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Written Question
Immigration: Coronavirus
Thursday 29th October 2020

Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the lodging of applications to the (a) Upper Tribunal, (b) Court of Appeal and (c) Administrative Court online will continue after the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

All existing methods for applicants to submit cases for lodgement in the Upper Tribunal, Court of Appeal and Administrative Court will continue both during and after the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.


Written Question
Family Courts: Coronavirus
Tuesday 22nd September 2020

Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

What steps he is taking to tackle the backlog of family court hearings accrued during the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The protection of vulnerable children is a top priority, and I am extremely grateful for the dedication of family justice professionals at this unprecedented time.

At the start of the pandemic the family courts quickly prioritised the most urgent cases, and moved to hear the majority of cases remotely. More court rooms are reopening, and a record number of sitting days were sat in June and July.

I recognise there is more to do. We are working with the judiciary and operational partners to agree further measures for the sustained recovery of the family justice system, building on the robust actions already taken, to meet the challenges we continue to face.


Written Question
Offences against Children: Prosecutions
Tuesday 8th September 2020

Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prosecutions have been made under Section 66 of the Serious Crime Act 2015.

Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

Section 66 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 clarifies, updates and modernises some of the language in section 1 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, which provides for the offence of child cruelty.

Data on offence level prosecutions up to the year ending 31 December 2019, are available in the ‘Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code data tool’, at the following link:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/888344/HO-code-tool-principal-offence-2019.xlsx

To identify prosecutions, convictions and sentences for the child cruelty offence, filter ‘Offence code’ to ‘01103’ for ‘Cruelty to or Neglect of Children’. The number of individuals prosecuted in each of the last seven years can be found in row 31.


Written Question
Prisons: Coronavirus
Tuesday 2nd June 2020

Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he has taken to protect (a) prison staff and (b) prisoners who are unable to socially distance.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

Social distancing has been used in prisons since 24 March through the implementation of a restricted regime and is promoted through regular communications.

Situations where social distancing is not possible are controlled through safe operating procedures developed in line with public health advice. Safe operating procedures identify the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) items required in each situation and the method of use. There is currently adequate stock and forward supply of all PPE items in accordance with public health advice.

Basic hygiene is also a key part of tackling the virus and hand-washing facilities are available to all prisoners and staff, and we have worked closely with suppliers to ensure adequate supply of soap and other cleaning materials.

These measures form part of our comprehensive approach to supporting the health and safety of our staff and prisoners in response to the Covid-19 outbreak, also encompassing our compartmentalisation strategy for prisoners to protect the sick, shield the vulnerable and quarantine new arrivals as well as boost the resilience of staffing at the frontline and roll-out of further testing.


Written Question
Prisons: Coronavirus
Tuesday 2nd June 2020

Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department has taken to protect the health and safety of prison staff during the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

Social distancing has been used in prisons since 24 March through the implementation of a restricted regime and is promoted through regular communications.

Situations where social distancing is not possible are controlled through safe operating procedures developed in line with public health advice. Safe operating procedures identify the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) items required in each situation and the method of use. There is currently adequate stock and forward supply of all PPE items in accordance with public health advice.

Basic hygiene is also a key part of tackling the virus and hand-washing facilities are available to all prisoners and staff, and we have worked closely with suppliers to ensure adequate supply of soap and other cleaning materials.

These measures form part of our comprehensive approach to supporting the health and safety of our staff and prisoners in response to the Covid-19 outbreak, also encompassing our compartmentalisation strategy for prisoners to protect the sick, shield the vulnerable and quarantine new arrivals as well as boost the resilience of staffing at the frontline and roll-out of further testing.


Written Question
Legal Aid Scheme: Refugees
Thursday 11th April 2019

Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many applications for exceptional case funding for legal aid for cases of refugee family reunion were made in 2018; how many of those applications were successful; and what the average time was for processing those applications.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

This information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.


Written Question
Ministry of Justice: Written Questions
Monday 26th February 2018

Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to respond to Question 123846, tabled by the right hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale on 19 January 2018.

Answered by Rory Stewart

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given to Question 123846 on 22 February 2018.


Written Question
Reoffenders
Thursday 22nd February 2018

Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders who were granted early release from prison by the Parole Board have re-offended in each of the last five years.

Answered by Rory Stewart

The number of offenders sentenced to indeterminate sentences and released by the Parole Board, once they had completed their tariff, and who have gone on to re-offend, can be found in the Quarterly Proven Re-Offending Statistics published by the MoJ .

Table: Adult proven reoffending data, by custodial sentence length1

2013

2014

2015

2016 Q1 3

Indeterminate sentence for public protection

Number of reoffenders

53

43

68

18

Number of offenders in cohort

389

376

453

137

Mandatory life prisoner

Number of reoffenders

8

4

8

2

Number of offenders in cohort

172

113

185

51

Other life 2

Number of reoffenders

7

17

11

2

Number of offenders in cohort

93

90

102

26

All

Number of reoffenders

68

64

87

22

Number of offenders in cohort

654

579

740

214

Notes:

1. Data regarding offenders released from indeterminate sentences up to September 2015 are extracted from the Public Protection Unit Database (PPUD). As data were not of sufficient quality for these offenders prior to 2009, they have not been included in the figures. Data regarding offenders released from indeterminate sentences from October 2015 onwards are extracted from nDelius.

2. 'Other life' category includes discretionary and automatic life sentences.

3. Data from April 2016 are not yet published.

The Parole Board will release prisoners serving an indeterminate sentence after they have completed the tariff set by the Court, where it is satisfied that it is no longer necessary for public protection for them to remain in prison. Offenders released by the Parole Board are supervised on licence by the National Probation Service


Written Question
Ministry of Justice: Drinking Water
Wednesday 31st January 2018

Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much money his Department has spent on bottled water in each year since 2010.

Answered by Phillip Lee

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.


Written Question
Ministry of Justice: Travel
Monday 24th April 2017

Asked by: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat - Westmorland and Lonsdale)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much her Department spent on travel that was not standard class in each of the last five years.

Answered by Phillip Lee

The total contracted spend across the department, consisting of information covering the Ministry of Justice, Legal Aid Agency, CAFCASS, Criminal Cases Review Commission, Parole Board, Wales Office, Youth Justice Board and National Offender Management Service on non-standard fares including first class rail and first and business class air is as follows:

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016 YTD

Air

£90,690.82

£98,866.20

£144,423.41

£102,677.40

£81,146.35

Rail

£175,495.19

£406,716.17

£472,742.23

£460,308.45

£492,391.94

Total

£266,186.01

£505,582.37

£617,165.64

£562,985.85

£573,538.29

There is a ban in place across the department on all first class rail and air tickets and business class air tickets for journeys under 5 hours and under 8 hours without a business need. The only exemptions to this rule are for judiciary and to support the needs of some staff with disabilities in carrying out their duties, where reasonable to do so.