Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of current provisions to support people serving a custodial sentences who are experiencing gambling harms.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
HM Prison and Probation Service delivers a broad range of interventions to address individuals’ criminogenic risks and needs, including accredited offending behaviour programmes.
Support for prisoners who are experiencing gambling harms is provided by the NHS. We are working with the NHS to ensure that any gambling intervention provision it commissions is evaluated, and that people in the criminal justice system with associated harms are taken into account and have parity of access to support.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the cost to the public purse has been of providing legal advice to immigrants seeking asylum in each of the last five years.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Legal aid is available to fund legal advice and representation provided to individuals seeking asylum in England and Wales, subject to an assessment of merits and financial eligibility. The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) publishes information regarding legal aid expenditure as part of its official statistics on a quarterly basis, including the cost of legal aid provided in respect of asylum matters funded as Controlled Work. The information requested can be found at column G of table 5.3. Controlled Work covers the provision of legal advice regarding asylum matters and representation before the First Tier (Immigration and Asylum) Tribunal.
The LAA also publishes information about the cost of Legal Representation pertaining to immigration and asylum matters (see tables 6.5 and 6.7). However, due to the way in which this information is recorded on LAA systems, expenditure specifically in relation to asylum cases could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make it her policy to publish a victim’s charter.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
In England and Wales, we have the Victims’ Code rather than a Victim Charter. The Victims’ Code sets out the services and minimum standard for these services that must be provided to victims of crime by service providers. It first came into force in 2005 following the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004, and has been updated several times since then, most recently in April 2021.
The Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 requires a new Victims’ Code to be issued, which we will consult on this year as part of our commitment to ensure that victims of crime have the information and support they need.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of section 156 (2) of the Police, Crime Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 on levels of attacks on workers undertaking public-facing roles.
Answered by Laura Farris
Section 156 (2) of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 introduced a new statutory aggravating factor for certain assault offences where they are committed against a person providing a public service, performing a public duty, or providing services to the public. The Government introduced this to ensure that the public-facing nature of a victim's role would be considered, allowing the court to give a longer sentence within the statutory maximum for the offence.
The Ministry of Justice does not collect or publish data on the use of aggravating factors. Currently, there is no specific offence for an attack against a worker undertaking a public-facing role. As assault of a worker in a public-facing role is not a specific offence, we are unable to assess the trends relating to assaults on public-facing workers specifically.
The Government recognises the seriousness of assaults on workers undertaking public-facing roles and is clear that we must adopt a zero-tolerance approach to assault against those who serve the public. This is why in April 2024, the Government published ‘Fighting Retail Crime: more action’, within which the Government announced plans to introduce a new offence of assault against a shop worker, building on the operational policing commitments in the police-led Retail Crime Action Plan published in October 2023.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to enable litigants who win First Tier Tribunal cases to recover costs.
Answered by Mike Freer
The tribunals of the unified tribunal system are designed to be an informal, accessible and low cost means of resolving disputes, in which legal representation is not needed. For this reason, costs are not generally recoverable between the parties in proceedings before the First-tier Tribunal.
Procedure rules for some chambers of the First-tier Tribunal do provide for costs to be awarded in certain circumstances, for example where a party has conducted the litigation unreasonably.
We have no plans to change the rules so that costs can be awarded routinely in proceedings in the First-tier Tribunal.