Asked by: Meg Hillier (Labour (Co-op) - Hackney South and Shoreditch)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has had recent discussions with representatives of local authorities in north London on agreeing a new jury venue to help clear the backlog in jury inquests.
Answered by Mike Freer
The Chief Coroner is engaging with the local coroner service and Camden Council, as lead local authority for the Inner North London coroner area, on the issue of accommodation for jury inquests.
More generally, the Chief Coroner continues to monitor carefully the national position on inquest backlogs, and has issued guidance to coroners on developing Covid-19 recovery plans. He is currently undertaking a tour of all coroner areas in England and Wales to better understand local needs.
The Government recognises that pandemic pressures have affected the ability to hold jury and other large and complex inquests. We have provided £6.15 billion in grant funding to local authorities in England to support the cost of pandemic pressures, which could include additional costs incurred in the administration of coroner services. Additional funding has also been allocated to the Devolved Administrations under the Barnett Formula.
Asked by: Meg Hillier (Labour (Co-op) - Hackney South and Shoreditch)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of convictions are were there for violent offences committed against the person (i) on retail premises and (ii) against retail workers in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on prosecutions and convictions in England and Wales. This data does not identify the specific context or location of offences, i.e. whether that offence has been carried out on a shop worker or on retail premises.
Asked by: Meg Hillier (Labour (Co-op) - Hackney South and Shoreditch)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what target his Department has set for the length of time between an appeal being lodged with the Immigration and Asylum Tribunal and the hearing date.
Answered by Dominic Raab
The information requested is not held centrally. Work is ongoing to reduce delays in immigration tribunals.
Asked by: Meg Hillier (Labour (Co-op) - Hackney South and Shoreditch)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of appeals lodged with the Immigration and Asylum Tribunal met the target time for a hearing date between 31 July 2016 to 31 July 2017.
Answered by Dominic Raab
The information requested is not held centrally. Work is ongoing to reduce delays in the immigration tribunals.
Asked by: Meg Hillier (Labour (Co-op) - Hackney South and Shoreditch)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the target time is for the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority to assess a claim.
Answered by Phillip Lee
CICA has a target for 2017/18 to decide 85% of new cases within 12 months of receipt. It is recognised there will always be complex cases which need to take longer, for example if the applicant’s medical treatment is ongoing or their level of recovery is not yet known.
Asked by: Meg Hillier (Labour (Co-op) - Hackney South and Shoreditch)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average time period is between the submission of an appeal to the First-tier Tribunal and the hearing date.
Answered by Oliver Heald
HM Courts & Tribunals Service does not hold this information centrally for First-tier Tribunals as a whole and this information could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Meg Hillier (Labour (Co-op) - Hackney South and Shoreditch)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking in conjunction with HM Courts and Tribunals Service to reduce the length of time taken to grant hearing dates for accepted immigration appeals.
Answered by Oliver Heald
We do everything we can to avoid unnecessary delay in the Immigration & Asylum Tribunal and we have provided an additional 4,950 tribunal sitting days for this financial year to ensure current case loads do not increase. We are keeping performance under close review and are confident there is sufficient capacity to deal with the number of appeals we expect to receive.
Asked by: Meg Hillier (Labour (Co-op) - Hackney South and Shoreditch)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) and (b) Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) hearing centres have closed in (i) London and (ii) the UK in the last five years.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
No First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) or Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) hearing centres in London, or the UK, have closed within the last five years.
Asked by: Meg Hillier (Labour (Co-op) - Hackney South and Shoreditch)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) and (b) Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) hearing centres are projected to close in (i) London and (ii) the UK in the next five years.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
There are currently no plans to close any First-tier Tribunal or Upper Tribunal Immigration and Asylum hearing centres.
Asked by: Meg Hillier (Labour (Co-op) - Hackney South and Shoreditch)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the appropriateness of the time taken to secure appeal hearings at the First-tier Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
The most recently published average time for appeals to be disposed of by the First-tier Tribunal is 30 weeks between April and June 2015. This compares to an average of 29 weeks in 2014/15. HM Courts & Tribunals Service remains confident that it continues to have the capacity to deal with the volume of appeals it expects to receive. We are preparing to put additional court time in place to make sure waiting times do not increase.