Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many in-person meetings the Murder and Manslaughter Team have had with clients in each of the last three years.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The information requested is not held centrally. When families would like to meet with the team in person, they will always do whatever is possible to arrange this.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many (a) people and (b) full-time equivalent staff are employed in the Murder and Manslaughter Team in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
As of September 2025, there are six full-time staff in the Murder and Manslaughter team.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether any Ministers in her Department met with Sir Brian Leveson in relation to the Independent Review of the Criminal Courts.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This Government has maintained open dialogue and a constructive relationship with Sir Brian Leveson and Ministers have met with him in his capacity as Chair of the Independent Review of the Criminal Courts (IRCC), as is the usual convention when Governments commission independent reviews. This has included meetings with myself as Minister for Courts and Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede who has held responsibility for Magistrates’ policy and engagement, as well as meetings with the Lord Chancellor.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent discussions she has had with Serco on electronic tagging.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
Lord Timpson, Minister of State for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending, has met regularly with senior representatives from Serco. The most recent of these meetings took place on Tuesday 22 July 2025. At that meeting, the Minister welcomed the improvements observed in Serco’s recent performance but emphasised the need for continued progress at pace to meet the standards set out in the contract. Serco’s performance continues to be monitored closely and we will not hesitate to apply financial penalties should our high-performance targets not be met.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make it her policy to utilise all court sitting days made available by the Lady Chief Justice in the (a) 2026–27, (b) 2027–28 and (c) 2028–29 financial years.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Lord Chancellor will begin the Concordat process with the judiciary in due course, and this is how sitting days will be allocated. The Lord Chancellor has been clear she is committed to tackling the outstanding caseload, but the number of sitting days allocated is just one factor in achieving this. The Lord Chancellor must be mindful of managing the wider system capacity—the availability not just of judges to sit in the Crown court but of the lawyers, prosecutors, legal aid and defence barristers that underpin the rest of the system.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign nationals received legal aid in (a) 2024-2025 and (b) 2025-2026; and what the cost to the public purse was of the legal aid provided.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of legal aid was spent on foreign nationals appealing deportation decisions in (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26 so far.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what reason she has increased legal aid for immigration cases.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Legal aid for immigration cases is important to maintaining an effective immigration and asylum system. Legal aid can play a vital role in ensuring the smooth running of the courts, by providing timely advice to the individuals concerned, reducing the likelihood of delays and adjournments and helping to tackle court backlogs. Hourly rates for immigration work have not been uplifted since 1996, but, following the Review of Civil Legal Aid, and a consultation on increasing fees for those working in the housing and debt and immigration and asylum sectors, we are taking action to uplift those fees given the particularly acute pressures facing these sectors.
This investment will help the Government deliver commitments to reduce the asylum backlog, end hotel use, increase returns and ensure the most vulnerable – such as victims of modern slavery and human trafficking - can navigate a complex legal system and access justice.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have been on probation without an electronic tag since 4 July 2024, broken down by the length of time.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
Electronic Monitoring can be one part of robust licence conditions to support the management of offenders in the community. It is a mandatory requirement for those released under the Home Detention Curfew scheme and for those released onto the Acquisitive Crime programme. Electronic Monitoring can also be used on a discretionary basis where it is available, and probation practitioners consider it a proportionate and necessary part of a risk management plan. The requested information for all those offenders released without an electronic monitoring requirement is not held centrally and could only be provided at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what negotiations she has had with prisoner escort contractors on reducing the number of court trials that are cancelled as a result of contractors not bring the defendant to court on time.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
The Prisoner Escort and Custody Service (PECS), which is part of HM Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS), provides Ministers with regular updates on performance of prisoner escort contractors against delivery targets.
It is recognised that there are many factors that can lead to trials being cancelled and that the efficient running of the criminal justice system requires a whole-system approach. PECS’ contractual performance against the indicator for timely delivery to court currently stands at 99.93%.
HMPPS closely monitors the operation of the contracts, and works with criminal justice partners through its Strategic Partnership Board, which includes representatives from His Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service and the police, as well as the contractors which deliver PECS services, to ensure that prisoners get to court on time, and that courts are prepared for their arrival.