Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many criminal barristers there were in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The legal services sector in England and Wales is independent of government. The Ministry of Justice does not currently hold this information. As part of the Criminal Legal Aid Review we have been working closely with the Legal Aid Agency, Bar Council and the Crown Prosecution Service to bring together a dataset on publicly funded criminal barristers. We intend to publish the results of this analysis during the next phase of the review.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when the appointment of the Chair of the Criminal Legal Aid Review Part 2 is planned to be announced.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
We are working closely with stakeholders including the criminal defence representative bodies to ensure that the Independent Review is set up as quickly as possible and that we appoint the right chair and advisory panel so that the review can deliver a robust, evidence-based assessment of the criminal legal aid market.
This means ensuring that the chair of the review has the right skillset, expertise and experience. At present, we are working to identify and appoint the right candidate for the role and will say more in due course.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when the Criminal Legal Aid Review Part 2 terms of reference are planned to be published.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
We are working to ensure that the next phase of the criminal legal aid review, the Independent Review, is set up as quickly as possible. We are currently developing the Terms of Reference in coordination with stakeholders, including criminal defence practitioner representative bodies, and will publish these when the Independent Review is launched.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the timeframe is for the conclusion of the Criminal Legal Aid Review Part 2.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
We are working to ensure that the next phase of the Criminal Legal Aid Review is set up as quickly as possible and are planning for the Independent Review to conclude in 2021. However, this timeframe will be subject to the agreement of the Chair, once appointed. We will seek to confirm the timeframe at the launch of the Independent Review.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many animal cruelty (a) offences and (b) convictions there have been in Kent in each year since 2010.
Answered by Phillip Lee
The number of offenders found guilty of offences under Sections 4 to 8 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006, in the Kent Police Force area, from 2010 to 2017, can be viewed in the attached table.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 11 November 2016 to Question 51837, what steps her Department plans to take to reduce the difference between Gypsy, Romany or Traveller understanding of written English in young offender institutions and that of other young males.
Answered by Phillip Lee
The learning programmes and the Curriculum in Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) are built on a foundation of literacy and numeracy in line with expectations set out in the National Curriculum.
In March last year we introduced new education contracts in all public-sector YOIs, which significantly increased the amount of education provision available to young people.
All children on arrival go through a comprehensive assessment of their education needs, building on any available information from their time in the community. These assessments shape their education programme, if they identify significant literacy issues these will be targeted.
The Youth Justice Board (YJB) and HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) publish an annual report on ‘Children in Custody’ that monitors gypsy, traveller and Romany (GRT) children in YOIs and secure training centres (STCs). There is also a direct measure within the education contract which reports on the progress young people make, which is an analysis of the performance and achievement of minority groups against the performance and achievement of wider YOI population. We recognise the importance of improving the literacy of young offenders and will monitor the findings of the latest ‘Children in Custody’ report for 2015-16, including how it relates to GRT children and their ability to understand written English.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 26 October 2016 to Question 49053, whether the Youth Justice Board has raised the issue of updating its ethnicity data collection system to include Gypsy and Traveller categories with her in the last 12 months.
Answered by Phillip Lee
The Youth Justice Board supports a consistent approach to recording the numbers of children and young people from minority groups across the youth justice system. To this end, the YJB are reviewing how they and their partners can update their ethnicity data collection to identify young people from a Gypsy, Romany and Traveller background.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate she has made of literacy levels among gypsy and traveller children in secure training centres and young offender institutions.
Answered by Phillip Lee
Information on literacy levels in the youth secure estate is not held centrally. The YJB and HMIP 'Children in Custody 2014-15’ report, published in December 2015, presents results of surveys completed in under-18 YOIs by young males aged 15 to 17 years that self-identified as Gypsy, Romany, or Traveller compared to young people did not report that they belonged to this ethnic group. The results for 2014/15 were as follows:
Under-18 YOIs (2014/15) | Gypsy, Romany or Traveller males aged 15-17 years (sample size = 42) | Other young males aged 15-17 years (sample size = 510) |
Do you understand spoken English? | 98% | 99% |
Do you understand written English? | 92% | 99% |
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress her Department has made on implementing the recommendation of the findings paper of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons, People in prisons: Gypsies, Romany and Travellers, published in February 2014, on recording the number of young people of Gypsy, Traveller and Roma background in secure training centres.
Answered by Phillip Lee
The Youth Justice Board currently records the ethnicity of young people in Secure Training Centres (STC) using the 2001 Census categories.
The Youth Justice Board commissions HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) to carry out an annual survey, ‘Children in Custody’, to monitor Gypsy, Romany and Traveller children in youth offenders’ institutions (YOIs) and secure training centres (STCs).
The YJB keep their data collection systems, including on ethnicity, under regular review.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Gypsy, Traveller and Roma young people were held in (a) secure training centres, (b) secure children's homes and (c) young offenders' institutions in the most recent year for which figures are available.
Answered by Phillip Lee
The Youth Justice Board (YJB) and HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) publish an annual report on ‘Children in Custody’ that monitors the number of gypsy, traveller and Romany (GRT) children in youth offenders’ institutions (YOIs) and secure training centres (STCs). The reports are available on the HMIP website.
The survey does not cover young people in Secure Children’s Homes (SCH). This is because Ofsted are responsible for inspecting SCHs, not HMIP.