Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate he has made of the size of the backlog of criminal court cases in Enfield North constituency.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The number of outstanding cases at the magistrates’ courts and the Crown Court are routinely published as part of the National Statistics release Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly. The latest published data is available to December 2022 and can be found at the following link: Criminal court statistics quarterly: October to December 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). For the Crown Court, figures are published specifically for London. For magistrates’ courts, the North East London Local Justice Area is the closest match available.
The published data for the Crown Court are found here: Crown Court cases received, disposed and outstanding tool, and the published data for the magistrates’ court are found here: Magistrates' courts cases received, disposed and outstanding tool.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of reviewing the law on assisted dying.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government has no plans to review the law on assisted dying. It remains our view that any change to the law in this sensitive area is a matter for Parliament to decide and an issue of conscience for individual parliamentarians rather than one for Government policy.
The Health and Social Care Select Committee launched an inquiry on assisted dying on 5 December and the Government will consider the Committee’s report in due course.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prosecutions have been brought under The Botulinum Toxin and Cosmetic Fillers (Children) Act 2021 to date; and what sentences were imposed.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
National statistics on the number of prosecutions and the sentences imposed under the ‘The Botulinum Toxin and Cosmetic Fillers (Children) Act 2021’ for the calendar year of 2021 are due for publication in May 2022.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure the safety of women in prison.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The safety of those who live and work in our prisons is our top priority. We have established a Women’s Estate Self-Harm taskforce which is co-ordinating longer-term work to address the factors driving self-harm
Our Offender Management in Custody (OMiC) model is transforming how we support prisoners and significant investments have been made to improve safety and deliver key work. In April 2021 we began implementing a gender specific Offender Management in Custody (OMiC) model in the women’s estate.
The Challenge, Intervention and Support Plan (CSIP) is also in place for the effective case-management of those prisoners who are at a raised risk of violence towards others. While the newly revised version of the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) framework includes a stronger person-centred approach and improved focus on risks, triggers, and protective factors.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of safety and wellbeing measures for people in custody.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The safety of those who live and work in our prisons is our top priority. We continue to deliver on our £100m investment to improve prison security to reduce crime in prison, clamping down on weapons, drugs and phones that fuel prison violence and undermine safety.
The Challenge, Intervention and Support Plan (CSIP) is in place for the effective case-management of those prisoners who are at a raised risk of violence towards others.
To mitigate the impact of the regime restrictions that were introduced in response to COVID-19 on prisoners, we have produced materials to support wellbeing at this particularly difficult time, including a range of in-cell activities.
We have also created a Wellbeing Plan with input from mental health charity Mind. We have implemented a revised version of the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) document across the prison estate. Revisions include a stronger emphasis on ensuring a person-centred approach and support for at-risk prisoners.
We continue to make the Samaritans phone service available and are working with the Samaritans to ensure that the Listener peer support scheme continues to function effectively.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent representations he has made to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the (a) health and wellbeing of pregnant women in prison, (b) need to treat all pregnancies in prison as high risk and (c) adequacy of the model of maternity care in prisons.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Women in prison should have access to the same range and quality of healthcare services compared to that which they would find in the community, including midwifery, obstetric and health visiting services. These services are commissioned by NHS England & NHS Improvement. The role of Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) is to work in partnership with local healthcare providers to secure access to these services.
HMPPS undertook extensive consultation with the health sector during the recent review of policy on pregnancy, Mother and Baby Units and maternal separation from children up to the age of two in women’s prisons. The new policy was published on 20 September.
I am due to meet with the Minister of State for Care and Mental Health (DHSC) in the coming week to discuss our ongoing partnership approach to care for pregnant women in prison.
For information on clinical provisions for pregnant women in prison, please refer to the DHSC, the responsible department.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of recruitment and retention of probation officers in (a) Enfield and (b) Greater London.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Probation Service is committed to increasing recruitment to fill Probation Officer vacancies, particularly in areas with significant local employment market challenges. The Probation Service recruited a total of 1,007 trainee probation officers in 2020/2021 and are committed to recruiting 1,500 trainee probation officers in 2021/2022.
