Asked by: Elfyn Llwyd (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department has taken to prevent sensitive data relating to a victim of (a) domestic violence and (b) other crimes being disclosed during a court hearing.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
This question relates to the disclosure of sensitive information in the civil courts, where robust measures are already in place.
Judges have the power to order non disclosure of details, to have cases heard in private or evidence given via video link or from behind a screen, and to make other orders as necessary to preserve the address or other personal details of a victim of domestic abuse, harassment or stalking. For this to happen it is important that the victim brings any issues to the attention of the judge at the earliest opportunity so that appropriate care can be taken throughout the case.
More broadly, in its 2014 Action Plan, A Call to End Violence against Women and Girls, the Government has committed to develop a code of practice to ensure “safe addresses” and other personal information about the identity and whereabouts of victims of domestic and sexual violence are properly protected.
Asked by: Elfyn Llwyd (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what funding the Government provides for victims' support organisations in England and Wales.
Answered by Mike Penning
This Government is committed to ensuring that victims of crime have access to high-quality, effective and timely support to help them cope and, as far as possible, recover from the effects of crime. The Ministry of Justice has made more money than ever before available for this purpose, increasing the contribution offenders make to the costs of providing support and have more than doubled the budget under this Government to over £92million for 2015/16.
Locally accountable Police and Crime Commissioners are now responsible for the provision of support services in their areas and will receive the bulk of the available MoJ funding with which to do so. This is £63.15m in 2015/16.
Some services remain nationally commissioned. This includes support for families bereaved by homicide, support for victims of rape and modern slavery (jointly funded with the Home Office), and support for witnesses at court. National services have recently been competitively re-commissioned.
Asked by: Elfyn Llwyd (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of (a) victims and (b) witnesses had access to discrete waiting areas in courts in England and Wales in the last year for which data is available.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
The Government pledged in “Our Commitment to Victims” to consider the needs of victims and witnesses as we reform the court system. This will include upgrading facilities such as separate waiting areas.
All Crown Court Centres have separate waiting facilities for victims and witnesses.
97% of magistrates’ courts have some kind of separate witness waiting facility.[1] For those courts that do not have this facility, special arrangements are put in place with advance notice.
HM Courts and Tribunals Service uses information about victims and witnesses in criminal cases to ensure that individual trials are managed effectively and victims and witnesses are not kept waiting around unnecessarily to give their evidence. We do not, however, hold data on the number of victims and witnesses choosing to use the discrete waiting areas.
[1] Her Majesty’s Court Service Annual Report and Accounts 2009-2010
http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/publications/corporate-reports/hmcs/annual-reports/HMCS-Annual-Report2009-2010-web.pdf?type=Finjan-Download&slot=000000A2&id=000000A1&location=0A64020C
Asked by: Elfyn Llwyd (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many applications for redress to civil or family courts during each of the last five years were deemed to be vexatious.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) does not record the number of applications to the civil and family courts which are deemed to be vexatious. However, HMCTS does record the number of ‘totally without merit’ orders that are made following an application being deemed as totally without merit. The data provided in this answer relates to orders made when applications are deemed to be totally without merit.
HMCTS maintains a national database which lists all civil and family totally without merit orders. The retention period for entries on the database is three years and therefore only data relating to this period is set out in the table below. In addition, the orders may relate to multiple applications and therefore the volume of orders will not necessarily represent the number of applications received by HMCTS.
Table One: Totally without merit orders made in the last three years[1]
Time period | Number of Totally Without Merit Orders made |
1 March 2012 – 28 February 2013 | 2080 |
1 March 2013 – 28 February 2014 | 3004 |
1 March 2014 – 28 February 2015 | 1495 |
HMCTS does not record the number of victims that have reported vexatious applications or the nature of proceedings, including whether they relate to stalking or harassment. In order to provide the information HMCTS would have to manually review each file that relates to stalking and harassment claims. This information could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
[1] This data is internal HMCTS management information and it is not subject to the same level of checking as Official Statistics.
Asked by: Elfyn Llwyd (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many victims of crime were given support by state-funded organisations in (a) 2013 and (b) 2014.
Answered by Mike Penning
This Government is committed to putting victims and witnesses first, significantly improving services and support for victims and investing more than ever in the help they are offered. In 2012/13 the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) provided £50.26m to victim’s services and £57.02m in 2013/14. This will reach over £92 million in the next financial year (2015/16).
