Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many residential women’s centres his Department plans to develop; and where those centres will be sited.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Female Offender Strategy (2018) set out the ambition to see fewer women in custody, especially on short sentences. We know that many women at risk of short custodial sentences have particularly complex needs and prolific offending histories compared to women supervised in the community. Our Strategy therefore committed to developing a residential women’s centre (RWC) pilot in at least five sites across England and Wales, as a robust alternative to custody, providing safe accommodation and intensive rehabilitative support as part of a community sentence.
Learning from existing providers of intensive residential support options, both at the point of sentencing and on release, indicates that this form of provision is effective in reducing reoffending. The RWC pilot will enable us to test models of safe accommodation and holistic support for women to address the underlying causes of their offending, and will enable us to develop an evidence base about what could be effective, sustainable and scalable models.
On 5 May 2020 we announced that the first RWC will be located in Wales. Subsequently we have advised the Welsh Government, local MPs, PCCs and other partners that we have shortlisted sites in South Wales, and we anticipate one of those sites could be a potential location for the first pilot RWC. As yet we have not identified sites for the four RWCs in England.
We anticipate that each RWC will have 12 beds. RWCs will also provide support, very similar to that offered by a women’s centre, with interventions to support women address the underlying causes of their offending behaviour. We anticipate it will offer interventions to meet the needs of residents, ex-residents and women in the local community who have been referred to the RWC by their offender manager.
We expect the RWCs will work with key partners and providers of women-specific services in their local area and draw on the expertise of those who currently work with women with complex needs and women with lived experience. The RWC will be led by the NPS but will employ women with experience of working with complex needs women to lead the interventions hub and to engage with local providers and partners.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to any published criteria or guidance including, but not limited to, the Administrative Court Judicial Review Guide 2020 and Practice Direction 54E (Planning Court Claims), what the process is for the allocation of cases identified as Aarhus Convention claims in Form N461 to judges in the Planning and Administrative Courts; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Judges dealing with Planning Court cases are authorised to do so by the President of the Queen’s Bench Division, based on their experience and expertise in dealing with such matters. Cases requiring planning expertise are allocated to an available Planning Court Judge.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will provide a list of case citations for cases identified as Aarhus Convention claims in Form N461 that were the subject of a hearing in the Planning Court from 1 January 2017 to date.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will set out the (a) presiding judge(s) and (b) outcome of each hearing in the Planning Court on a case identified as an Aarhus Convention claim in Form N461 from 1 January 2017 to date.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of applications for (a) judicial review and (b) judicial review involving environmental claims have succeeded at final hearing in each year since the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 came into force.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested is provided at Annex A covering each year since the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 came into force.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
Whether his Department has conducted an equalities impact assessment of the proposal to replace jury trials with trials by a judge and two magistrates to tackle the backlog in criminal cases as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Equality considerations are always given very careful thought when developing policies. However, we have no plans to remove the right to jury trial, something that I am deeply committed to.
Recovery continues each week. Thanks to the hard work of professionals across the system more than 150 courts remained fully open to the public throughout the pandemic. There are now over 300 courts and tribunals fully open.
We want to do more. So we’re looking for new court capacity, reviewing opening hours and making the most of the change in social distancing. And it’s right that we should think ambitiously, leaving no stone unturned as we continue to increase the number of trials and deliver swift and effective justice.
Having already responded effectively to Covid-19, HMCTS published a Recovery Plan on 1st July providing further detail of the next steps.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of appeals against a refusal of an application for Section 4 support for refused asylum seekers were successful in the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
This information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were (a) cautioned, (b) proceeded against and (c) convicted of an offence under the Game Act 1831 in each police force area in each year since 2005.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The number of offenders cautioned, defendants proceeded against at magistrates’ courts and found guilty at all courts for these offences, in England and Wales, by Police Force Area, from 2005 to 2017 can be viewed in the attached tables.
Where a police force area does not feature in the table, there are no cautions, or alternatively, prosecutions or convictions for that area for that offence during the period.
Offences under Section 13(7) of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 can only be separately identified from 2011 onwards.
Court proceedings and cautions data for 2018 is planned for publication on 16 May 2019
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were (a) cautioned, (b) proceeded against and (c) convicted of an offence under the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996 in each police force area in each year since 2005.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The number of offenders cautioned, defendants proceeded against at magistrates’ courts and found guilty at all courts for these offences, in England and Wales, by Police Force Area, from 2005 to 2017 can be viewed in the attached tables.
Where a police force area does not feature in the table, there are no cautions, or alternatively, prosecutions or convictions for that area for that offence during the period.
Offences under Section 13(7) of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 can only be separately identified from 2011 onwards.
Court proceedings and cautions data for 2018 is planned for publication on 16 May 2019
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were (a) cautioned, (b) proceeded against and (c) convicted of an offence under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 in each police force area in each year since 2005.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The number of offenders cautioned, defendants proceeded against at magistrates’ courts and found guilty at all courts for these offences, in England and Wales, by Police Force Area, from 2005 to 2017 can be viewed in the attached tables.
Where a police force area does not feature in the table, there are no cautions, or alternatively, prosecutions or convictions for that area for that offence during the period.
Offences under Section 13(7) of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 can only be separately identified from 2011 onwards.
Court proceedings and cautions data for 2018 is planned for publication on 16 May 2019