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Written Question
Prisoners' Release: Foreign Nationals
Monday 4th May 2020

Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign national offenders who have been released from custody early on licence (with conditions) with no fixed abode have been relocated in the last 12 months.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

The Home Detention Curfew (HDC) scheme allows for the early release of offenders serving sentences of at least 12 weeks but no more than four years. Eligible prisoners can be released up to 135 days before their automatic release date but HDC is only permitted where the offender can provide a suitable, probation approved address to which they can be curfewed. Foreign National Offenders who have received a decision to deport are statutorily excluded from HDC, and those being considered for removal but whose decision is yet to be made are presumed unsuitable.

The End of Custody Temporary Release (ECTR) scheme allows for the release of low risk offenders who are within two months of their automatic release date. Foreign national offenders who are being removed from the UK and who have exhausted in-country rights of appeal against removal are statutorily excluded from ECTR.

No prisoner is released through the ECTR scheme is granted this unless suitable accommodation is identified first.


Written Question
Prisoners' Release: Foreign Nationals
Monday 4th May 2020

Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what criteria his Department uses to choose destinations for relocation of people released from custody early on licence (with conditions) with no fixed abode, and who are classified as foreign national offenders.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

The Home Detention Curfew (HDC) scheme allows for the early release of offenders serving sentences of at least 12 weeks but no more than four years. Eligible prisoners can be released up to 135 days before their automatic release date but HDC is only permitted where the offender can provide a suitable, probation approved address to which they can be curfewed. Foreign National Offenders who have received a decision to deport are statutorily excluded from HDC, and those being considered for removal but whose decision is yet to be made are presumed unsuitable.

The End of Custody Temporary Release (ECTR) scheme allows for the release of low risk offenders who are within two months of their automatic release date. Foreign national offenders who are being removed from the UK and who have exhausted in-country rights of appeal against removal are statutorily excluded from ECTR.

No prisoner is released through the ECTR scheme is granted this unless suitable accommodation is identified first.


Written Question
Prisoners' Release: Foreign Nationals
Monday 4th May 2020

Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how local authorities are (a) notified and (b) supported by his Department when foreign national offenders are released from custody early on licence (with conditions) with no fixed abode.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

The Home Detention Curfew (HDC) scheme allows for the early release of offenders serving sentences of at least 12 weeks but no more than four years. Eligible prisoners can be released up to 135 days before their automatic release date but HDC is only permitted where the offender can provide a suitable, probation approved address to which they can be curfewed. Foreign National Offenders who have received a decision to deport are statutorily excluded from HDC, and those being considered for removal but whose decision is yet to be made are presumed unsuitable.

The End of Custody Temporary Release (ECTR) scheme allows for the release of low risk offenders who are within two months of their automatic release date. Foreign national offenders who are being removed from the UK and who have exhausted in-country rights of appeal against removal are statutorily excluded from ECTR.

No prisoner is released through the ECTR scheme is granted this unless suitable accommodation is identified first.


Written Question
Judges: Training
Tuesday 10th October 2017

Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Attorney General's oral contribution of 27 October 2016, Official Report, column 410, whether he plans to review guidance given to judges on what they may say to juries with regard to admissibility of a complainant's sexual history.

Answered by Dominic Raab

The Attorney General and the previous Justice Secretary committed to look at how the law on the admissibility of complainants’ sexual history is operating in practice. MoJ keep all areas of criminal justice procedure under ongoing review.

Guidance with regard to admissibility of evidence is a matter that falls to the judiciary. Judicial training in England and Wales, is also the statutory responsibility of the Lord Chief Justice, and this is exercised through the Judicial College. Further advice to Crown Court judges on jury directions can be found in the Crown Court Compendium which is a Judicial College publication and is publicly available at https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/publications/crown-court-bench-book-directing-the-jury-2/

This includes advice on the directions a judge may give to a jury to counter the risk of stereotypes and assumptions about sexual behaviour and reactions to non-consensual sexual conduct.


Written Question
Trials
Thursday 24th November 2016

Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many trials were (a) effective, (b) cracked, (c) ineffective and (d) vacated in each year from 2010.

Answered by Oliver Heald

The data for each year from 2010 is included in Table C2 of the Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly publication, covering annual data from 2010 to 2015 and quarterly data up to Q2 2016: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2016


Written Question
Civil Proceedings
Monday 21st March 2016

Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of cases being dealt with by the courts which could be resolved through a form of Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Answered by Shailesh Vara

No estimate has been made of the number of the cases being dealt with by the courts which could be resolved through a form of Alternative Dispute Resolution.

The Government however fully supports, and encourages, alternative dispute resolution in a number of ways, including mediation, early conciliation, and other alternatives to court.


Written Question
European Convention on Human Rights
Wednesday 2nd December 2015

Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent representations he has received from (a) the Council of Europe, (b) the UN and (c) other international bodies on the UK's membership of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Answered by Dominic Raab

We have received no such formal representation. Ministry of Justice Ministers have met the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Jagland, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence de Greiff.


Written Question
Family Law
Monday 6th July 2015

Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many family law cases have cited the Human Rights Act 1998 since that Act came into effect.

Answered by Caroline Dinenage

Applications to the Family Court are made and recorded by reference to the relevant provision in family law. Details of how many family law cases specifically cited the Human Rights Act 1998 since it came into force could only be obtained by manually checking every case file at disproportionate cost.


Written Question
Employment Tribunals Service
Tuesday 30th June 2015

Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many contested employment tribunal cases there were in England and Wales in (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012, (d) 2013 and (e) 2014.

Answered by Shailesh Vara

The number of contested employment tribunal claims nationally is published by the Ministry of Justice as Official Statistics (quarterly and annually) on the GOV.UK website.

The most recent statistical publication (covering the period up to the end of March 2015) is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-and-gender-recognition-certificate-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2015