Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will have discussions with local authorities on the long-term effect of the speaking of Welsh of inter-library loan charges for Welsh language books.
Answered by Julia Lopez
Public libraries are funded and run by local authorities. It is for each local authority to determine operational matters such as its stock management policy, including participation in an inter-library loan service. This is a co-operative and voluntary agreement among libraries which allows books and other materials from one library to be loaned out to a user from another.
Library services providing an inter-library loan service can apply charges for all book titles requested for borrowing from other library services, and are not limited to Welsh language books.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what guidance his Department issues on the publication by local authorities of public notices; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to allow the publication of such notices online.
Answered by Simon Hoare
Statutory notices are an important means for ensuring that the public is kept informed of decisions by their council which may affect their quality of life, local services or amenities, or their property. The Government has no current plans to legislate on changing provisions on statutory notices.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring the refusal of applications for planning permission for solar farms in excess of 50 MW where financing has not been secured.
Answered by Lee Rowley
In deciding whether or not to grant an application for development consent for above 50MW electricity generation stations such as solar farms, the Energy Secretary of State must have regard under section 104 of the Planning Act 2008 to any relevant National Policy Statement where one has effect.
In addition to this, and also where decisions are taken where no National Policy Statement has effect, the Secretary of State must also have regard to any other matters which are both important and relevant to the decision which may, where compulsory acquisition powers are requested, include details of how the project in question is proposed to be funded.
Revised Energy National Policy Statements were designated on 24 January 2024.
Whilst I appreciate the point my Honourable Friend is making, the planning system upholds a long-standing principle of planning considerations being the lawful basis in making a determination.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to ensure that Agricultural Land Classifications cannot be amended to facilitate approval of solar farm planning applications.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Agricultural Land Classification system in England and Wales (ALC) was developed to support planning policy and protect high quality agricultural land from loss to development. Land is assessed according to the extent that its physical or chemical characteristics impose long term limitations on agricultural use, using the approved criteria. The assessment does not consider land use.
Instead, the National Planning Policy Framework sets out clearly that local planning authorities should consider all the benefits of the best and most versatile agricultural land, when making plans or taking decisions on new development proposals. Where significant development of agricultural land is shown to be necessary, planning authorities should seek to use poorer quality land in preference to that of a higher quality.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to publish his Department's response to the public consultation on National Highways' Strategic Road Network Initial Report for Road Investment Strategy 3.
Answered by Guy Opperman
We anticipate the Draft Road Investment Strategy will be published shortly alongside the summary of responses to our consultation on National Highways strategic road network Initial Report. I would like to thank you and your constituents for your contribution to the consultation in relation to improvements to the A1. I will ensure you are notified alongside other interested parties when the documents are published.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of HM Courts and Tribunals Service's (a) performance on probate issues and (b) speed at processing probate applications.
Answered by Mike Freer
The probate service received record levels of applications during 2022 and this has continued to grow with higher levels of receipts during January to June 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.
HMCTS has streamlined internal processes to cut down on administrative delay and reduce processing times. We are continuing to invest in improving digital systems and online filing capabilities so users can track progress more easily.
HMCTS has increased staffing levels in Probate over the past year to help process applications faster. The training and upskilling of those new and existing staff have led to applications taking longer in the short term.
HMCTS are focused on increasing outputs to reduce overall timeliness on all types of applications and the average mean length of time taken for a grant of probate, following receipt of the documents required, is 13 weeks during April to June 2023.
Average waiting times for probate grants are routinely published on gov.uk via Family Court Statistics Quarterly and currently cover the period up to June 2023.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made a comparative assessment of the time it takes for (a) sexual offences and (b) other criminal offences to reach trial.
