Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications of the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling in the 2017 case of Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council v Willetts & Ors for the calculation of holiday pay entitlement for staff in her Department; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Mike Freer
The Ministry and its associated arm's length bodies have considered the impact of the judgement referred to. The calculation of holiday pay was subsequently applied to all forms of voluntary overtime and is still in payment across the department and its arm's length bodies.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps they have taken in their Department to operate the Disability Confident employer scheme for those seeking a lateral transfer; and how many and what proportion of candidates who declared themselves as having a disability and who applied under that scheme where (a) interviewed and (b) laterally transferred in (i) 2021 and (ii) 2022.
Answered by Mike Freer
The Ministry of Justice is a Disability Confident Scheme Leader and operates at Level 3; the highest level a department can be accredited at.
As required under the Scheme, MoJ operate a Disability Confident Interview Scheme. Candidates with a disability have an option to opt-in and out of the scheme, which is in place for all advertised roles and applies to all candidates, including those internally in MoJ and Civil Service applying on lateral transfer or on promotion.
Unfortunately, the MoJ does not currently analyse application data on Disability Confident candidates specifically applying for promotion and lateral transfer opportunities. In order to retrieve the data as requested, we would need to perform a matching process between monthly staff records and application data. The data covering the MoJ would be a substantial amount to review and would therefore exceed the appropriate cost limit.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps they have taken to operate a disability confident scheme for those seeking promotion in their Department; and how many and what proportion of those candidates who declared themselves as having a disability and who applied under the scheme were (a) interviewed and (b) promoted in (i) 2021 and (ii) 2022.
Answered by Mike Freer
The Ministry of Justice is a Disability Confident Scheme Leader and operates at Level 3; the highest level a department can be accredited at.
As required under the Scheme, MoJ operate a Disability Confident Interview Scheme. Candidates with a disability have an option to opt-in and out of the scheme, which is in place for all advertised roles and applies to all candidates, including those internally in MoJ and Civil Service applying on lateral transfer or on promotion.
Unfortunately, the MoJ does not currently analyse application data on Disability Confident candidates specifically applying for promotion and lateral transfer opportunities. In order to retrieve the data as requested, we would need to perform a matching process between monthly staff records and application data. The data covering the MoJ would be a substantial amount to review and would therefore exceed the appropriate cost limit.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if they will take steps to (a) publish an equality impact assessment and (b) consult with trade unions when proposing new HR policies for their Department; and if they will make a statement.
Answered by Mike Freer
The MoJ consults with Trade Unions in accordance with best practice and adherence to employment legislation. Equality Impact Assessments are developed for MoJ policies and published internally.
The MoJ has no legal or business reason to externally publish an equality impact assessment as this is not required to comply with the obligations set out in the Equality Act 2010.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps their Department takes to comply with section 181 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992; and if they will make a statement.
Answered by Mike Freer
In order to comply with section 181 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, the MoJ shares (where it is appropriate and in line with privacy statements) information with its recognised departmental trade unions on a regular basis through formal negotiation, meaningful consultation and engagement. This includes sharing general information as well as information requested during a specific engagement or consultation.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has notified staff to (a) tell or (b) remind them that they can sell annual leave in the last four months.
Answered by Mike Freer
I can confirm that the Ministry of Justice’s buying/selling annual leave policy is available to all employees on the Intranet.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what human resources information their Department shares with trade unions on a regular basis.
Answered by Mike Freer
The MoJ shares Human Resources information related to:
Contractual terms and conditions of employment
Working practices and proposed changes to the way the MoJ is structured or operates
Workforce data
Information required to comply with statutory requirements
This information is shared with the MoJ departmental trade unions on a regular basis as part of ongoing engagement. There is also a range of HR information published on GOV.UK which is publicly available and an MoJ data portal with further information.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of employees in their Department are paid at the rate of the National Minimum Wage.
Answered by Mike Freer
I can confirm that all Ministry of Justice employees are currently paid above the rate of National Minimum Wage.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure his Department complies with section 2.1.6 of the Civil Service Management Code; and whether that monitoring data gathered is shared with union representatives.
Answered by Mike Freer
People related data is fundamental to monitoring the effectiveness of our policies and making people related decisions. The MoJ is a data-driven department and our workforce data is collated through a number of different mechanisms including from our HR System (SOP), our recruitment system (Oleeo) and the annual People Survey.
The Ministry of Justice collects data on age, gender, ethnic origin and disability as part of the application process. This diversity data is analysed quarterly to produce internal reporting on the outcomes of the recruitment process for each group. Data on gender, ethnic origin and disability for HMPPS recruitment outcomes are published externally every six months in the HM Prison and Probation Service workforce quarterly.
We collect protected characteristic diversity data from staff on our HR system. Using this we produce a variety of internal management information that we use within MoJ to monitor fairness of processes.
This data is routinely shared across MoJ to help inform tactical, operational and strategic people related decision and to monitor and evaluate our policies and the decisions that have been made.
In England, in addition to the general duty, all public bodies have specific duties to publish annual equality information and prepare and publish equality objectives at least every four years, which the Ministry of Justice makes available in the public domain.
To comply with the specific duties of the Equality Act (PSED, 2010), MoJ staff in post diversity information is published in the annual Civil Service Statistics data tables. Key staff diversity figures are also included in the MoJ Annual Report and Accounts (ARA).
MoJ shares data (referenced in 2.1.6 of the Civil Service Management Code) with its recognised Trade Unions as part of regular engagement and statutory obligations
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make it his policy to mandate individual risk assessments for all employees in his Department before they return to the workplace following the easing of covid-19 restrictions; and how many individual risk assessments for people returning to work have been conducted by his Department as of 21 February 2022.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
All employers are required to conduct a health and safety risk assessment that includes the risks of COVID-19 in the workplace. Within the Civil Service, managers are also encouraged to conduct an individual risk assessment with their employees, ensuring that personal risk factors are considered and, where identified, control measures are put in place to reduce their level of risk when returning to the workplace.
A decision on whether it is safe for an employee to return to the workplace will be based on the outcomes of those risk assessments.
Information concerning the number of individual risk assessments for people returning to work can only be provided at disproportionate cost.