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Written Question
Probate
Thursday 7th March 2024

Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average time taken is from submission of application to granting of probate in the last 12 months.

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

HMCTS is 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, from submission, is 12.6 weeks in the last 12 months (October 2022 to September 2023) and following receipt of the documents required, is 10.8 weeks. The probate service received record levels of applications during 2022 and this has continued to grow, with higher levels of receipts during January to September 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.

HMCTS has increased staffing levels, streamlined internal processes and continued to invest in further improving the digital service.

As a result, the number of grants issued for recent months has been at record levels, with around 16,000 more grants issued than applications received during the last four months (September to December 2023), using more recent management information published by HMCTS (which does not go through the same level of quality assurance and analysis as the Family Court Statistics Quarterly).

Average waiting times for probate grants are routinely published on GOV.UK via Family Court Statistics Quarterly, and currently cover the period up to September 2023: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-court-statistics-quarterly.


Written Question
Probate
Thursday 7th March 2024

Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times for the granting of probate.

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

HMCTS is 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, from submission, is 12.6 weeks in the last 12 months (October 2022 to September 2023) and following receipt of the documents required, is 10.8 weeks. The probate service received record levels of applications during 2022 and this has continued to grow, with higher levels of receipts during January to September 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.

HMCTS has increased staffing levels, streamlined internal processes and continued to invest in further improving the digital service.

As a result, the number of grants issued for recent months has been at record levels, with around 16,000 more grants issued than applications received during the last four months (September to December 2023), using more recent management information published by HMCTS (which does not go through the same level of quality assurance and analysis as the Family Court Statistics Quarterly).

Average waiting times for probate grants are routinely published on GOV.UK via Family Court Statistics Quarterly, and currently cover the period up to September 2023: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-court-statistics-quarterly.


Written Question
HM Courts and Tribunals Service: Complaints
Thursday 7th March 2024

Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the (a) average and (b) target response time is from submitting an online complaint to HM Courts and Tribunal Service.

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

In the period July 2023 – December 2023 the average response time for complaints submitted online was 20.3 working days.

HM Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) acknowledges the complaint on receipt and our aim is to respond within 10 working days.

All parts of the organisation have processes in place to flag and monitor the progress of complaint responses, but timeliness can sometimes be impacted by the level of enquiry or investigation required to enable substantive response, or by the need for administrative teams to focus temporarily on higher service delivery priorities e.g. order production.

Where staff capacity or capability is identified as a primary cause of delay, steps will always be taken to address, whether targeted training or recruitment to bring staffing up to funded headcount.

HMCTS has established a dedicated project to focus on the causes of dissatisfaction/complaints, to identify root cause and improve user experience and therefore reduce the number of, and time taken to respond to complaints.


Written Question
HM Courts and Tribunals Service: Members
Thursday 8th February 2024

Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average time is for hon. Members to receive a response from His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service on casework queries.

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

In the period January – June 2023, HMCTS issued 74% of responses to honourable Members’ casework queries within 15 working days. 91.5% were responded to within 20 working days.

Published data is available on Gov.uk - Data on responses to correspondence from MPs and peers - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).


Written Question
Marriage: Humanism
Monday 16th October 2023

Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of legally recognising humanist marriages.

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

In July 2019 we invited the Law Commission to undertake a wholesale review on weddings law in England and Wales. As part of that review, the Government invited the Law Commission to make recommendations about how marriage by humanist and other non-religious belief organisations could be incorporated into a revised or new scheme for all marriages that is simple, fair and consistent.

The Law Commission report was published in July 2022 and contains 57 recommendations for extensive legislative reform. The Government is carefully considering these recommendations, and a response will be published in due course.


Written Question
Rape: Prisoners
Monday 27th February 2023

Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners who have been convicted of rape are housed in the female estate; and how many and what proportion of those prisoners are in possession of a gender recognition certificate.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The number of prisoners in the women’s estate convicted of rape can be found in the mid-year prison population detailed characteristics published in the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly, in Table 1.5i found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1094517/Population_30June2022_Annual.ods.

To note that under English law, accessories to a crime are charged as principal offenders, and therefore biological women can be convicted of rape. Data disclosure rules mean we cannot disclose whether any of these prisoners have gender recognition certificates, as the answer is 5 or fewer (including 0).

HMPPS have a range of processes in place to manage the risk posed by prisoners convicted of sexual offences, including through structured risk assessments, security measures in prisons such as cell sharing risk assessments, sentence planning and offending behaviour programmes and interventions.


Written Question
Sexual Offences: Prisoners
Monday 27th February 2023

Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to monitor prisoners housed in the female estate who have been convicted of (a) rape and (b) other sexual offences against women.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The number of prisoners in the women’s estate convicted of rape can be found in the mid-year prison population detailed characteristics published in the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly, in Table 1.5i found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1094517/Population_30June2022_Annual.ods.

To note that under English law, accessories to a crime are charged as principal offenders, and therefore biological women can be convicted of rape. Data disclosure rules mean we cannot disclose whether any of these prisoners have gender recognition certificates, as the answer is 5 or fewer (including 0).

HMPPS have a range of processes in place to manage the risk posed by prisoners convicted of sexual offences, including through structured risk assessments, security measures in prisons such as cell sharing risk assessments, sentence planning and offending behaviour programmes and interventions.


Written Question
Sexual Offences: Prisoners' Transfers
Monday 27th February 2023

Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prisoners convicted of sexual offences have transferred from the male estate to the female estate since 2010.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

Our records on transfers from the men’s estate to the women’s estate start in 2016. In each year since then, 5 or fewer (including 0) prisoners were transferred from the men’s estate to the women’s estate.

Since 2016, 5 or fewer (including 0) prisoners convicted of a sexual offence as their principal offence had been transferred from the men’s estate to the women’s estate.

Data disclosure rules mean that where the answer to a question would disclose a number of prisoners which is 5 or fewer, this figure must be suppressed as it could be used to identify individuals.


Written Question
Prisoners' Transfers
Monday 27th February 2023

Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have been transferred from the male estate to the female estate in each year since 2004.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

Our records on transfers from the men’s estate to the women’s estate start in 2016. In each year since then, 5 or fewer (including 0) prisoners were transferred from the men’s estate to the women’s estate.

Since 2016, 5 or fewer (including 0) prisoners convicted of a sexual offence as their principal offence had been transferred from the men’s estate to the women’s estate.

Data disclosure rules mean that where the answer to a question would disclose a number of prisoners which is 5 or fewer, this figure must be suppressed as it could be used to identify individuals.


Written Question
Prisoners on Remand: Disability and Neurodiversity
Monday 21st November 2022

Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department has taken to train prison staff on the additional needs of people in prison on remand with disabilities, including for neurodiverse people.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

On 30 June 2022, the Government published our Action Plan in response to the Evidence Review on Neurodiversity in the Criminal Justice System, setting set out a number of steps we are taking to increase support for neurodivergent people encountering the criminal justice system (CJS), including those on remand.

The action plan includes a number of steps specifically focused on training staff:

  • we are on track to have a dedicated Neurodiversity Support Manager in every prison across England and Wales by March 2024. A key part of their role is to deliver awareness sessions to upskill staff, and to improve prisoners’ access to education, skills and work;

  • by the end of 2022, we will have developed and launched a National Neurodiversity Training Toolkit available for all prison and probation staff; and

  • HM Prison and Probation Service has commissioned the organisation Skills for Justice to develop an ‘Adult Health, Care and Wellbeing Core Capabilities Framework’ for frontline staff, to set out what skills, knowledge and behaviour are required to support offenders with health requirements, including neurodivergent need.