Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much funding has been allocated to training Independent Domestic Violence Advisors in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
In 2021/22, the Ministry of Justice provided £150.5m for victim and witness support services. This included £276,926 to Independent Sexual Violence Adviser (ISVA) and Independent Domestic Violence Adviser (IDVA) training providers, to enable them to increase their capacity to meet demand.
The £150.5m for victim and witness services also includes £51m ringfenced funding to meet increased demand for domestic abuse and sexual violence victims, including a national investment of £27m over two years to fund up to 700 ISVAs and IDVAs. In 2020/21, we provided £32m over two rounds of emergency funding for domestic abuse and sexual violence services. Most funding is routed through Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), who assess local demand and allocate funding accordingly.
In addition, the Ministry of Justice has committed to increasing funding for victim support services to £185 million by 2024-25 – this includes funding to increase the number of ISVAs and IDVAs funded to over 1,000. We have also recently consulted on a Victim’s Bill, including reviewing what more can be done to strengthen victim advocate roles such as ISVAs and IDVAs, reviewing join-up across agencies, standards, guidance and frameworks.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many trained Independent Sexual Violence Advisers were working with police forces in England and Wales in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs), and Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs), are commissioned by Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), through grant funding provided by Government for local practical, emotional and therapeutic support services for victims of all crime types, including sexual violence and domestic abuse. It is for PCCs to assess local demand and allocate this funding accordingly. The Ministry of Justice does not hold the specific information requested.
The Government is committed to ensuring victims of sexual violence and domestic abuse receive the support they need to cope and recover from the impact of crime. In 2021/22, the Ministry of Justice provided £150.5m for victim and witness support services, which is an increase of £16m from 2020/21 and compares to a total budget of £48.5m in 2010-2011. As part of this, we committed £276,926 to ISVA and IDVA training to enable training providers to increase their capacity to meet demand. We also committed £51m to specifically increase support for rape and domestic abuse victims, including a national investment of £27m over two years to fund up to 700 ISVAs and IDVAs, an increase of 44% on existing provision. This funding has mainly been distributed through Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and the Rape Support Fund, including PCCs and organisations in Wales.
In addition, we have committed to increasing annual funding for Ministry of Justice victim support services to over £185 million per annum by 2024-25, an uplift of 85% from 2019-20. This includes funding to increase the number of ISVAs and IDVAs to over 1,000. We have also recently consulted on a Victim’s Bill, to make tangible improvements for all victims. This includes reviewing what more can be done to strengthen victim advocate roles such as ISVAs and IDVAs, reviewing join-up across agencies, standards, guidance and frameworks.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department takes to support people with minor offenses on their record received when they were a minor; and whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of changing the system of automatic revelation of past convictions.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
We are committed to supporting children in turning their lives around and recognise that having a criminal record can have a significant impact on children, and adults that offended as a child. Youth criminal records are treated differently to adult criminal records in terms of disclosure, as those with convictions received when under 18 are generally disclosed for a shorter period than those of adults.
There have recently been significant reforms in this area:
In November 2020, the Government implemented legislation to change the rules governing disclosure for sensitive roles (those working with children, vulnerable adults or in a position of public trust). This removed the disclosure of youth cautions, reprimands and warnings and the multiple conviction rule. Previously, if an individual had more than one conviction, each conviction had to be disclosed on standard or enhanced certificates irrespective of the nature of the offences or the time separating them. This legislation removed that requirement and will particularly benefit those with childhood cautions who have moved away from their past.
We are also proposing further changes to help those who committed minor offences as children to move on with their lives. The Police Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, currently in Commons committee stage, proposes significant reductions to rehabilitation periods (the length of time that someone needs to disclose their criminal record for general purposes) for custodial sentences of under four years and community sentences, including for childhood convictions.
These significant changes to the criminal records disclosure regime will support those who have not committed serious offences and have ceased offending, bettering their chance of accessing employment and reducing their likelihood of reoffending.
Regarding the rules surrounding automatic disclosure of past convictions, we have considered whether a sealing/review mechanism for youth criminal records disclosure would be desirable. However, the Justice Committee (report into Youth Justice) in 2017 recognised that introducing a mechanism whereby records could become ‘sealed’ would create unsustainable pressures on the decision-making body and found that an automatic filtering system should be retained, albeit with substantial revisions. This aligns with the 2019 Supreme Court ruling on aspects of the disclosure regime, in which the Court was clear that such a mechanism was not necessary for a proportionate system. We are therefore not pursuing proposals on sealing criminal records by application, rather focusing on the rules which determine criminal records and their disclosure.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps the Government is taking to support victims and survivors of domestic violence; and what plans the Government has to amend the six month time limit to report those offences.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government is committed to supporting victims and survivors of domestic abuse. The landmark Domestic Abuse Bill, due to gain Royal Assent this spring, is key to this, as it will raise awareness of different forms of abuse and transform the response of frontline professionals. In support of the Bill, £125m will be provided to fund the new statutory duty for local authorities to provide safe accommodation for women and their children. This will ensure that women continue to access vital support such as therapy, advocacy and counselling in safe accommodation
In addition, for 2021/22, we are providing more funding to combat domestic abuse, including a £40m package to support survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence. We are recruiting 700 more independent sexual violence and domestic abuse advisers (ISVAs/IDVAs) to help support these victims, with a further £11m announced in March.
