Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of cases under the single justice procedure were prosecuted in (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (c) 2023.

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

The number of defendants dealt with via Single Justice Procedure (SJP) notifications at the magistrates’ courts is published as part of the National Statistics series ‘Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly’. Additionally, this series also provides the total number of defendants dealt with in the magistrates’ court, these can be used to calculate the proportion of SJPs in the magistrates’ caseload.

The latest published data is available to September 2023 and can be found in Tables T1 & T2 which are accessible by the following link: Criminal court statistics quarterly: July to September 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court ruling of February 2024 on the removal of 11 quota seats for ethnic and religious minorities within the Kurdistan Region Parliament.

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

Promotion of the right to Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) is a longstanding priority for the UK. We frequently raise ethnic and religious minorities with the Government of Iraq and Kurdistan Regional Government, calling for greater protection and deeper inclusion in national and local government.

Although we welcome the announcement that Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) elections will be held on 10 June, we continue to assess the implications of the rulings by the Federal Supreme Court to remove 11 quota seats for ethnic and religious minorities.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the Equality Act 2010 on legal cases brought forward via the single justice procedure.

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

The Single Justice Procedure (SJP) was introduced under the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015. Prior to the introduction of the procedure, in accordance with the Equalities Act 2010, an equality impact assessment was undertaken in relation to SJP. This concluded that on the basis of the available evidence, the planned change in summary justice would not lead to any positive or negative impact on people with protected characteristics.

HMCTS committed to the Justice Select Committee to collect protected characteristic data in all reform services. This includes protected characteristic data for SJP, which has been monitored since 2023.

The decision to prosecute under SJP is a decision for the prosecutor and not the Government.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an estimate of the average number of single justice procedure cases magistrates presided over per day in the last 12 months.

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

There were 251 distinct days in which Single Justice Procedure (SJP) cases were heard in a magistrates’ court between October 2022 and September 2023.

The latest published data on completed SJP cases is available to September 2023 and can be found in Table T1 which is accessible at the following link: Criminal court statistics quarterly: July to September 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Based on this information, the average number of SJP cases completed per working day is 3,151. This excludes weekends and the 9 public holidays.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what recent estimate he has made of when UK officials will be granted consular access to Alaa Abd el-Fattah.

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

Ministers and officials continue to raise Mr Alaa Abd El-Fattah's case at the highest levels with the Egyptian government and have been consistently clear in our calls for his release, while continuing to press the need for urgent consular access. The Foreign Secretary most recently raised his case with Egyptian Foreign Minister Shoukry on 22 February. The Foreign Secretary and Minister of State for the Middle East, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, also raised his case with President Sisi and Egyptian Foreign Minister Shoukry on 21 December 2023. The Prime Minister raised Mr El-Fattah's case with President Sisi on 1 December 2023.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 14 March 2024 to Question 17822 on Administration of Justice, if he will publish the protected characteristic data for single justice procedure cases in 2023.

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

Data on the protected characteristics of SJP users, under the descriptor of “online plea for the Single Justice Service”, can be found at: HMCTS Protected Characteristics Questionnaire - Data on Users of Reformed Services - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

The published data covers SJP cases for May 2023 to July 2023 inclusive. The scope of this data collection is limited to cases dealt with via the Common Platform, which represents around 32% of SJP cases over this time period.

An updated view of the protected characteristics questionnaire is likely to be published in Autumn 2024.