Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Michael Ellis and Sally-Ann Hart

Thursday 13th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Michael Ellis]

Procurement or otherwise, I am proud of our civil service, and I hope that the hon. Lady is, too. She criticises the civil service and makes a class warfare-type assertion about it—I do not accept that. This country, under this Government, is levelling up. We are levelling up across the country and making reforms in all our mechanisms of government, including in the national health service, housing, the economy and transport, and we are doing it in the civil service, too.

[Sally-Ann Hart (Hastings and Rye) (Con)]

6. What steps he is taking to help strengthen the UK’s resilience against cyber-attacks.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Michael Ellis and Sally-Ann Hart

Thursday 20th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[Sally-Ann Hart (Hastings and Rye) (Con)]

What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Crown Prosecution Service’s contribution to the criminal justice system’s covid-19 recovery.

[The Attorney General (Michael Ellis)]

I am pleased that inspections in both June 2020 and March 2021 found that the CPS responded well to the challenges caused by covid-19. Those inspections were by Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service inspectorate. The CPS has made a significant contribution to supporting the criminal justice system during an exceptionally difficult time, working closely with partners. I am proud of prosecutors and staff who have continued to deliver their essential services, both virtually and in person where necessary, throughout the pandemic.

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[The Attorney General]

As the hon. Lady may know, a rape review is due to be published soon. Together with the police, the Crown Prosecution Service introduced an interim charging protocol in April 2020 to prioritise the most important cases, to which she is referring, through the criminal justice system. Those are high-harm cases, including rape and domestic abuse. I am proud of the CPS’s response. I am sure she recognises that the exigencies of the pandemic have affected backlogs to a significant extent in many areas of public and private life, but a huge amount is being done to ameliorate that backlog. Particular priority is being given to the sorts of cases to which she is referring.

[Sally-Ann Hart]

What learning will the CPS take forward from its pandemic response to increase resilience in the future?

[The Attorney General]

One of the things that we will be looking at is the cloud video platform. The CPSI report published recently recognised the flexibility and adaptability of the CPS in responding to the pandemic. The cloud video platform was enabling around 20,000 virtual hearings a week, and post pandemic I am sure we will be looking at that among many other things.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Michael Ellis and Sally-Ann Hart

Thursday 16th January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Sally-Ann Hart (Hastings and Rye) (Con)]

8. What steps the CPS is taking to improve the prosecution rate for hate crimes.

[The Solicitor General (Michael Ellis)]

The CPS is committed to tackling hate crime, working closely with partners across government under the hate crime action plan. The CPS has trained its prosecutors, drawing on expertise and insight from key community groups, and has established national and local scrutiny panels to inform decision making. As a result, last year the number of convictions for hate crimes with a recorded sentence uplift increased to 73.6%, the highest rate yet.

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[Sally-Ann Hart]

I thank my right hon. and learned Friend for his response. The internet has hugely positive values, but it can allow the spread of hate crime behind a veil of anonymity. What steps is his Department taking to ensure that crime online attracts and is subject to the same penalties in law as offline crime?

[The Solicitor General]

The proportion of hate crime convictions with an announced and recorded sentence uplift has increased from just 12.1% in 2014 to 73.6% now. My hon. Friend is right about online instances of hate crime, and the hate crime conviction rate has also increased in the past decade significantly. It now stands at 84%, but we are continuing to work on dealing with the issue of hate crime online.