Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 29 October 2019 to Question HL133 on Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014, what his policy is on debtors being charged VAT.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Creditors are the recipients of High Court enforcement services, which are subject to VAT. Therefore, creditors are liable for VAT on the fees charged by High Court Enforcement Officers. Creditors who are VAT registered are in turn able to recover VAT from HMRC, subject to the normal rules.
However, there are circumstances under the Taking Control of Goods legislation, where this cost may be recovered from a debtor as part of enforcement costs. The Ministry of Justice is currently clarifying the circumstances and manner in which a cost equivalent to VAT may be recovered from a debtor and intends to publish guidance on this as soon as possible.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what risk assessments took place to ensure that workplaces were suitable and safe for the introduction of digital working in court rooms using the (a) Digital Markup Service and (b) common platform.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
I am answering these questions together.
HM Courts and Tribunals Service’s Health and Safety policy requires that a trained general risk assessor inspects each court room on a quarterly basis to ensure it is compliant with health and safety standards, and to report any non-compliance so that remedial work can be undertaken.
Where Display Screen Equipment is used, including courtrooms across the estate into which we are continuing to introduce digital ways of working as part of our Reform Programme, the policy requires that workstations must comply with the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 (as amended).
Accordingly, the designated Senior Person on Site at all of our court and tribunal buildings is required to ensure that each workstation is routinely assessed; any non-compliance is reported and remedied; and any risk is appropriately mitigated.
We do not collate centrally details of the numbers of courtroom assessments that have taken place over particular periods. Instead, the HMCTS Corporate Safety & Security team seeks and receives regular assurance from senior managers about compliance with these and wider requirements.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many court rooms have been assessed for (a) general health and safety standards and (b) their suitability for digital working in the last 12 months.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
I am answering these questions together.
HM Courts and Tribunals Service’s Health and Safety policy requires that a trained general risk assessor inspects each court room on a quarterly basis to ensure it is compliant with health and safety standards, and to report any non-compliance so that remedial work can be undertaken.
Where Display Screen Equipment is used, including courtrooms across the estate into which we are continuing to introduce digital ways of working as part of our Reform Programme, the policy requires that workstations must comply with the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 (as amended).
Accordingly, the designated Senior Person on Site at all of our court and tribunal buildings is required to ensure that each workstation is routinely assessed; any non-compliance is reported and remedied; and any risk is appropriately mitigated.
We do not collate centrally details of the numbers of courtroom assessments that have taken place over particular periods. Instead, the HMCTS Corporate Safety & Security team seeks and receives regular assurance from senior managers about compliance with these and wider requirements.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many days off sick HM Courts & Tribunals staff took in each month of (a) 2018 and (b) 2019.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
We have provided the number of working days lost due to sickness, however, this figure does not take into consideration those who work part time, so we have also included the Working Days Lost by Full Time Equivalent (FTE), which takes this into account and is a more accurate reflection.
As well as short absences, this includes those on long term sickness and any other unplanned, unavoidable leave such as family bereavements etc.
The table below provides the sick leave per calendar year for 2018 and 2019.
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| Jan-18 | Feb-18 | Mar-18 | Apr-18 | May-18 | Jun-18 | Jul-18 | Aug-18 | Sep-18 | Oct-18 | Nov-18 | Dec-18 |
Working Days Lost | 15150 | 12935 | 12673 | 10920 | 10846 | 9612 | 10228 | 10283 | 9666 | 12330 | 12381 | 11245 |
WDs Lost x FTE | 13064.17 | 11127.27 | 10974.75 | 9387.96 | 9403.47 | 8342.48 | 8959.86 | 8980.13 | 8268.19 | 10559.87 | 10639.77 | 9663.14 |
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2019 |
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| Jan-19 | Feb-19 | Mar-19 | Apr-19 | May-19 | Jun-19 | Jul-19 | Aug-19 | Sep-19 | Oct-19 | Nov-19 | Dec-19 |
Working Days Lost | 13226 | 11099 | 10817 | 9976 | 9669 | 9719 | 11019 | 9705 | 10519 | 10280 | 12163 | 11942 |
WDs Lost x FTE | 11409.74 | 9601.479 | 9222.949 | 8589.958 | 8256.505 | 8337.592 | 9493.536 | 8485.607 | 9050.386 | 8814.963 | 10446.83 | 10336.58 |
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 6 February 2020 to Question 9643 on Debts: VAT, when his Department plans to publish guidance on the circumstances and manner in which a cost equivalent to VAT may be recovered from the debtor under the Taking Control of Goods (Fees) 2014.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
As Chris Philip set out in his Answer of 6 February 2020 to Question 9643, the Ministry of Justice intends to publish guidance on the circumstances and manner in which a cost equivalent to VAT may be recovered from a debtor under the Taking Control of Goods legislation, as soon as possible.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing speeding fines linked to the income of the offender.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Courts are required by statute to take into account the financial circumstances of the offender, insofar as these can be assessed, when setting a fine for any offence including speeding offences. Guidelines issued by the independent Sentencing Council require the court to assess the seriousness of a speeding offence based upon the speed of the vehicle in relation to the speed limit of the road. Once the seriousness is established a fine amount is set which relates to the income of the offender.
