part of the government's plans to limit the spread of covid-19 in prisons.
Answered by Alex Chalk
We expanded the prison estate by introducing temporary accommodation cells to increase space and help reduce the spread of coronavirus. A total of 112 temporary accommodation cells have been installed in the women’s estate at HMP & YOI Drake Hall, HMP & YOI East Sutton Park, HMP Foston Hall and HMP & YOI Askham Grange. This accommodation is part of the quick and decisive action we have taken to limit the spread of the virus across all prison establishments including restricting regimes, minimising inter-prison transfers and compartmentalising our prisons into different units to isolate the sick, shield the vulnerable and quarantine new arrivals.