On time limits for prosecution, we have considered extending the six-month time limit for starting a prosecution for domestic abuse offences, as recommended by the Domestic Abuse Commissioner and supported by the Home Affairs Select Committee. We concluded that there would be limited benefit as there is no time limit for the more serious offences that can be tried in the Crown Court, and where prosecution for less serious offences that can only be tried in a magistrates’ court is time-barred, the range of potential alternative charges made available by the government are in place to ensure that justice can be done.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to (a) tackle overcrowding in prisons and (b) adopt alternative methods to incarceration for low level offenders.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Overcrowding in prisons
In November 2020, this Government announced that it would commit over £4 billion capital funding to make significant progress in delivering 18,000 additional prison places across England and Wales by the mid-2020s. This includes creating four new prisons over the next six years and expanding another four prisons over the next three years. Construction is well underway on HMP Five Wells, the new prison at Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, and works have started at Glen Parva, Leicestershire. These additional prison places will have a positive impact on lowering the proportion of crowding within the prison estate by providing accommodation that is safe, decent and uncrowded.
The total prison population has also reduced by over 6,000 since the start of the pandemic and, as a result, the total number of prisoners currently held in crowded conditions has reduced. We closely monitor prison population forecasts and the extent to which crowding has reduced in 20/21 will be reflected in the publication of the HMPPS Annual Digest.
Alternative Methods to Custody
In September 2020 this Government published the Sentencing White Paper, which set out an agenda of reform for punishing and rehabilitating low level offenders, including where those offenders can be effectively managed in the community rather than in prison.
Where these reforms require legislation, relevant measures are contained within the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill which is currently before Parliament. Reforms include piloting a problem-solving court approach for certain community and suspended sentence orders, extending the use of electronic monitoring, and increasing the usage and availability of Community Sentence Treatment Requirements.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of mechanisms to appeal against fines issued under the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
There are adequate mechanisms to appeal fines imposed by magistrates’ courts under the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) England) Regulations 2020. The rights to appeal sentences imposed in relation to these offences are the same as the rights to appeal in relation to any other criminal offence. Any defendant may appeal to the Crown Court and have a full rehearing before a judge and two magistrates. In addition, if the defendant was not aware of the proceedings, they may make a statutory declaration before a magistrate or justices’ legal adviser which has the effect of revoking the conviction. Finally, magistrates’ courts can revoke convictions and amend sentences under section 142 of the Magistrates Court Act 1980 if later satisfied that they were made in error.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what reasons his Department missed the deadline or refiled its gender pay gap data for 2017-18.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice did not miss the deadline or refile its gender pay gap data for 2017-18 and this data was filed on time.
The Ministry was however required to revise its Gender Pay Gap data for 2016-17 as, in reviewing the data for 2017-18 report calculation, it became apparent that the calculations for the 2016-17 Gender Pay Gap report incorrectly included Occupational Sick Pay (OSP) in addition to normal pay.
The Ministry of Justice had previously submitted its 2016-17 figures within the required deadline, however, as it is not possible to amend an existing entry once submitted, the 2016-17 figures had to be refiled and therefore showing as missing the original deadline.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effect of charging victims of domestic violence up to £175 for a medical letter to prove they were abused on the ability of victims to access legal aid.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
We are aware that some GPs have been charging to provide letters as evidence of domestic abuse to support legal aid applications. Charges for services provided by GPs are set through the contractual relationship between GPs and the NHS.
This practice is unacceptable. GPs are charging people at their most vulnerable and we are working with the Department of Health and Social Care to identify what more we could do to help victims of domestic abuse access the help they need. This important issue has been put forward as part of the GP contract negotiations for 2019-20. Whilst the content of those negotiations is not discussed publicly until an agreement has been reached, the Government is committed to dealing with this issue, through this process.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to increase diversity in the judiciary.
Answered by Dominic Raab
The Lord Chancellor has a joint statutory duty with the Lord Chief Justice and the Judicial Appointments Commission to encourage judicial diversity.
Since 2016 broader eligibility criteria have been agreed for those applying to High Court, Deputy High Court and Recorder positions; to open up the High Court to candidates without previous judicial experience; to appoint Recorders regardless of their jurisdictional experience or geographical location; and to trial the Judicial Appointments Commission’s fast track process to let Deputy High Court judges apply for full High Court office. These measures were introduced to encourage the widest range of talent to apply for judicial office, whilst protecting the statutory criteria and appointing solely on merit.
Asked by: Dawn Butler (Labour - Brent Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners serving sentences for imprisonment for public protection whose tariffs had expired were refused parole in each of the last five years.
Answered by Phillip Lee
The information requested is available on gov.uk.
Public protection remains our key priority; however, the recent HMIP report rightly highlights concerns around the management of IPP prisoners.
We have set up a new unit within the Ministry of Justice to improve progression for all IPP prisoners and are working with the Parole Board to improve the efficiency of the parole process.