The MoJ funds a large number of organisations, including registered charities, voluntary and community groups who each complete regular monitoring returns. It would incur disproportionate costs to consolidate each organisation’s monitoring returns for 2013 and 2014 and disclose how many victims of crime were supported.
Asked by: Elfyn Llwyd (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many complaints from victims have been received by the Courts and Probation Service in each of the last five years.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
This Government is committed to putting victims and witnesses first, and we are reforming our system to make it so. This includes more than doubling funding to help victims since we came to power — reaching over £92million next year (2015/16) — to make sure victims receive the best possible support.
A unified administrative complaints procedure for HM Courts & Tribunals Service was launched in October 2011 which introduced a new set of categories and sub categories for recording details of complaints, including from victims. I am unable to provide data on complaints from victims before October 2011.
Data extracted on 4 March 2015 shows the numbers of complaints made by victims to HM Courts & Tribunals Service:
Period | Complaints from victims to HMCTS |
Oct 2011 to March 2012 | 64 |
April 2012 to March 2013 | 96 |
April 2013 to March 2014 | 146 |
April 2014 to February 2015 | 147 |
The National Offender Management Service does not currently record information centrally in relation to the number of complaints received from victims, and has not made an estimate of this number. Systems are being developed that will record complaints at a national level.
Notes:
1. Data for criminal cases disposed of in magistrates’ courts and the Crown Court are published in Criminal Courts Statistics Quarterly at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-court-statistics .
2. The methodology for calculating magistrates’ court receipts was changed from April 2012. Data prior to this period is not comparable.
3. The latest data published is up to September 2014. Data to December 2014 will be published on 26 March 2015.
Asked by: Elfyn Llwyd (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what costs may be incurred by the victim when applying for compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority.
Answered by Mike Penning
I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington on 2 March 2015. This can be found on the Parliament.uk website here:
Asked by: Elfyn Llwyd (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how state-funded organisations which support victims are regulated; and how the outcomes of the work of these organisations are monitored by his Department.
Answered by Mike Penning
This Government is committed to putting victims and witnesses first, significantly improving services and support for victims and investing more than ever in the help they are offered. In 2012/13 the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) provided £50.26m to victim’s services and £57.02m in 2013/14. This will reach over £92 million in the next financial year (2015/16).
The MoJ funds a large number of organisations, including registered charities, voluntary and community groups who each complete regular monitoring returns. It would incur disproportionate costs to consolidate each organisation’s monitoring returns for 2013 and 2014 and disclose how many victims of crime were supported.
Asked by: Elfyn Llwyd (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will introduce pre-trial hearings to determine the nature of cross-examination of victims and witnesses in crown court proceedings.
Answered by Mike Penning
This Government is committed to ensuring vulnerable victims and witnesses have access to high quality, effective and timely support.
The value of pre-trial ground rules is increasingly being recognised and closely links with measures that my Department is implementing to improve the experience of victims and witnesses. These include giving greater opportunity to give evidence away from the court room and, subject to evaluation of the pilot, roll-out of recorded pre-trial cross-examination.
In reviewing how to reduce the distress experienced by vulnerable victims and witnesses in sexual violence cases tried in the Crown Court, we identified that the scope and use of Ground Rules Hearings could be widened.
The Criminal Procedure Rule Committee has agreed amendments to the criminal procedure rules which will encourage use of ground rules to facilitate participation of witnesses (including defendants) in trials. These changes take effect from 6 April 2015. The rules will provide that directions can be given for the appropriate treatment and questioning of a witness, especially where the court directs that such questioning is to be conducted through an intermediary, and list things the court should do where directions for appropriate treatment and questioning are required.
Asked by: Elfyn Llwyd (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to improve communication between civil, family and criminal courts.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
HM Courts & Tribunals Service’s regional structure encourages staff to review and improve internal processes and communication. This promotes the sharing of information and best practice across the three jurisdictions. Internal communications channels ensure that staff in all jurisdictions receive and share the same information.
HM Courts & Tribunals Service is committed to providing an efficient and effective service to users at all of its courts and tribunals.
The Government pledged in “Our Commitment to Victims” to ensure that victims’ needs are at the forefront of our plans to modernise the courts.
In particular, the Government implemented a new Code of Practice for Victims of Crime on 10th December 2013. The Victims’ Code outlines the minimum entitlements every victim of crime must expect to receive from Criminal Justice System partners.