Courts and Tribunals: Recovery

Chris Bryant Excerpts

Thursday 3rd December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Robert Buckland]

I would be happy to meet my hon. Friend. She will know that the range of support we give involves the child victims of sexual crime, whether male or female. In the past year, we awarded £12 million to 91 rape support centres in England and Wales. As I have said, we have increased, by an additional £4 million until March 2022, funding for 120 new independent sexual violence advisers across our jurisdiction, which will go in some great measure to address the concerns she rightly raises.

[Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)]

I do not know whether the Justice Secretary has ever had a family member who has been diagnosed with dementia and has then had to go to the Court of Protection to be able to take over their relative’s concerns, but thousands and thousands of families have had to do that this year. Covid has meant that more families have been brought into that circle, at a time when delays in the Court of Protection are quite extraordinary. When I rang earlier this year, I was told than an emergency case would not be heard until “next Easter” at the earliest. That is real pain and suffering for families that are already going through a tough time. If he has not got the figures now, will he write to me to tell us how we will get this backlog back down to normal?