Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 23 November 2020 to Question 119223 on Prison Officers: Coronavirus, whether prison educators are categorised as agency or sessional workers.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Staff delivering educational services under the Prison Education Framework (PEF) and Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) contracts are directly employed by 3rd parties who are contracted to deliver these services. As such, they are not considered to be either HMPPS, agency or sessional staff.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of HMPPS adopting the Safe Inside Prisons Charter from the Joint Unions in Prisons Alliance; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
HM Prison and Probation Service continues to share with the Joint Unions Prisons Alliance (JUPA) its commitment to maintain safety in the workplace and will continue to progress this, including engagement with this Alliance on a quarterly basis to brief them on prison safety work.
We welcome the constructive contribution of JUPA, however we need to be inclusive of all our recognised trade unions and also of the third party employers it refers to. Currently JUPA is not representative of all HMPPS recognised unions. As such, whilst we do see merit in the continued engagement with JUPA, we do not see merit in the Charter as it is set currently. HMPPS already has a strong prison safety agenda which fully includes the recognised trade unions and which, in many ways also, reflect issues that JUPA has raised.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women were known to be pregnant while on remand or serving a sentence in HMP Low Newton in each quarter from 31 March 2015 to 30 September 2020, by ethnicity.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Pregnancy data is collected locally by individual prisons, to ensure the appropriate support can be provided to women in our care. Currently, there is no central collection of this data. HMP Low Newton are in the process of collating the information requested and, as soon as that is available, I will write to the Honourable Member.
On 31 July we published a summary report of our review of operational policy on pregnancy and women separated from children under 2. This includes an undertaking to extend the range of data we publish in relation to pregnant women in prison, and can be found at the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/905559/summary-report-of-review-of-policy-on-mbu.pdf
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has made an assessment of whether the automatic revocation of wills upon marriage provides a potential incentive for predatory marriage.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
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 wider current review by the Law Commission on reforming the law of wills.
That review is also examining whether there should be new rules introduced which protect the person making the will from undue influence.
The Government will review the case for reforming the current law when it has received the recommendations in the Law Commission’s final report.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been successfully prosecuted for predatory marriage under section 121 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Ministry of Justice has published information on prosecutions and convictions in the Outcomes by Offence data tool up to December 2019. Available at:
Search ‘Offence’ for ‘36.1 Forced marriage’. The number of prosecutions and convictions can be viewed in the table.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on waiting times for Child Maintenance Service appeals.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The latest period for which data about appeals to the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) (SSCS) are available is January to March 2020 which predates the pandemic.
www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.
The most recent tribunal statistics publication covering the period April to June 2020 does not include SSCS data due to issues identified as the Tribunal was being migrated to a new operational system. The data will be made available as soon as this is resolved and the data quality assured.
Appeals to the SSCS Tribunal have continued to be heard in line with government guidance throughout the pandemic. Telephone hearings and the use of other hearing technology have been used to facilitate as many hearings as possible being held remotely.
In addition to holding remote hearings in all regions, appeals may also be decided by judges sitting alone in chambers, using the evidence before them in the case papers.
HM Courts & Tribunals Service has also introduced safety measures so that face to face hearings can be held for any cases which cannot be decided on the papers or heard remotely.
The decision as to how a hearing is conducted is a matter for the judge, who will determine how best to uphold the interests of justice. In considering the suitability of video/audio hearings to replace face to face hearings, judges will consider matters such as the nature of the dispute at stake and any issues the use of video/audio technology may present for participants in the hearing, having regard to individuals’ needs.
Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the transition from court-based oral hearings to remote telephone and paper hearings for social security appeals.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is working hard to keep our justice system functioning during this unprecedented public health emergency. We are focusing on priority cases, changing working practices and introducing new procedures to minimise risks to the judiciary, staff and all those who use our courts and tribunals.
This has included, in line with government guidance, replacing face to face hearings in the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) (SSCS) with telephone hearings and the use of other remote hearing technology to facilitate as many hearings as possible being held remotely. All parties to the hearings are being contacted directly to confirm new hearing arrangements.
In addition to holding remote hearings in all regions, appeals may also be decided by judges sitting alone in chambers, using the evidence before them in the case papers.
During the coronavirus outbreak HMCTS is publishing additional management information used for understanding the impact on workload volumes and activity across the court and tribunal system, which includes SSCS workload and hearings. The latest information, published on 11 June, is available using the following link:
www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/hmcts-management-information-april-2020.
The latest advice and guidance from the government and judiciary in relation to tribunal hearings during the coronavirus pandemic is updated regularly and can be viewed using the following links:
www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-courts-and-tribunals-planning-and-preparation and
www.judiciary.uk/coronavirus-covid-19-advice-and-guidance.