Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 19 May 2025 to Question 51809 on Enforcement Conduct Board, when he plans to set out his Department's approach to ensuring appropriate oversight of (a) enforcement firms and (b) agents operating under the Taking Control of Goods procedure.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government will strengthen the oversight of enforcement firms and agents that use the Taking Control of Goods procedure in England and Wales. On 9 June 2025, we launched a consultation on how to introduce an independent statutory regulator for enforcement firms. The consultation also asked whether a regulator should play any role in accrediting enforcement agents. The consultation closed on 21 July 2025. We will publish the Government’s response in due course.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to improve the quality of (a) education, (b) skills and (c) work provision in prisons.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice and HMPPS are committed to improving the quality of education, skills and work provision in prisons to support rehabilitation and reduce reoffending. We have introduced key roles such as the Head of Education, Skills and Work, and Neurodiversity Support Managers.
We are supporting prisoners into skilled work while in custody through vocational training, complementing governor-commissioned vocational courses with an apprenticeship programme which can now be accessed in both the open and closed estates and a Future Skills Programme which provides sector specific training to prisoners nearing release resulting in guaranteed interviews with employers.
We continue to work closely with the New Futures Network, the prison service’s specialist employment team, to expand job and training opportunities both in custody and on release. We are also prototyping a new ‘working week’ initiative which aims to increase the volume of work in prisons and strengthen community business links to boost employability.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will amend Section 100 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 to prevent irrelevant previous disclosures being used as bad character evidence in sexual offence trials; and if she will issue guidance to the (a) CPS, (b) police and (c) judiciary on this.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
This Government is absolutely committed to improving the experience of victims at court.
The Law Commission has concluded its comprehensive review into the use of evidence in sexual offence prosecutions. This is a helpful report, and an important opportunity to consider how we can make changes to the criminal justice system, so that practitioners and juries do not rely on so-called rape myths and misconceptions when making decisions in court.
The review has made recommendations on the admissibility of evidence related to previous disclosures, as well as the admissibility of other evidence – for example sexual behaviour evidence. We are carefully considering these recommendations and will set out our approach in due course.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) making the Enforcement Conduct Board's voluntary accreditation scheme regulations for Bailiffs mandatory and (b) giving the Board the power to authorise or certify agents.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government supports the important work undertaken by the Enforcement Conduct Board to ensure that people facing enforcement action are treated fairly. We are actively considering whether further legislation is required to ensure appropriate oversight of enforcement firms and enforcement agents using the Taking Control of Goods procedure.
The Government will set out its approach in due course.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent discussions he has had with the Law Commission on the date of the publication of that body's report on reforming the laws on wills.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
We regularly discuss with the Law Commission the timeframes for reports which the Government has commissioned, and which the Commission has to prioritise in order to resource each law reform project appropriately. The Commission paused completion of the wills project following Government’s request for it to prioritise work on weddings, in the light of the pressing need for reform in relation to how and where people can marry. The Law Commission expects to return to the wills project later this year.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will extend victims' rights to victims of mentally disordered offenders to be more comparable with those rights afforded to victims in the criminal justice system.
Answered by Mike Penning
The Government’s new Victims’ Code, which came into force on 10 December 2013, strengthens the rights of victims of crime, including where the offender is mentally disordered. The Code provides victims with clearer entitlements and better tailors services to individual need. Under the Code, criminal justice agencies must provide enhanced services to victims of the most serious crime; persistently targeted victims; and vulnerable and intimidated victims.
Since 2001, victims of specified sexual and violent offences where the offender receives a sentence of twelve months or more have been offered the Probation Victim Contact Scheme, which enables them to make representations about which licence conditions a prisoner should be subject to on release, and to be informed about key stages of sentence such as release on temporary licence and full release.
The Victim Contact Scheme was extended by legislation to victims of mentally disordered offenders with restrictions in July 2005, and to victims of mentally disordered offenders without restrictions in November 2008.
Since April 2014, there has been a presumption that victims of restricted mentally disordered offenders will be told if they are granted permission for escorted or unescorted leave from hospital for rehabilitative purposes.