Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he is taking steps to reduce the cost of crown court transcripts for victims of serious crime.
Answered by Mike Freer
The Ministry of Justice and HM Courts and Tribunals Service continue to seek ways to reduce the fees that victims are required to pay to obtain transcripts in criminal proceedings. In particular, we will explore how technology can be used to reduce the costs of transcription, with a view to passing on the savings to parties.
Victims can apply to the court for permission to listen to the audio recording of the hearing at a suitable court location, free of charge and at judicial discretion. In certain serious criminal cases, a copy of the Sentencing Remarks may be made available to the public free of charge at the judge’s discretion
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the length of waiting lists for counselling for victims of sexual violence.
Answered by Edward Argar
The NHS Long Term Plan commits this Government to investing at least £2.3 billion of extra funding a year to expanding and transforming mental health services by March 2024. This will enable an extra two million people, including victims of sexual violence, to be treated by NHS mental health services. In February 2022, NHS England also published the outcomes of its consultation on the potential to introduce five new access and waiting time standards for mental health services. Which will enable victims of sexual violence to be referred sooner. These give new access and waiting time standards are:
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been convicted of the offence of illegal working since that offence was introduced under the 2016 Immigration Act.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of convictions between 2017 and 2021 in the Outcomes by Offence data tool: December 2021.
Information on the number of people convicted prior to 2017 can be found in the Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code data tool, however, there are no convictions for illegal working in this period.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what support his Department is providing to LGBTQ+ young people aged 16-25 who have been victims of (a) hate crime, (b) serious violence or (c) malicious communications in the last 12 months.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Government funds services for all victims of crime, regardless of the crime type, when it happened, or whether it has been reported to the police. The Ministry of Justice provides funding for victim support services both at a national and local level. Local funding is routed through Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) who commission services in their local area based on an assessment of need. This includes providing tailored services for victims with protected characteristics. Whilst we collect voluntary demographic data on the victims these services support, such as age, ethnicity, and sexuality, we do not hold data to the level of granularity requested.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many child victims of sexual abuse reached the age of 18 before there case was heard; and how many of those people were then cross examined in each year from 2016.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The age of victims throughout the progression of a case through the Criminal Justice System and the number that were cross examined is not held centrally.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the court backlog is for child sexual abuse cases.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
At the end of June 2021 (latest available data) there were 4,614 outstanding child sexual abuse cases in the Crown Court and 572 in the Magistrates’ Court in England and Wales.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to increase the availability of legal aid assistance in mediation cases.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
Whilst the Government has no current plans to extend legal aid for mediation cases, The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has launched a voucher scheme which will provide a contribution of up to £500 towards the mediation costs for eligible cases, supporting people in resolving their family law disputes outside of court, where appropriate.
The early data we have on outcomes shows the scheme has been positively received and is achieving its purpose of assisting families to mediate their issues. We will continue to monitor the take up of the scheme and look closely at the data we collect. This will help shape future initiatives in this space.
As a result of the success of the scheme so far, we will be extending the scheme until the end of the year.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans his Department has for the future of legal aid funding for housing cases.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
MoJ continues to consider the long-term sustainability of civil legal aid, recognising that we need to take a whole system approach. The department has also been engaging with representative bodies and providers within the sector to increase our understanding of the challenges providers currently face. Housing is a key focus of this work and we will shortly be publishing a consultation on proposals for the future of the Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme (HPCDS).
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to increase the availability of legal aid providers in (a) Nottingham East constituency and (b) the UK.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
The Government is taking steps to review the long-term sustainability of the Criminal Legal Aid market across England and Wales. Last year, following phase one of this review, we injected up to £51m per annum into Criminal Legal Aid, in areas of work that practitioners told us mattered the most. This year we launched the second phase, an independent review, led by Sir Christopher Bellamy QC, that will consider the sustainability of the whole Criminal Legal Aid system so that it can meet demand now and into the future, provide an effective and efficient service that ensures value for money for the taxpayer and provide defendants with high-quality advice from a diverse range of practitioners. Sir Christopher will submit his recommendations to the Lord Chancellor later this year.
In addition, MoJ continues to consider the long-term sustainability of civil legal aid, recognising that we need to take a whole system approach. The department has also been engaging with representative bodies and providers within the sector to increase our understanding of the challenges providers currently face.
The Legal Aid Agency continue to keep legal aid provision under constant review, ensuring access across England and Wales and taking immediate action whenever this could be threatened. Additionally, the LAA continues to monitor the state of the market to ensure access to justice is maintained.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of judges available for criminal trials.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
The timely delivery of justice is a priority for the government. The department is working closely with the judiciary to ensure we have the capacity required to maximise the number of court hearings taking place this year and to minimise disruption to cases listed for hearings. We allocated over a quarter of a billion pounds on recovery last financial year, making court buildings safe, rolling out new technology for remote hearings, recruiting additional staff and opening Nightingale courtrooms. We are now focused both on increasing capacity and maximising use of that which we already have. There is no limit on the number of days Crown Courts can sit this financial year and we are supporting temporary changes to court operating hours.
Judicial capacity is being boosted through a programme to recruit up to 1100 judges this year. When there is a business need, in any jurisdiction, the Lord Chancellor and Lord Chief Justice can approve extensions of relevant judges’ appointments past their mandatory retirement age and approve retired salaried judges to sit in retirement on an ad-hoc basis. Significant action is also being taken every day by both individual court and Regional Judicial Secretariats to ensure judges are available for all hearings. Every effort is made to contact judges to ensure a case can proceed, from contacting individual judges directly to request cover, to assessing whether other nearby courts can assist.