Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what public consultation his Department has undertaken on planned changes to jury trials.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
In developing his recommendations, Sir Brian Leveson and his expert advisers, including Professor David Ormerod, consulted with many external bodies involved in the Criminal Justice System including criminal legal organisations, charities, academics, and members of the judiciary.
The Review conducted a call for evidence on GOV.UK, to ensure it heard as many perspectives as possible. A full list of those who engaged with the Review is at Annex C of Sir Brian’s report.
In addition, when considering Sir Brian’s recommendations and developing our proposals, I have engaged regularly with stakeholders and relevant sectors over the last 12 months including meeting regularly representatives from the legal sector (Law Society, Bar Council, Criminal Bar Association), victims and victims representatives (the Victims Commissioner, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, Rape Crisis), judiciary (Circuit leaders, Judicial leadership), magistracy (Magistrates’ Association, Magistrates’ Leadership Executive), non-governmental organisations (Appeal, JUSTICE, Transform Justice), court staff in criminal courts around the country (Wood Green, Snaresbrook) and similar international jurisdictions. For example, I met judges and visited courts in Canada, which uses types of judge-only trial.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department plans to review the sentencing guidelines for animal abuse.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Sentencing guidelines are developed and reviewed by the Sentencing Council for England and Wales, in fulfilment of its statutory duty to do so.
In July 2023, the Council issued guidelines on animal cruelty, which provide the Court with guidance on factors that should be considered, which may affect the sentence given. They set out different levels of sentence based on the harm caused and how culpable the offender is. This is available on its website at: https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/crown-court/item/animal-cruelty/.
Whilst the Government has no current plans to ask the Council to consider reviewing the animal cruelty guidelines, it is open to individuals to approach the Council to ask that it does so.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what was the total cost to the public purse of quasi-autonomous non governmental organisations sponsored by her Department for (a) the financial years (i) 2023/24 and (ii) 2024/25 and (b) April 2025 to date.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice currently has seven Non-Departmental Public Bodies which have a vital role in the process of national government but are not part of a government department. Their combined expenditure was £303,943 million in the 2023/24 financial year, £318,032 million in 2024/25, and £56.130 million from April – June 2025.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she plans to review the Sentencing Council's remit on young offenders convicted of (a) murder and (b) manslaughter.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
The Government has no current plans to ask the Council to consider reviewing the guidelines in relation to this cohort.
The law is clear that those who commit murder as children must receive a life sentence. There is no mandatory sentence for a child convicted of manslaughter, but the court may impose a life sentence, depending on the circumstances of the case.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she plans to review the governance of the Sentencing Council.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
The Lord Chancellor is currently undertaking a review of the Sentencing Council’s role and powers and has indicated that she will introduce reforms in future legislation, if considered necessary
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of HM Prison and Probation Service in Leicestershire.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
We publish performance ratings regularly of the prison and probation service Leicestershire, which can be found at the following links: Prison Performance Ratings: 2023 to 2024 - GOV.UK and Community Performance Annual, update to March 2024 - GOV.UK.
This Government inherited prisons on the point of collapse and is taking action to ensure we never again run out of prison places.
The previous Government left the probation service under real strain with current caseloads far too high. We are hiring 1,300 trainee probation officers by March 2026 in addition to the 1,050 already appointed last year. We are also investing in new technology to lift the administrative burden on probation officers so they can focus on what they do best – managing and rehabilitating offenders.
Probation funding will increase by up to £700 million by the final year of the spending review – a 45% increase in the next three years. We will deliver thousands more tags, more staff, and more accommodation to ensure that offenders are tracked and monitored closely in the community.
The Probation Service in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland was recently inspected by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP). The report of the inspection can be found at the following link: An inspection of probation services in: Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland PDU.
Following the inspection, a revised Quality Improvement Plan has been drawn up, which takes account of HMIP’s recommendations. A development day has also been organised, with a focus on quality and management oversight, to ensure that all staff receive the training they need to carry out their demanding roles.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many permanent civil servants in her Department had their contract of employment terminated as a result of poor performance in the (a) 2022-23, (b) 2023-24 and (c) 2024-25 financial years.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Department’s HR system shows the total number of permanent Civil Servants leaving the Ministry of Justice recorded as ‘Dismissal – Unsatisfactory Work Performance’, as 18 in the financial year 2022-2023, 27 in year 2023-2024, and 31 in year 2024-2025.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she plans to review sentencing for (a) careless driving that leads to (i) serious injury and (ii) death and (b) other driving offences.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
Safety on our roads is an absolute priority for this Government. That is why the Department for Transport is committed to delivering a new Road Safety Strategy – the first in over a decade. They will set out next steps on this in due course.
Provisions in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 increased the maximum penalty from 14 years’ imprisonment to life for the offences of causing death by careless driving when under the influence of drink or drugs, and causing death by dangerous driving. These measures came into force on 28 June 2022 and apply to offences committed on or after that date.
The Sentencing Council has reflected these changes in the sentencing guidelines and the starting point for cases falling into the highest level of seriousness is now 12 years’ imprisonment, a significant increase from the previous 8 years’ starting point. The sentence range for the most serious instances is now 8 to 18 years’ imprisonment.
Although the starting points and sentence ranges for this offence have increased, the courts still retain the discretion to impose a life sentence where the seriousness of the offence is such that they consider it more appropriate and proportionate.
We continue to work alongside the Department for Transport to ensure sentencing law for driving offences is appropriate.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of Money Claim Online in delivering civil remedies for small claims legal disputes.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Money Claim Online (MCOL) has provided claimants with an electronic means by which to make money claims online since 2002. Including claims made by bulk users, the system handles over 1 million claims per annum.
As part of HMCTS Reform programme, HMCTS has created a new digital service – Online Civil Money Claims (OCMC) – which enables users to issue, respond to and manage a claim digitally, including the ability to settle a claim without court intervention and uploading evidence for hearings. OCMC has been available since 2018 and handles around 120,000 claims per year. The OCMC service was recently evaluated with the findings published and available on the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/case-studies/modern-justice-for-all-our-online-civil-money-claims-reformed-service-helps-more-people-settle-disputes-away-from-the-courtroom.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the availability of District Judges in hearing civil litigation cases.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
I refer the honourable Member to the Department’s evidence to the Justice Select Committee into the work of the County Court, which explained the current capacity for civil cases: Work of the County Court - Committees - UK Parliament.