Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to publish the Report on the implementation of Law Commission proposals for 2018 to 2019.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
A draft of the Government’s report on the implementation of Law Commission recommendations is currently being prepared and is expected to be laid before Parliament as soon as practicable this year. It will provide an update on the implementation status of all relevant Law Commission recommendations since the report was last published in 2018.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prosecutions there have been for offences relating to hunting with dogs, by police force area, in the latest period for which data are available.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Ministry of Justice has published information on prosecutions for offences relating to hunting with dogs, by police force area, in England and Wales, up to December 2020, available in the ‘Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code’ data tool, which can be found here:
To find the number of prosecutions by police force area for hunting a wild mammal with a dog, under sections 1 and 6 of the Hunting Act 2004:
Other offences that relate to hunting with dogs under the Hunting Act 2004 include:
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress there has been on the implementation of the Lammy Review recommendations.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Government has provided updates on the implementation of the independent review into the treatment of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic individuals in the criminal justice system (the Lammy Review).
Where a recommendation could not be implemented in full or exactly as set out in the Review, alternative approaches have been sought to achieve the same aim. As of 16th October 2020, the status of the recommendations is as follows:
Out of the 35 recommendations listed in the Lammy Review:
i. Actions in relation to 16 recommendations have been completed (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 22, 23, 33, 35)
ii. Actions in relation to 17 recommendations are still in progress, of which:
a. 11 recommendations aim to be completed within 6 – 12 months (15, 17, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
b. 6 recommendations will take longer than 12 months to be completed (1, 9, 10, 31, 32, 34)
iii. Two recommendations (14, 16), specific to a target for judicial appointments and appraisal, are not being taken forward. This was announced in the Government’s response to the Review in December 2017.
The Government’s response identified actions going beyond the Review’s recommendations. Progress on recommendations and additional actions are overseen by a CJS Race and Ethnicity Board which was created in response to the Review.
An Independent Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities is currently reviewing inequality in the UK, focusing on areas including education, employment, health and the criminal justice system. The Independent Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities will aim to report to the Prime Minister by the end of the year
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate she has made of the average waiting time for immigration appeals to be heard at tribunal from the time the appeal is lodged, for (a) all tribunals, (b) asylum tribunals, (c) family visit visa tribunals and (d) entry clearance officer tribunals; and what additional resources have been allocated to tackling the backlog of immigration appeals as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The average waiting time from the lodgement of the appeal to first hearing for the period January to March 2020 is a) for all appeals - 17 weeks and b) for asylum appeals - 8 weeks.
Family visit visa and Entry clearance officer appeals no longer exist as separate appeal categories. The other appeal categories are Human Rights appeals and Out of country appeals and their waiting times for the same period are 22 weeks and 34 weeks respectively.
These figures are from internal Management Information extracted from the tribunal’s case management system. They do not form part of the published tribunal statistics published on a quarterly basis and are available at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics
HM Courts & Tribunals Service has worked extensively to reduce the outstanding caseload and improve timeliness in the Immigration and Asylum Chamber. This has seen the live caseload in the First-tier Tribunal reduce by more than two-thirds, from 64,800 to 19,533 between July 2016 and March 2020. Our focus is now on maximising our capacity to reduce the growth and volume of our outstanding work.
We will build the number of face to face hearings; our hearing centres were never officially closed even though all hearings were of course suspended.
We are working closely with the judiciary to increase the number of hearings by expanding our capacity for remote audio and video hearings; and ensuring that we can build the number of face to face hearings as soon as it is safe to do so and in line with public health advice and guidance.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the backlog of court cases that has accumulated as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Our courts and tribunals provide a vital public service and it is important that justice is delivered in a timely fashion wherever possible despite the Covid-19 outbreak. Staff, identified as key workers during this pandemic, and the judiciary, working in partnership with everyone who supports the justice system has maintained both a core justice system focussed on the most vital cases, and the safety of all courts and tribunals users in line with public health advice and guidance.
Considerable effort has been made to ensure that as far as possible the justice system continues to function. We put in place temporary changes, designed in partnership with the judiciary, to prioritise cases; rapidly expand our capacity for remote audio and video hearings [numbers] while maintaining access to open justice; and condensed our services in to 159 open court/tribunal buildings, a further 111 staffed courts being used for audio and video hearings and suspended operations in 71 sites, utilising resource and cleaning materials in those sites to bolster open and staffed courts. Jury trials have restarted in seven Crown Court centres since 18 May, including the Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey in London, Cardiff, Bristol, Manchester Minshull Street, Reading, Warwick and Winchester.
We have rolled out home working solutions to allow as many of our staff as possible who can, to work from home performing essential functions and thus reduce or eliminate unnecessary backlogs. As at 2 June 2020, we have distributed 5,588 laptops to our staff to facilitate this. We have also commenced rolling out a Windows Virtual Devices Solution to enable other staff to temporarily work securely at home using their own IT equipment.
Our focus is now on maximising our capacity to reduce the growth and volume of our outstanding work. We are working closely with the judiciary to increase the number of hearings by further expanding our capacity for remote audio and video hearings; and ensuring that we can reopen our estate for more face to face hearings as soon as it is safe to do so. These specific measures will be set out in due course. In the meantime, our listing priorities continue to be published on judiciary.uk and details those hearings that must still go ahead.
Our commitment to continuing to deliver justice depends on close engagement and working with justice system partners, and we are grateful to all involved for the way they have embraced new and planned reform solutions to keep the wheels of justice turning.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
What changes his Department plans to make to the operation of probation services during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Probation is operating under an exceptional delivery model which prioritises public protection and offender management in the community.
Probation officers continue supervising in person those who pose the highest risk ensuring the monitoring of high-risk offenders remains as tough as it always is.
At the same time, we are supervising lower-risk offenders using more frequent video and telephone calls.
We have set up Homelessness Prevention Taskforces to support offenders who are being temporarily released from prison as part of efforts to keep prisons safe during this period. These teams are working with the police to carry out the relevant risk assessments, including checks on domestic abuse and safeguarding issues.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will bring forward legislative proposals for the recognition of humanist marriages.
Answered by Wendy Morton
I refer the honourable member to the answer given to PQ 284741 on 9 September 2019.
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of personal independence payment appeals have been successful at Tribunal in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Information about the number and outcomes of Social Security and Child Support appeals by benefit type, including PIP, is published on gov.uk.
The most recent statistics, for the period October to December 2017 (which includes data from the previous three years), published on 8 March, can be viewed at:
Asked by: Matt Western (Labour - Warwick and Leamington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of the proposed changes to part-time judicial pensions.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Judicial Pensions (Fee-Paid Judges) Regulations (the 2017 Regulations) established the Fee-Paid Judicial Pension Scheme on 1 April 2017. We are proposing to amend the 2017 Regulations to clarify the periods for which specified judicial office holders are eligible to receive a pension.