Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Oliver Heald and Bridget Phillipson

Tuesday 1st November 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Courts and Justice (Sir Oliver Heald)]

Our armed forces make huge sacrifices, and plainly no current or former serving member should face unwarranted investigation. However, where there are credible serious allegations of criminal behaviour, they must be investigated; I think that everyone in the military world understands that. It is important to make rapid progress with the Iraq Historic Allegation Team’s caseload. The team expects the caseload to have reduced from the original 3,300 cases to about 250 by early January.

[Bridget Phillipson (Houghton and Sunderland South) (Lab)]

Plans to rebuild Sunderland’s courts complex have been on hold since 2010. Despite raising this issue on numerous occasions with the Courts and Justice Minister’s predecessors, we still have not had a decision. Will the current Minister meet me and my hon. Friend the Member for Sunderland Central (Julie Elliott) as a matter of priority to see whether we can make any progress?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Oliver Heald and Bridget Phillipson

Tuesday 8th July 2014 Commons Chamber

[Bridget Phillipson (Houghton and Sunderland South) (Lab)]

4. What steps he plans to take to ensure that child abuse offences are prosecuted successfully.

[The Solicitor-General (Oliver Heald)]

The Crown Prosecution Service prosecutes child abuse cases robustly. In 2013-14, the number of such prosecutions rose by 440 to 7,998, with a conviction rate of 76.2%. Steps to prosecute the cases include piloting pre-recorded cross-examination of children, prioritising cases involving children aged 10 and under, and applying a new approach to child sexual abuse cases generally.

[Bridget Phillipson]

I am grateful for that answer. The Director of Public Prosecutions recently announced a series of measures regarding cases of rape because of the decline in referrals from the police to the CPS. Will such measures be considered in cases of child sex abuse, given that there has been a decline in referrals of such cases from the police to the CPS since 2010-11?

[The Solicitor-General]

The emerging evidence is that the referrals are beginning to increase, which is good news. However, there are new guidelines, issued last October, for child sex abuse cases, which provide that there should be specialist prosecutors; a focus on the allegation, not the victim: early third-party material; and a challenging of myths and stereotypes.