Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of subject access requests made to the Subject Access Team of the Ministry of Justice have been responded to within the correct timescale since the General Data Protection Regulation came into force; and what steps she is taking to reduce the volume of those requests.
Answered by Robert Buckland
I can confirm that the proportion of subject access requests made to the Ministry of Justice since June 2018 that were responded to within time is 75%. This figure includes requests received up to and including March 2019, representing the latest available performance results.
The Ministry of Justice takes its data protection responsibilities seriously. We have seen a significant increase in the numbers of subject access requests received since the General Data Protection Regulation came into force. We have developed plans to address this increase and taken steps to achieve the desired level of performance. We have:
The volume of subject access requests received by the department is beyond its control. Since the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation and the accompanying Data Protection Act 2018 on the 25 May 2018, the number of SARs have increased by 160% from offenders and 55% from MoJ staff and members of the public.
Asked by: Jeremy Lefroy (Conservative - Stafford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many fines of what total monetary value were written off by HM Courts Service in Staffordshire in each year since 2011-12.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Due to the limited management information that can be extracted from the Libra system it is not possible to identify how many financial impositions have been cancelled.
The table below shows the total value of financial impositions cancelled in Staffordshire in each of the year since 2010-11.
Year | Total Value Legally Cancelled regardless of Imposition date | Total Value Admin Cancelled regardless of Imposition date |
2010-11 | £1,237,941 | £722,603 |
2011-12 | £1,181,416 | £692,066 |
2012-13 | £1,256,081 | £924,630 |
2013-14 | £1,406,722 | £835,113 |
2014-15 | £1,320,535 | £656,536 |
Apr 2015 – Dec 2015 | £1,154,484 | £410,937 |
The data for January 2016 to March 2016 is not included as the data has not been published yet.
A legal cancellation can be applied when an imposition has been cancelled in court by a Judge or Magistrate, for example if an appeal is successful or if some of the original amount imposed is remitted after the offenders financial circumstances have been reconsidered.
Financial impositions are only administratively cancelled after all attempts to collect the amount outstanding have been made, and in accordance with a strict cancellation criteria. Any imposition which has been administratively cancelled still retains legal status and can be written back at any time if more information is found which will enable collection, for example if a new address for the offender is discovered. We periodically review administratively cancelled accounts.