Following the transfer of over 7,000 staff from private sector Community Rehabilitation Companies into the Probation Service at the end of June 2021, there were 4,456 full time equivalent (FTE) Band 4 probation officers in post nationally as at 30 June 2021. This figure is an increase of 844 (23.4%) since 30 June 2020 and an increase of 919 FTE (26%) probation officers compared to 31 March 2021.
In June 2021, there were 637 probation officers and 225 trainee probation officers in post in the London Probation Service. One probation officer joined the Local Delivery Unit cluster Barnet, Brent and Enfield between June 2014 to June 2021. Overall, 50 probation officers joined the London Probation Service between 2014/2015 to June 2021/2022.
The leaving rate for probation officers at the London Probation Service was 7.5% for 12 months to 30 June 2021. Over the past seven years, the leaving rate has varied between 6.1% and 10.9%.
The leaving rate for probation officers at the LDU cluster Barnet, Brent and Enfield was 8.7% for 12 months to 30 June 2021. Over the past seven years the leaving rate has varied between 4.1% and 11.8%.
The first National Probation Service Recruitment & Retention Strategy was published internally to all Probation Service staff in April following extensive engagement with colleagues and stakeholders across Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service. At the centre of this strategy is our commitment to make sure we have great people, in the right roles, with the resources they need to do their jobs in the probation service.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent steps his Department has taken to tackle the backlog of cases before the immigration and employment tribunals in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) Greater London and (c) England.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Despite the enormous challenges they have faced during the last 18 months, both the Employment Tribunals and Immigration and Asylum Chamber (IAC) remained open throughout the pandemic. Both the employment tribunals and the IAC have adapted to remote ways of working and running hearings virtually, to ensure ongoing access to justice where cases cannot be heard in person. The IAC has also expanded the online Reform service (MyHMCTS) to enable most appellants to engage with the tribunal digitally. We have run ambitious recruitment campaigns across both jurisdictions, to expand our judicial capacity and boost caseworker numbers. This has been bolstered in the employment tribunal by a significant increase in our sitting day allocation for FY21/22, from 30k (FY20/21) to 37.5k (FY21/22).
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will provide a list of relevant orders and the type of conviction that leads to each said order.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
On conviction of an offence in the Crown Court or a magistrates' court, the court may impose orders on the offender. These are known as ancillary orders. Some ancillary orders are aimed at redressing the harm caused by an offender, others aim to prevent future re-offending or repeat victimisation.
In certain situations, the court must impose an ancillary order, in other situations it is up to the court to decide whether an ancillary order is appropriate or necessary, taking into account the circumstances of the offence and the offender.
Sentencing guidelines, issued by the independent Sentencing Council, identify ancillary orders that are particularly likely to be relevant to individual offences. Further information on ancillary orders, including a non-exhaustive list of such orders, is available on the Council’s website at: https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/explanatory-material/magistrates-court/item/ancillary-orders/1-introduction-to-ancillary-orders/
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the Government's policy is on non-English inscriptions on tombstones in (a) local authority maintained cemeteries, (b) faith and communities cemeteries and (c) other burial sites.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Government has published guidance on the management of burial grounds. This sets out the general expectation that managers should always have regard for equal treatment policies and practice in the provision of burial services and emphasises that consideration should be given to unintended consequences or discrimination which may arise in a variety of ways, including in the allowed wording of commemorative inscriptions.
Section 13 of the Local Authorities Cemeteries Order 1977 provides that a bishop of the Church of England may object to, and have removed, any inscription on a tombstone or other memorial in ground consecrated to the Church of England within any cemetery (including its chapel). This reflects similar statutory provision relating to tombstones located within Church of England churches and their churchyards.