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Written Question
Cohabitation: Legislation
Wednesday 24th January 2024

Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has plans to review or reform legislation on the rights of cohabitating partners.

Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

It is important that people are aware of the legal distinctions between getting married, forming a civil partnership and living together as cohabitants. The Government has already taken steps in this area. The Department for Education’s statutory guidance on relationships education includes the need for schools to ensure that pupils are aware of what marriage is, including its legal status and the legal status of other types of long-term relationship. The Government is also reviewing the information currently available to the public on the legal rights afforded to spouses, civil partners, and cohabiting couples.

The Government considers that existing work underway on the law of marriage and divorce, which are directly relevant to issues concerning cohabitants, must conclude before considering any change to the law in respect of the rights of cohabitants on relationship breakdown.


Written Question
Marriage
Wednesday 24th January 2024

Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the Government is taking steps to raise awareness of the legal distinctions between (a) marriage, (b) civil partnership and (c) cohabiting.

Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

It is important that people are aware of the legal distinctions between getting married, forming a civil partnership and living together as cohabitants. The Government has already taken steps in this area. The Department for Education’s statutory guidance on relationships education includes the need for schools to ensure that pupils are aware of what marriage is, including its legal status and the legal status of other types of long-term relationship. The Government is also reviewing the information currently available to the public on the legal rights afforded to spouses, civil partners, and cohabiting couples.

The Government considers that existing work underway on the law of marriage and divorce, which are directly relevant to issues concerning cohabitants, must conclude before considering any change to the law in respect of the rights of cohabitants on relationship breakdown.


Written Question
Family Proceedings: Dispute Resolution
Wednesday 24th January 2024

Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of family disputes resolved outside of court in instances where it is safe and appropriate to do so.

Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Government is committed to helping more parents resolve their issues earlier and without coming to court, where this is safe and appropriate.

In March 2021, the Government launched the Mediation Voucher Scheme to help families to access mediation and resolve their issues away from the family court. As of 18 January 2024, 24,379 vouchers have been issued and we are now investing up to £23.6m in the scheme, which we expect to see continue to March 2025.

In March 2023, the Government published a consultation asking for views on proposals to support families to reach agreements earlier and without court involvement, where appropriate to do so. The Government response to this consultation, setting out our plans for reform in this area, will be published imminently.


Written Question
Victims: Criminal Proceedings
Tuesday 27th June 2023

Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the treatment of victims in the criminal justice system.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Victims Funding Strategy was published in May 2022. It set out a framework which will improve the way we fund victim support services across government, seeking to better align and co-ordinate funding to enable victims to receive the support they need.

In 2018 we published the first ever cross-government Victims Strategy. This clarified the specific support victims can expect, beginning immediately after a crime and ending long after court proceedings.

It also committed to first consult on a revised Victims’ Code before bringing forward proposals for a Victims Law, including strengthening compliance with the Code.

A new Victims’ Code was published in 2021. The Code was restructured into 12 key entitlements in a way which is clear, concise and easy to understand, outlining the minimum levels of service victims can expect at each stage of the criminal justice process.

Additional entitlements for victims in the Code include increased communication between victims and the CPS and promoting the use of Community Impact Statements.

On 29 March, we introduced the Victims and Prisoners Bill to Parliament, to improve victims' experiences of the criminal justice system, strengthen the parole system to ensure that the public and victims are better protected, and prohibit whole life prisoners from marrying or forming civil partnerships to drive up confidence in the justice system.

These changes for victims have been accompanied by a greater investment in victims’ services. We are more than quadrupling funding for victim and witness support services by 2024/25, up from £41 million in 2009/10.


Written Question
Probate Service: Standards
Monday 19th December 2022

Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department is taking steps to help reduce the time it takes for the Probate Office to respond to applications.

Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

Despite the unprecedented challenges faced by the probate service during the Covid 19 pandemic, and the increased volume of applications that there have been seen since, the average length of time taken for a grant of probate following receipt of the documents required has been maintained at between five and seven weeks – with the average responses being almost 2 weeks faster in quarter 3 of 2022 than the yearly average for 2020 and 2021.

Average waiting times for probate grants, up to September 2022, are published on gov.uk via Family Court Statistics Quarterly (Table 25): https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2022

HMCTS has increased resources to meet the higher demand following an increased number of estates requiring probate and is further increasing resourcing to further bring down overall timeliness on digital and paper applications.

The improvement of the online probate system remains a priority for HMCTS, to ensure more applications can be issued first time and resources can be focused on reducing waiting times.


Written Question
Probate
Monday 19th December 2022

Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of probate applications submitted in the last 12 months were processed and received a response within 30 working days.

Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

All applicants using the digital service receive confirmation of receipt at the point of submission and, if required, once we receive the original will or other supporting documents. In the last 12 months 56% (158,510) of all applications were either stopped or had their grant issued within 30 days of receipt of the documents needed to assess the case.

HMCTS has increased resources to meet the higher demand following an increased number of estates requiring probate and is further increasing resourcing to further bring down overall timeliness on digital and paper applications.

The improvement of the online probate system remains a priority for HMCTS, to ensure more applications can be issued first time and resources can be focused on reducing waiting times.


Written Question
Divorce: Children
Friday 21st October 2022

Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to minimise the impact of divorce proceedings on children.

Answered by Gareth Johnson

In April of this year the Government implemented the Divorce, Dissolution and Separation Act 2020. This landmark legislation reduces conflict between couples within the legal process for divorce or dissolution by removing the ‘fault’ element from the process, thereby reducing the impact of divorce on any children by assisting parents to focus on their children’s best interests.


Written Question
Presumption of Parental Involvement Review
Wednesday 7th September 2022

Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when the conclusions of his Department's review of the presumption of parental involvement will be published.

Answered by Sarah Dines

Work on the research underpinning the review of the presumption of parental involvement, which includes a literature review, a qualitative research project and a case file analysis, is underway and is due to be completed by the end of December 2022. The outcome of the review will be published in due course following the completion of the research.


Written Question
Dispute Resolution
Thursday 21st July 2022

Asked by: Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat - Chesham and Amersham)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when his Department plans to bring forward policy proposals in response to the Government's call for evidence on dispute resolution in England and Wales.

Answered by Sarah Dines

The Ministry of Justice published a Summary of Responses to the Call for Evidence on Dispute Resolution in England & Wales in March this year. Policy proposals informed by these responses are under development and will be the subject of further public consultation in due course.