Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many postmasters have been notified that their convictions have been quashed by the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024.
Answered by Heidi Alexander - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
As of 26 July 2024, we have issued 10 letters confirming to postmasters that their convictions have been quashed by the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024.
The Ministry of Justice, Northern Irish Executive and Scottish Government are taking all reasonable steps and are working at pace to identify those within scope of the legislation. To do this, the Government is examining data spanning multiple decades and from multiple sources, including but not limited to the Post Office, the Police National Record, and court files. It is necessary that this process is undertaken carefully.
The previous Government said publicly that most letters confirming to individuals that their convictions have been quashed would be sent by the end of July. However, since then inconsistencies have been identified between the different datasets and the Government has therefore decided to conduct extra checks to ensure that all decisions on scope are correct.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress he has made on bringing forward legislative proposals to introduce a corporate offence of failure to prevent fraud and money laundering.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Government is considering the case for reforming the law on CCL and will publish a response to the Call for Evidence in due course.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to her Department's publication, Mortgage and landlord possession statistics in England and Wales, April to June 2019 (provisional), published on 8 August 2019, which large mortgage provider has driven up the number of home repossessions to their highest level since 2014.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The organisation was required to provide its details to enable the court to process its possession claims. It would be inappropriate to release such information where it would be likely to prejudice an organisation’s commercial interests.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to rehabilitate offenders.
Answered by Robert Buckland
We are committed to ensuring prisons are places where offenders can turn their backs on crime – reducing reoffending and keeping the public safe. In order for prisons to enable rehabilitation, they must first be places of safety and so we are taking urgent action to improve prison safety and security, alongside reforms to overhaul the system to focus on the rehabilitation of offenders.
We have invested £70 million to improve safety, security and decency in prisons, allowing us to fund new security scanners, improved searching techniques, phone-blocking technology and a financial crime unit to target criminals operating in prisons. Alongside this, we have taken immediate action to strengthen the frontline with over 4,700 new prison officers.
To reduce reoffending, we are implementing a cohesive plan to ensure offenders receive the right interventions to meet their individual needs. This includes investing £7 million in in-cell telephones to allow prisoners to maintain important family ties, and tackling health issues such as drug addiction through our drugs strategy.
We want to ensure that everyone leaving prison has access to a secure job and stable accommodation. Last year we launched the Education and Employment strategy to ensure offenders are set on a path to employment from the outset. Governors now have control to commission education provision that leads to work and we are engaging with employers to take on prisoners on ROTL or after release via the New Futures Network, which has had more than 230 businesses register to work with prisons since its launch. We also recently made changes so that Governors can now consider Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL) earlier and in more cases to enable prisoners to enter the workplace sooner.
Through the Government’s Rough Sleeping Strategy we have invested £6 million in pilot schemes bringing together prisons, local authorities, probation providers to help offenders find accommodation on release.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to bring into force the provisions of the Guardianship (Missing Persons) Act 2017.
Answered by Paul Maynard
The Guardianship (Missing Persons) Act 2017 will be implemented in July, and applications to the court for guardianship orders will be able to commence from that date.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to increase employment opportunities for prisoners after release.
Answered by Robert Buckland
One year ago, our Education and Employment Strategy set out plans to transform the way prisoners develop the skills they need to secure employment on release.
Since then, we have overhauled the prison education system through implementing new contracts and a Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS). These allow governors to commission skills-based training and education that meets the needs of the local labour market.
We have also introduced the New Futures Network (NFN), which brokers partnerships between prisons and employers in England and Wales, and a new ROTL framework to increase the opportunities available for prisoners to gain experience in real workplaces.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
What steps his Department is taking to support the Home Office in tackling economic crime.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
Our main contribution in helping to tackle economic crime is to run a world class court system that has a strong international reputation and enables highly complex crimes to be prosecuted.
As well as that work, we are also active in scrutinising the law to see if anything needs to be changed to tackle economic crime. The Department carried out a Call for Evidence to examine the case for a change in the law in corporate criminal liability for economic crime in 2017 and intends publishing its response in 2019.
This is in addition to the creation of a new world class court facility in the City of London specialising in tackling cyber-crime, fraud and economic crime announced earlier this year. This will help reinforce the UK’s reputation as a world-leading legal centre ready to deal with the changing nature of 21st century crime.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when his Department plans publish a response to his Department's publication entitled, Corporate liability for economic crime: call for evidence, published on 13 January 2018.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Call for Evidence on Corporate Criminal Liability for Economic Crime contained a number of different options for reform, including a proposal to extend the failure to prevent offence to wider economic crimes other than bribery or tax evasion. The Government’s response is expected to issue in 2019.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the commitments that the Government made at the London Anti-Corruption Summit 2016, when he plans to launch a consultation on introducing a criminal offence of failing to prevent economic crime.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Call for Evidence on Corporate Criminal Liability for Economic Crime contained a number of different options for reform, including a proposal to extend the failure to prevent offence to wider economic crimes other than bribery or tax evasion. The Government’s response is expected to issue in 2019.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the (a) median and (b) mean times were for private landlords to progress from a claim to possession of a property by a county court bailiff for the most recent period for which figures are available (i) across England and (ii) by each court circuit.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The average time taken from issue to repossession (in weeks) in private landlord possession cases in the county court is provided in the table below.
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