Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the reasons for which some Just Stop Oil protestors who were under the age of 18 were held on remand in adult prisons.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Custody should always be a last resort for children, including on remand. The Government raised the legal test for remanding a child to custody in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. A child must have committed a violent or sexual offence or have been charged with an offence where an adult may receive a custodial sentence of 14 years, and the court must consider it very likely that the child will receive a custodial sentence.
Any person under the age of 18 will not be remanded in an adult prison. Instead, they are remanded into Young Offender Institutions (YOIs), a Secure Training Centre (STC), or Secure Children’s Homes (SCHs). Specific placement decisions for custodial remands are made by the Youth Custody Service (YCS), factoring in the needs of the child.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the cases of Just Stop Oil protestors who were imprisoned on remand for slow-marching.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The decision to remand an individual in custody or to grant bail is solely a matter for the independent judiciary acting in accordance with the law. The Ministry of Justice therefore cannot intervene in any decision made by the court and cannot assess whether remands to custody or bail are more appropriate in these cases.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to publish the results of his Department's consultation on Including claimant data on the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines, which closed 16 January 2024.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice intends to publish a response to the consultation on including claimant names on the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines (the Register) in due course. That response will set out whether the Government intends to bring forward legislation to allow for the publication of claimant names on the Register.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department is taking steps to publish claimant data for (a) County Court Judgements and (b) the Courts Service.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice intends to publish a response to the consultation on including claimant names on the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines (the Register) in due course. That response will set out whether the Government intends to bring forward legislation to allow for the publication of claimant names on the Register.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if his Department will bring forward legislative proposals to allow claimant data for County Court Judgements to be published.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice intends to publish a response to the consultation on including claimant names on the Register of Judgments, Orders and Fines (the Register) in due course. That response will set out whether the Government intends to bring forward legislation to allow for the publication of claimant names on the Register.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many sentencing hearings at the Old Bailey were rescheduled because a holding cell was not available in the year ending 31 March 2023; and whether his Department is taking steps to ensure future sentencing hearings at the Old Bailey are not rescheduled for that reason.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
No sentencing hearings at the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) were rescheduled due to a lack of holding cell availability in the financial year ending 31 March 2023. We do not expect this to be a reason for rescheduling sentencing hearings in future either. We continue to work with our external partners to ensure pressures across the criminal justice system are managed appropriately and to deliver justice for the public.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to section 240A of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to ensure that time spent remanded on bail by offenders is not counted towards time served in cases in which a victim died as a result of the crime.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The decision to remand an individual in custody or to grant bail is solely a matter for the courts acting in accordance with the Bail Act 1976.
Time spent remanded on bail does not count towards time served unless, as a defendant, the offender was remanded on bail with an electronically monitored curfew of 9 hours or more per day. An electronically monitored curfew of 9 hours or over can result in a credit of half a day of custodial time. If compensation against time in custody is to be considered by the court following sentencing, they will need to be satisfied that the electronically monitored curfew was fully complied with on each day that is taken into account.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent cross-departmental discussions he has had on reducing pressures on the Probation Service.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
We have unified the Probation Service and injected extra funding of more than £155 million a year to deliver more robust supervision, reduce caseloads and recruit thousands more staff to keep the public safer. We have recruited a record-breaking 2,500 trainee probation officers over the last two years and we plan to recruit a further 1,500 by March 2023.
Recruitment of key operational roles has been centralised to accelerate recruitment in 6 priority regions, including London. There are schemes available to provide financial support to encourage new and existing staff to move permanently to areas with the most significant staffing challenges.
In collaboration with local probation regions, the Department for Work and Pensions and Career Transition Partnerships, local outreach has increased to improve awareness of Probation and the roles available. Marketing campaigns have been rolled out to attract undergraduate/students to work in part time roles.
The Probation Service is also committed to widening routes to achieve probation qualifications by developing pathways for existing staff, as well as creating routes for those without a graduate degree.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent steps he has taken to ensure that offenders released from prison on probation are being safely supervised.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Action to enable the safe supervision of those released from custody on licence or under post-sentence supervision starts before they leave prison with critical work undertaken by prison and probation staff. In the majority of cases (except very short sentences where they are managed by their home probation region) this involves a formal handover from the prison offender manager to the community offender manager. This arrangement was introduced as part of the Offender Management in Custody initiative, and monitoring is in place at a national level through a Service Level Agreement in order to promote continuous improvement in this area and ensure compliance with national standards. The handover is intended to focus on public protection measures, sharing of information, and the opportunity for the offender and the community offender manager to begin building a good relationship.
The Probation Service has a range of measures in place to promote the safe supervision of offenders in the community. Every offender’s risk is assessed, and will be re-assessed if there is any indication that the level may have increased. Offenders released on licence are required to abide by a set of standard conditions, to which additional conditions may be added to take account of a particular risk the individual may pose. Offenders who breach their licence are liable to immediate recall to custody.
HM Inspectorate of Probation reports to the Government on the effectiveness of work with those who have offended, with the aim of reducing re-offending and protecting the public. The quality of supervision is also measured through HM Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS)’s annual Sentence Management Audit. Recommendations made by both internal and external scrutineers are implemented via regional Quality Improvement Plans. HMPPS auditors will conduct regular reviews of the delivery of these plans through 2023-24, as one of the measures we have in place to promote high standards of supervision.
Asked by: Marsha De Cordova (Labour - Battersea)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to (a) create an offence for Predatory Marriages, (b) ensure that no one who is showing insufficient mental capacity marries against their will or unknowingly, and (c) amend the relevant marriages laws so that it does not automatically revoke an existing Will when the marriage is registered.
Answered by Gareth Johnson
Under the current law, causing a person who lacks capacity to consent to a marriage is a criminal offence of forced marriage under the Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014, for which the maximum penalty is seven years imprisonment.
In relation to wills, the principle in English and Welsh law that marriage has the effect of revoking wills is long established. The issue of whether marriage or civil partnership should invoke automatic revocation of the wills of those involved is being considered as part of a review by the Law Commission on reforming the law of wills.
The Government will review the case for reforming the current law when it has received the recommendations in the Law Commission’s final report.