Answered by Mike Freer
The data on the time taken from offence to completion for all cases is published by the Ministry of Justice on a quarterly basis. Timeliness data is available for sexual offences and other criminal offences at the link below in the ‘Crown Court timeliness tool’ and ‘End-to-end timeliness tool’: Criminal court statistics quarterly: July to September 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
We remain committed to reducing the Crown Court caseload and have invested a significant amount of extra money for the Criminal Justice System to help improve waiting times for victims of crime. We have introduced a raft of measures to achieve that aim, including opening extra courtrooms and funding over 100,000 sitting days last year, with plans to deliver the same again this year. We are investing £220 million for essential modernisation of our court buildings over the next two years as well as investing in judicial recruitment, so that we expect to recruit more than 1,000 judges across all jurisdictions by the end of 2023/2024.
We are working closely with the judiciary and other partners to improve the experience of court users. We have quadrupled funding for victims’ services so victims get the support they need throughout the process. Judges prioritise cases involving vulnerable complainants and witnesses, and seek to ensure that domestic abuse, serious sex cases and those with vulnerable witnesses are listed at the first available opportunity.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he (a) is taking and (b) plans to take to reduce the number of cases of sexual offences waiting to be heard in the crown court.
Answered by Mike Freer
We remain committed to reducing the Crown Court caseload and are working closely with the judiciary and other partners to improve the experience of court users. We have introduced a raft of measures to achieve that aim, including funding over 100,000 sitting days last year and planning to deliver the same again this year. We are investing £220 million for essential modernisation of our court buildings over the next two years as well as investing in judicial recruitment, so that we expect to recruit more than 1,000 judges by the end of 2023/2024.
We have invested a significant amount of extra money for the Criminal Justice System to help improve waiting times for victims of crime. We have opened extra courtrooms, and continued hearings, alongside quadrupling funding for victims’ services so victims get the support they need throughout the process. Judges prioritise cases involving vulnerable complainants and witnesses, and seek to ensure that domestic abuse, serious sex cases and those with vulnerable witnesses are listed at the first available opportunity.
In June 2022, we announced our Specialist Sexual Violence Support (SSVS) project in three Crown Courts, to improve the support on offer in court for victims of rape and improve timeliness of cases going through the system. This includes trauma-informed training for all staff at courts who come into contact with victims, improved facilities and technology, and at least one Case Coordinator at each court.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the use of immigration detention for vulnerable women.
Answered by Laura Farris
Under Home Office detention policy, people will only be detained for a reasonable period.
The dignity and welfare of detained individuals is of the utmost importance and we have policies and procedures in place to safeguard vulnerable people.
Where detention is necessary, we take into account any vulnerability concerns, and ensure that appropriate support is provided.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North Bedfordshire)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, with reference to the Answers of 25 October 2023 to Question 203472 on Hare Coursing: Convictions and Prosecutions and 28 February 2018 to Question 129098 on Hare Coursing: Prosecutions, when the Crown Prosecution Service ceased maintaining a central record of the number of prosecutions for offences of hare coursing; and for what reason.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has never maintained a central record of the number of prosecutions specifically for offences of hare coursing and only holds data on the number of offences prosecuted under the Game Act 1831, the Night Poaching Act 1828 and the Hunting Act 2004, which all encompass hare coursing.
The CPS does not collect data that constitutes official statistics as defined in the Statistics and Registration Act 2007.
While the CPS does not centrally collate data showing the number of prosecutions involving hare coursing, management information data is available which shows the number of offences charged by way of the Game Act 1831, the Night Poaching Act 1928 and the Hunting Act 2004, in which a prosecution commenced. The table below shows the number of these offences recorded during each of the last three years.
| Financial Year 2020-2021 | Financial Year 2021-2022 | Financial Year 2022-2023 |
Game Act 1831 | 53 | 121 | 67 |
Hunting Act 2004 | 28 | 86 | 82 |
Night Poaching Act 1828 | 21 | 28 | 40 |
Data Source: CPS Case Management System
It should be noted that the figures relate to the number of offences and not the number of individual defendants. It may be the case that an individual defendant is charged with more than one offence. No data are held on the final outcome or if the charged offence was the substantive charge at finalisation.
The official statistics relating to crime and policing are maintained by the Home Office and the official statistics relating to sentencing, criminal court proceedings, offenders brought to justice, the courts and the judiciary are maintained by the Ministry of Justice.