The relevant sentencing guideline is set out below:
https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/magistrates-court/item/speeding-revised-2017/
Where an individual fails to provide information about their financial circumstances, the court may assess the fine amount as it sees fit and, the sentencing guideline provides for the court to fall back on an average earnings figure.
Full details on fines can be found here:
https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/explanatory-material/magistrates-court/item/fines-and-financial-orders/approach-to-the-assessment-of-fines-2/1-approach-to-the-assessment-of-fines-introduction/
In simple cases the police have the power to offer a Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN), which consists of a fixed non-means-tested fine, and penalty points. The Department for Transport is responsible for fixing the penalty levels for speeding related FPNs. FPNs do not take means into account as they are designed to operate as a simple on-the-spot process. Individuals may refuse a FPN, in which case the matter may be taken before a court.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he is taking steps to compensate debtors who have been charged VAT on debts under the incorrect application of the Taking Control of Goods (Fees) 2014 Regulations.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
As the recipient of High Court enforcement services, which are subject to VAT, creditors are liable for VAT on the fees charged by High Court Enforcement Officers. Creditors who are VAT registered are in turn able to recover VAT from HMRC, subject to the normal rules.
Under the Taking Control of Goods legislation, however, there are circumstances where this cost may be recovered from a debtor as part of enforcement costs. The Ministry of Justice is in the process of clarifying the circumstances and manner in which a cost equivalent to VAT may be recovered from a debtor and intends to publish guidance on this shortly.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average length of time is between the listing of a case to a first hearing for non-custody trials in each court circuit in England and Wales.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Crown court sitting days there were in each of the court circuits in England and Wales in (a) 2017, (b) 2018 and (c) 2019.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The number of days sat in the Crown Court for each of the court circuits in England and Wales in (a) 2017, (b) 2018 and (c) 2019 are set out in the attached spreadsheet.
Sitting days are based on the number of cases we expect the court to hear and, with fewer cases making it to the Crown Court, were reduced accordingly. The number of outstanding Crown Court cases has reduced by almost 40% since 2014.
We keep sitting days under constant review and in November allocated an extra 850 days to the Crown Court to ease immediate pressure on the court. We have allocated a minimum of 87,000 to inform listing decisions in the first half of 2020/21 which is an increase of 4,700 on last year’s allocation.
Notes:
The attached HMCTS data covers the number of days in which a Crown Court room was sat by any number of judges.
In some circumstances, judges will ‘share’ a courtroom to conduct judicial business; in most instances this will involve a returning judge for sentencing purposes only. These figures may therefore differ from the number of judicial sitting days at Crown Court as published in MoJ official statistics (which can, for example, also include days sat in chambers).
The information for 2019 covers January to March, as the National Statistics on judge sitting days for 2019 are due to be released in June 2020. Access to statistics before their publication is strictly controlled, with rules and principles on pre-release access set out in the Pre-release Access to Official Statistics Order 2008.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Crown court sitting days there were in each month of (a) 2017, (b) 2018 and (c) 2019.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The number of days sat in the Crown Court for each month of (a) 2017, (b) 2018, and (c) 2019 are set out in the attached spreadsheet.
Sitting days are based on the number of cases we expect the court to hear and, with fewer cases making it to the Crown Court, were reduced accordingly.The number of outstanding Crown Court cases has reduced by almost 40% since 2014.
We keep sitting days under constant review and in November allocated an extra 850 days to the Crown Court for this financial year to ease immediate pressure on the court.We have allocated a minimum of 87,000 to inform listing decisions in the first half of 2020/21 which is an increase of 4,700 on last year’s allocation.
Notes:
The information for 2019 covers January to March, as the National Statistics on judge sitting days for 2019 are due to be released in June 2020. Access to statistics before their publication is strictly controlled, with rules and principles on pre-release access set out in the Pre-release Access to Official Statistics Order 2008.