Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Government's publication A pro-innovation approach to AI regulation, published on 29 March 2023, how much and what proportion of the budget of each regulator in their Department was spent on regulation of artificial intelligence in the latest period for which information is available; how many staff in each regulator worked (a) wholly and (b) partly on those issues in the latest period for which information is available; and whether those regulators plan to increase resources for their work on artificial intelligence.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The AI White Paper emphasised the importance of ensuring that UK regulators and public bodies have the capacity, expertise, and capabilities to implement government’s pro-innovation approach whilst recognising and understanding the risks. This is particularly true for those regulators for which AI falls squarely within their regulatory remit, but also applies to a much wider range of public and regulatory bodies considering the implications AI has across the economy.
Legal services regulation is independent of Government and is overseen by the Legal Services Board (LSB) which is an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body of the MoJ. The LSB has a role to play in effectively regulating the use of AI. The LSB uses its resources flexibly to deliver the range of activities in its business plan. The LSB estimates that it deploys the equivalent of two policy and one research team members to work on technology and innovation, representing approximately £150,000 in staff costs and £50,000 in research annually. The LSB’s work on technology and innovation encompasses work on AI. The LSB continually assesses how best to deploy its resources to respond to emerging issues in a proportionate and effective way.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the level of UK-produced steel procured by his Department and associated departmental public bodies and agencies in (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2020-21.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Our procurement activities continue to follow Government guidance to ensure we take full account of the value provided by UK steel producers. We did not directly procure any steel.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
What steps he is taking to help ensure that BAME communities have confidence in the criminal justice system.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The overall changes we are making to the system are designed to give all communities and victims of crime increased confidence.
Ensuring the trust of Black and minority ethnic people in the criminal justice system is critical to its effectiveness. We have responded positively to previous reviews on this subject and look forward to welcoming the conclusions of the independent Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities.
We are committed to increasing the diversity of people working in the CJS to represent the communities they serve, making it more transparent in the data on ethnicity it produces, and we are making progress on this.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and proportion of cases before the family courts in England involve women who have been subject to previous care proceedings involving another child in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Ministry of Justice does not hold data on cases before the family courts that involve women who have been the subject of previous care proceedings involving another child.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate his Department has made of the average cost of a care proceeding before the family courts in each of the last 3 years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Government’s latest estimates of the average cost (rounded to the nearest £10) of a public law case before the family courts, covering both the issue and hearing stages, are:
2017/18 £4,180
2016/17 £3,790
2015/16 £4,270
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases involving a conviction on the grounds of joint enterprise have been referred to the Criminal Cases Review Commission since it was established; and of those cases how many people have been given leave to appeal.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Criminal Cases Review Commission have received 219 applications which they have categorised internally as a joint enterprise case. This categorisation only applies to applications received by the CCRC post the decision made by the Supreme Court in the case of R v Jogee [2016].
Four cases have been referred to the Court of Appeal for further appeal.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to her oral contribution of 3 November 2016, Official Report, column 1071, what the (a) remit, (b) membership and (c) date of the last meeting is of the Government taskforce to address the issue of drone use and prisons.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
We remain vigilant to all incidents involving drones and take the threat they pose to prison security very seriously. A range of methods to counter the threat posed by drones are being trialled and evaluated for their effectiveness across the prison estate. We have already introduced new legislation to further strengthen our powers, making it illegal to land a drone in prison or to use a drone to drop in contraband. We take a zero tolerance approach to smuggling of contraband into prisons and work closely with the police and Crown Prosecution Service to ensure those caught are prosecuted. Anyone found using a drone in an attempt to get contraband into prisons can be punished with a sentence of up to two years imprisonment.
However, I want to do more, specifically by setting up a government taskforce to challenge industry to help in this crucial area with Ministerial colleagues in the Department for Transport, Home Office, Department for Culture, Media and Sport and Ministry of Defence. We will work with drone manufacturers to challenge them to do more to stop the illegal use of drones in prisons.
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many non-executive directors of his Department who were in post before May 2015 have since left the Department's board; what the names and length of tenure of such directors were; and how many and what non-executive director appointments he has made since May 2010.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Information on non-executive board member appointments is included in my department's Annual Report & Accounts, the latest of which was published on 10 June 2015 and is available here:
Details of appointments since May 2010 are available in previous years’ Annual Reports, which can be found at:
2011/12:
2012/13:
2013/14:
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many recruitment and employment agencies his Department has used to source staff in each year since 2010-11.
Answered by Simon Hughes
Since April 2010 we have cut our overall spend on temporary staff by £35.5m. We only use temporary staff to fill business-critical posts and essential frontline services where they can provide a fast, flexible and efficient way to obtain necessary skills that are not currently available in-house. The Ministry of Justice is committed to rationalising its supplier base and we will continue to examine our use of contractors and look for further reductions.
In responding to the question above the number of suppliers is detailed as follows:
Year | Supplier Numbers |
2010 – 11 | 123 |
2011 – 12 | 97 |
2012 – 13 | 55 |
2013 – 14 | 66 |
2014 – 15 YTD | 46 |
Asked by: Lucy Powell (Labour (Co-op) - Manchester Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much his Department has spent on (a) consultants, (b) temporary staff and (c) contingent labour in each of the last five years; how many people have been so employed; what the length of contract of each such person was; and what equivalent civil service salary band each was on.
Answered by Simon Hughes
The spend for consultants, temporary staff and contingent labour has been published in the Ministry of Justice annual report and accounts, which can be found at the following links:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministry-of-justice-annual-report-and-accounts-2011-12 (page 31 for 2010/2011 & 2011/2012)
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministry-of-justice-annual-report-and-accounts-2013-to-2014 (page 33 for 2012/2013 & 2013/2014)
As the contracts for Consultancy are awarded to Companies on a project basis, the Ministry of Justice cannot establish the exact number working at a specific point in time. The number and seniority of consultants will vary depending on the stage in the project.
To establish the exact number of Agency and Interim staff we would need to interrogate both the MoJ files and Companies data to obtain the information required and then review and collate that information. By doing so we would incur disproportionate costs in answering this question.
Temporary staff and consultants are only used to fill business critical posts and provide essential services where they can provide a fast, flexible and efficient way to obtain necessary skills that are not currently available in house.