Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prison officers hold work visas.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The requested data is not held centrally in a reportable format.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many visas a) his Department, b) the Legal Services Board and c) the Legal Ombudsman have sponsored since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The requested data is not held centrally in a reportable format.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of (a) consultations and (b) reviews conducted by his Department since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The information requested is not centrally held in an easily accessible form as there are no expenditure categories that just cover consultations or reviews.
Due to this any response could only be collated and verified for the purposes of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the press release entitled Crime cutting courts to target prolific offending hotspots, published on 25 July 2025, whether the expansion will include Bedfordshire.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The expansion of Intensive Supervision Courts, as set out in the press release of 25 July 2025, builds on the success of the pilot in Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool and Teesside. Following this, the Ministry of Justice launched an open Expression of Interest process, which was promoted widely through both national and local criminal justice partners, inviting local areas to apply. This process has now closed, and successful applicants will be announced in the coming months.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she plans to take to help prevent Hashem Abedi from endangering other people in prison.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
HM Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) has a variety of methods to keep those who live and work in our prisons safe.
We are reviewing how the attack happened, and the guidance shows we have suspended use of kitchens in separation centres and close supervision centres.
It is not appropriate to comment on the management of a specific individual within the prison system. The safe and secure management of every prisoner within the prison system is a top priority for HMPPS.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of judicial reviews in (a) 2020-21, (b) 2021-22, (c) 2022-23, (d) 2023-24 and (e) 2024-25.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
A judicial review challenge may be made against a wide range of public bodies, including Government Separtments, local authorities, police, NHS trusts, regulatory bodies, and certain courts and tribunals.
There is no centrally held data on the total cost of judicial reviews across these different bodies.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many judicial reviews of (a) major infrastructure projects and (b) planning applications and (c) other issues have taken place in each of the last five years.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes data on judicial review cases in England and Wales as part of the Civil Justice statistics quarterly bulletin (Civil justice statistics quarterly - GOV.UK). The consolidated figures for all judicial review cases since 2000 are available at the “Civil Justice and Judicial Review data (zip file)” link.
The table below sets out the number of judicial review cases categorised as (a) significant planning court claims, (b) other planning cases, and (c) all judicial reviews. Significant planning court claims include but are not limited to judicial reviews of nationally significant infrastructure projects provided for by the Planning Act 2008.
Year | (a) Significant planning court claims* | (b) Other planning cases* | (c) All judicial reviews* |
2019 | 40 | 150 | 3,385 |
2020 | 38 | 150 | 2,836 |
2021 | 62 | 176 | 2,332 |
2022 | 37 | 156 | 2,450 |
2023 | 31 | 170 | 2,536 |
2024 (to September) | 30 | 127 | 2,255 |
*Includes Regional Offices of the Administrative Court, although most cases received were issued in London.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Probation Service in the East of England.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
The performance of the Probation Service in England and Wales is closely monitored by both internal and external scrutiny bodies, including His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP), who provide independent scrutiny of Probation Services. The Ministry of Justice also publishes the Probation Scorecard, which gives an overall rating of the performance of the probation service both nationally and within regions. The Probation Scorecard ratings for all regions, for the performance year ending March 2024, can be found on GOV.UK at: Community Performance Annual, update to March 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Following eight inspection reports on Probation Delivery Units in the East of England from May to August 2024, the HM Chief Inspector of Probation published an assessment of the region on 29 August 2024, which can be found at: An inspection of Probation Service – East of England region (justiceinspectorates.gov.uk).
The most recent HMPPS assurance of sentence management in East of England region was completed in January 2024 and identified similar performance issues in the East of England, such as insufficient assessment, planning and risk management, which the region is taking steps to address via their published Action Plan: East of England Probation Service Action Plan - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).