Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 6 March 2017 to Question 65647, on Ministry of Justice: Brexit, what (a) EU agencies and other organisations are within her Department's remit, (b) staff time was spent on engagement with those bodies and (c) financial resources were spent on engagement with those bodies in 2015-16.
Answered by Oliver Heald
The below EU agencies are within this department’s remit;
Fundamental Rights Agency
This department engages with a range of stakeholders. We do not disaggregate the time and resource spent on this engagement.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what (a) EU agencies and other organisations within her Department's remit the Government plans to withdraw from when the UK leaves the EU, (b) staff time was spent on engagement with those bodies and (c) financial resources were spent on engagement with those bodies in 2015-16.
Answered by Oliver Heald
As set out in the recent White Paper (The United Kingdom’s exit from and new partnership with the European Union), the Government will discuss with the EU and Member States our future status and arrangements with regard to EU agencies. It would not be appropriate to prejudge the outcome of the negotiations.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to ensure that people who appeal unsuccessful personal independence payments applications are adequately represented during the appeals process.
Answered by Oliver Heald
Appeals for unsuccessful PIP applications are dealt with through the unified tribunals system. Tribunals are intended to provide simple, accessible and proportionate routes of redress for individuals.
As part of our proposals to reform the justice system, we will make use of technology to ensure tribunals are accessible and deliver swifter and simpler justice for all. The reforms will reduce complexity in language, process and systems and will enable citizens to present their own cases simply and to obtain swifter justice.
Asked by: Maria Eagle (Labour - Garston and Halewood)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what reasons her Department removed the requirement to have a panel member with direct experience of disability from the personal independence payments appeals process.
Answered by Oliver Heald
The Government is investing close to £1 billion to reform and digitise our courts and tribunals to deliver swifter and more certain justice.
Technology will be at the forefront of our reforms but specific support will be provided to ensure tribunals remain accessible to all and physical hearings will be used to resolve many cases.
The proposed reforms set out in the Transforming our Justice System consultation would not change the circumstances where expert contributions are necessary to enable a tribunal to decide a case and these will continue to be important to the decision making process. As now, the Senior President of Tribunals would continue to determine when panel members are used but will be able to take account of any future changes to the way that cases are resolved.