Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the average amount of time it takes for (a) a member of the public and (b) an MP to receive a response to a letter sent to the Probate Office.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
HMCTS aims to close 90% of the complaints it receives, whether from a member of the public or a MP, within 10 working days.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions his Department has had with the Law Commission on their Registered Land and Chancel Repair Liability project.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Registered Land and Chancel Repair Liability project forms part of the Law Commission’s 13th programme, and the Government holds regular discussions with the Commission about current and future projects, including this one. The Law Commission`s 13th Programme explains that this work will be conducted as and when resources allow, and we understand that the project on Registered Land and Chancel Repair Liability has not yet begun.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Annual Report of the Independent Monitoring Board at HMP The Mount, published in May 2022, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of (a) staffing levels and (b) prisoner welfare at HMP The Mount.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) provides invaluable independent scrutiny and found that despite some improvements in core functioning, officer shortages were an ongoing issue predominantly due to high volumes of COVID related absences and that 40% of staff at that time could not be deployed to operational duties. This directly impacted upon the regime offer for prisoners.
Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) are currently supporting the prison through the Operational Stability Panel by offering incentivised payments to staff to cover existing shortfalls. Recruitment of prison officers remains a focus and campaigns continue to be advertised to attract new staff.
Prisoner welfare is monitored by residential officers, with systems in place to ensure the most vulnerable prisoners are offered support through keywork and assessment, care in custody and teamwork (ACCT) processes. Prisoner safety and welfare is a top priority of the Governor and Prison Group Director. HMIP found that outcomes in terms of prisoner safety had improved since the last inspection in 2018.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the Government plans to include proposals in the planned Bill of Rights to end the common interpretation of religious protections that includes humanism.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Bill of Rights will protect people’s fundamental rights, including Article Nine: freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. This protects the right to manifest one’s beliefs whether they are religious or non-religious.
The Government consulted on proposals to replace section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998. Section 3 imposed a duty to read and give effect to legislation in a way which is compatible with the Convention (European Convention on Human Rights) rights where possible. In practice, this has led to courts interpreting legislation in a compatible way, without Parliament’s input, so far as it is possible to do so. We think that a less expansive interpretive duty would provide greater legal certainty, a clearer separation of powers, and a more balanced approach to the proper constitutional relationship between Parliament and the courts on human rights issues. The Government will set out its final proposals in due course.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) hearings that were due to be heard in the last twelve months have been cancelled, broken down by the age of each young person concerned.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
In the First-tier Tribunal (Special Needs and Disability) (SEND), all appeals are listed for hearing on the next available date, on receipt. If the hearing date allocated is unsuitable for whatever reason, the cancellation of the original hearing date is counted as a postponement in the SEND tribunal’s case-handling system – GAPS2. If that second hearing is cancelled and the case re-listed, that is counted as another postponement in the system. Examples of the reasons why a hearing might be postponed include that:
The number of hearings postponed in the last 12 months (i.e. from 1 May 2021 to 30 April 2022) by age of the young person concerned is set out in the table below.
Age of child/young person* | No. of hearings postponed |
0-1 | 9 |
1-2 | 7 |
2-3 | 3 |
3-4 | 14 |
4-5 | 96 |
5-6 | 406 |
6-7 | 322 |
7-8 | 397 |
8-9 | 370 |
9-10 | 379 |
10-11 | 501 |
11-12 | 781 |
12-13 | 981 |
13-14 | 428 |
14-15 | 420 |
15-16 | 381 |
16-17 | 271 |
17-18 | 211 |
18-19 | 107 |
19-20 | 93 |
20-21 | 99 |
21-22 | 47 |
22-23 | 34 |
23-24 | 42 |
24-25 | 16 |
25 | 22 |
*The age range is determined by the date of birth of the child or young person subject of the appeal.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for its policies of the NAO's finding in the report, Improving outcomes for women in the criminal justice system, that there has been little progress on securing and expanding community alternatives to prison for women.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Since the Female Offender Strategy was published in 2018 with the aim of steering women away from crime, the number of women entering the criminal justice system for the first time has fallen by 30%.
We are investing tens of millions of pounds over the next three years into community services like women centres, drug rehabilitation and accommodation support so fewer women end up in prison. We are piloting Residential Women’s Centres, offering an intensive residential support package in the community for women at risk of short custodial sentences.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 26 July 2021 to Question 34612 on Powers of Attorney: Repayments, what estimate he has made of the number of applicants eligible for a refund of power of attorney fees overcharged by the Office of the Public Guardian who have not yet received such a refund.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Department estimates that around 675,000 applicants out of our original estimate of one million, have not applied for a refund.
At its launch in 2018 the scheme was announced on GOV.UK and promoted through media and stakeholder channels. Solicitors, Will writers, financial organisations and third sector organisations were encouraged to use their channels to promote the refund scheme and were provided with information in advance of the launch to ensure that they were well prepared to signpost the relevant sources on GOV.UK, or more actively support their clients if they wished to.
Although the online application form previously hosted on Gov.UK is no longer in use, information regarding where to apply remains on GOV.UK. OPG are still accepting written requests for a refund from customers. Further reminders about the scheme were sent out last year.
As of June 2021, £16,463,993 worth of refunds have been made and 324,937 claims have been received.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will take steps to notify all those entitled to refunds for overcharged deputyship fees in advance of closing the refund scheme in October 2022.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Information about the deputyship refund scheme is currently available on Gov.UK. Although this information will be removed in October 2022, the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) will still accept applications after this date.
Eligible customers who were still receiving supervision received their refund automatically from OPG.
It is not OPGs intention to contact customers who are no longer under supervision, as in most cases such customers are likely to have died or changed address, in which case it is for the executors or representatives of the estate to apply for a refund. OPG ran an awareness campaign to encourage customers no longer under supervision to apply for a refund.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many refunds went unclaimed for power of attorney fees overcharged by the Office of the Public Guardian when the refund scheme closed on 31 January 2021.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The LPA refund scheme officially ran from 1 February 2018 to 31 January 2021, however OPG are still accepting written requests for a refund from customers. The online application form is no longer in use and OPG are no longer advertising the scheme.
As of June 2021, £16,463,993.76 worth of refunds have been made and 324,937 claims have been received.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the announcement of 20 June 2021 that secondary legislation will be brought forward to permit outdoor civil wedding and partnership registrations, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to legally recognise humanist marriages on the same basis.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
A Law Commission report due later this year is expected to present options for wholesale reform to the law governing marriage ceremonies, which the Government will consider carefully. Options being explored by the Law Commission include offering couples greater flexibility to form their own ceremonies, allowing the ceremony to take place in a much broader range of locations, and powers to hold weddings remotely in a national emergency. The Government will decide on provision for non-religious belief marriage on the basis of the Law Commission's recommendations.