Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in how many cases in which a suspect had been charged for offences committed in (a) 2013 and (b) 2014 a trial had not commenced after (i) six and (ii) 12 months had elapsed.
Answered by Mike Penning
Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) records the date of offence and date of trial in magistrates’ courts and the Crown Court. However, a number of cases do not go to trial, either because the defendant pleads guilty or the prosecution drop the case. A number of offences committed during 2014 will not yet have reached six or twelve months since receipt by HMCTS. To answer this question would require the creation of complex reports to combine the variables within the question, which would then need to be tested, this would incur disproportionate costs.
Also, offences committed in 2014 would be incomplete as many will not yet have reached six or 12 months since they were received by HMCTS.
The Ministry of Justice does, however, publish official statistics on the timeliness of criminal cases in Criminal Courts Statistics Quarterly at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-court-statistics.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the capabilities are of the multi-purpose ankle tag; and what forms of surveillance and supervision it makes possible.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The multi-purpose ankle tags will support the monitoring of compliance with curfew, exclusion and inclusion zones, and subject location.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what reasons the hardware and software providers in the new contract for electronic monitoring of offenders have been separated.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
We divided the provision of electronic monitoring into discrete components, separating the supply of hardware and software, and competed these as separate lots because we consider this approach most likely to support the development and deployment of the best technology. This strategy also had the advantage of encouraging the participation of new entrants, SMEs and specialist companies, allowing them to bid for a particular component rather than the entire end-to-end service.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what reasons were given to him by Buddi for its withdrawal from the new electronic contract in March 2014.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
MoJ was unable to agree on certain technical and commercial aspects of the proposed contract with Buddi. We therefore took the decision to discontinue discussions with Buddi and recompete this part of the competition.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what his policy is on fitting tags and trackers at court or prison.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
Tags are not currently fitted at court or prisons. There is provision in the new contract for tagging at court and prison; we will explore the circumstances where this might be appropriate during the life of the contract.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what his policy is on devolving responsibility for tagging contracts to police and crime commissioners.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
On 15 July the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice announced that the Ministry of Justice will be awarding contracts to four companies for delivery of the next generation of electronic monitoring services.
These national contracts will be managed by the Ministry of Justice. Within the existing legislative framework, there are opportunities for Police and Crime Commissioners to make use of the capability within national contracts to support their local priorities in order to ensure that the taxpayers money is used efficiently. Police and Crime Commissioners may however make local arrangements depending on local priorities.
Separate to these national contracts, the Secretary of State has agreed to allow the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime to enter into arrangements to pilot the effectiveness of the Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether any (a) internal and (b) external reports were commissioned by Serco in relation to any steps taken by HM Prison Thameside to eliminate race discrimination in the workplace.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Government is committed to ensuring equality throughout the criminal justice system. Internal complaints procedures and the employment tribunal system enable any allegations of racial discrimination in the workplace to be thoroughly investigated.
The Ministry of Justice conducted a routine assurance audit of HMP Thameside in 2013.
Any internal document prepared by the contractor in relation to potential litigation is legally privileged and therefore exempt from disclosure.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many employment tribunal cases were presented on the grounds of race discrimination in HM Prison Thameside in the last three years; what the nature was of each complaint; when each such tribunal began and ended; what the outcome was in each such case; and what the cost to the public purse was of defending such cases.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Government is committed to ensuring equality throughout the criminal justice system. Internal complaints procedures and the employment tribunal system enable any allegations of racial discrimination in the workplace to be thoroughly investigated.
Two staff grievances alleging discrimination have been submitted at HMP Thameside in the last three years.
The first, which alleged bullying at work, racial discrimination, unfair treatment and victimisation, was received in 12 October 2012. It was considered by the Employment Tribunal at two hearings (October 2013 and in December 2013). The Tribunal dismissed the claim in its entirety in January 2014.
The second grievance, alleging unfair dismissal, racial discrimination, victimisation and harassment, was received in March 2013. It is currently being considered by the Employment Tribunal.
Liability for any legal costs in relation to employment cases would fall on the employer.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many grievances on the grounds of race discrimination have been made in HM Prison Thameside in the last three years; what the nature was of each such grievance; when each grievance was made and resolved; and what the outcome was in each case.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Government is committed to ensuring equality throughout the criminal justice system. Internal complaints procedures and the employment tribunal system enable any allegations of racial discrimination in the workplace to be thoroughly investigated.
Two staff grievances alleging discrimination have been submitted at HMP Thameside in the last three years.
The first, which alleged bullying at work, racial discrimination, unfair treatment and victimisation, was received in 12 October 2012. It was considered by the Employment Tribunal at two hearings (October 2013 and in December 2013). The Tribunal dismissed the claim in its entirety in January 2014.
The second grievance, alleging unfair dismissal, racial discrimination, victimisation and harassment, was received in March 2013. It is currently being considered by the Employment Tribunal.
Liability for any legal costs in relation to employment cases would fall on the employer.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how long it took to merge Avon and Somerset Probation Services.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
Avon and Somerset Probation Trust, which was established on 1 April 2010, replaced the Avon and Somerset Probation Board, which had been created on 1 April 2001 following the merger of the two separate probation committees for Avon and for Somerset.