Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people in each category of ethnicity have brought employment tribunal claims in each year since 2010.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
A diversity monitoring form is attached to the employment tribunal claim form ET1 but the completion of this form is optional. The completion rate is far below the usual 60% threshold used for diversity reporting. Representation rates based on return rates below 60% are not considered statistically valid because they are unlikely to provide a representative picture of all claimants.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
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 the reintroduction of employment tribunal fees.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Ministry of Justice hold regular discussions with many organisations, including the Law Commission, about various policy areas. There have been no decisions regarding the re-introduction of fees in the Employment Tribunal. The Government is committed to the effective enforcement of employment rights. Should we bring forward any formal proposals relating to the re-introduction of fees in the Employment Tribunal, they would be subject to a full public consultation.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to exclude private companies holding community rehabilitation company contracts from taking additional contracts under the new planned probation model.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
No organisations have been barred from the competition. The Public Procurement Regulations 2015 contain discretionary grounds for disqualifying a supplier, including where there are “significant or persistent deficiencies" in the performance of a substantive requirement under a prior public contract, which led to early termination of the prior contract in question, or to damages or other comparable sanctions.
The criteria for exclusion have not been met – no Community Rehabilitation Company contracts have been terminated for poor performance, and nor has there been cause to claim damages.
Rules on taking account of suppliers’ past performances can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-0415-taking-account-of-suppliers-past-performance
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what criteria he plans to use to assess bids for Innovation Partner contracts under the new planned probation model.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
We are taking assessment criteria to mean evaluation criteria for the purposes of this response.
The Probation Delivery Partner (formerly Innovation Partner) contracts will be evaluated on both quality and price. Tenders will be evaluated on the basis of the evaluation price divided by the quality score to obtain the Price Per Quality Point score (with the lowest score being awarded a Lot subject to restrictions on available market share and minimum capital requirements).
The quality evaluation criteria are: Service Delivery (weighting 61%); Service Enablers (23%); Social Value (6%); Mobilisation & Transition (10%) and Legal, Commercial and Financial (Pass/Fail).
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to publish signed Innovation Partner contracts under the new planned probation model.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Probation Delivery Partner (formerly Innovation Partner) contracts will be published on the contracts finder website as required upon signature, subject to redaction of commercially sensitive content and personal information where applicable.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the proportion of services commissioned under the dynamic framework of the new planned probation model which will be provided by voluntary sector organisations.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
All probation services to be commissioned under the Dynamic Framework will be competed and awarded to the preferred bidder based on their price and quality scores. These will be awarded under fair and open competition and will not be directly awarded to framework members. We have not made any commitments as to what proportion of services will be provided by the voluntary sector. However, we have sought to design the Dynamic Framework in such a way as to reduce barriers to entry for voluntary sector organisations in order to encourage involvement of the sector in future delivery where possible.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department will have the power without breaching contracts to remove poorly performing innovation partners under the new planned probation model.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The draft Probation Delivery Partner contracts are based on the Model Services Contract (a set of model terms and conditions for major services contracts produced by the Crown Commercial Service and the Government Legal Service) and will allow us to terminate (either partly or in full) contracts which are underperforming. We also have a range of levers to rectify and improve performance.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many expressions of interest he has received to operate innovation partner contracts under the new planned probation model.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
We are planning to implement the new model for probation services by June 2021. The competition for Probation Delivery Partner contracts is well underway and we have received sufficient bids for a viable and healthy competition. The total potential Probation Delivery Partner contract value, as published in the Official Journal of the European Union, is £1.26 billion over 8 years. We will launch the competition for providers for the Dynamic Framework competition in the coming months.
All staff that transfer to the National Probation Service will become civil servants upon transfer. It is our intention to harmonise terms and conditions for this group on transfer as this is a key enabler of the forthcoming changes. However, this is subject to ongoing negotiations with Trade Unions.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the timescale is for the full implementation of the new planned probation model.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
We are planning to implement the new model for probation services by June 2021. The competition for Probation Delivery Partner contracts is well underway and we have received sufficient bids for a viable and healthy competition. The total potential Probation Delivery Partner contract value, as published in the Official Journal of the European Union, is £1.26 billion over 8 years. We will launch the competition for providers for the Dynamic Framework competition in the coming months.
All staff that transfer to the National Probation Service will become civil servants upon transfer. It is our intention to harmonise terms and conditions for this group on transfer as this is a key enabler of the forthcoming changes. However, this is subject to ongoing negotiations with Trade Unions.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether all staff employed by community rehabilitation companies will be employed on the same terms as National Probation Service staff following the transition to the new planned probation model.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
We are planning to implement the new model for probation services by June 2021. The competition for Probation Delivery Partner contracts is well underway and we have received sufficient bids for a viable and healthy competition. The total potential Probation Delivery Partner contract value, as published in the Official Journal of the European Union, is £1.26 billion over 8 years. We will launch the competition for providers for the Dynamic Framework competition in the coming months.
All staff that transfer to the National Probation Service will become civil servants upon transfer. It is our intention to harmonise terms and conditions for this group on transfer as this is a key enabler of the forthcoming changes. However, this is subject to ongoing negotiations with Trade Unions.