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Written Question
Courts
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the backlog in the courts.

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

We remain committed to tackling the outstanding caseloads across our courts and tribunals and have introduced a range of measures to achieve this aim.

Over 90% of all criminal cases are heard at the magistrates’ court, where we heard 100,000 cases a month on average across 2023. While the outstanding caseload in the magistrates’ courts has slightly increased in recent months due to an increase in the number of cases coming to court, the caseload remains well below its pandemic peak and stood at 353,900 at the end of September 2023, and cases continue to be progressed quickly. To aid our efforts in the magistrates’ courts, we invested £1 million in a programme of work to support the recruitment of more magistrates. We aim to recruit 2,000 new magistrates this year, and similar numbers for each of the next couple of years.

At the Crown Court, we remain committed to reducing the outstanding caseload. Last financial year we sat over 100,000 days and this financial year, we plan to deliver around 107,000 sitting days and recruit more than 1,000 judges across all jurisdictions. Judges have worked tirelessly to complete more cases, with disposals up by 9% during Q3 in 2023 compared to Q4 in 2022 (25,700 compared to 23,700).

We are also investing in our criminal courts. In August 2023, we announced we are investing £220 million for essential modernisation and repair work of our court buildings across the next two years, up to March 2025. We have also continued the use of 20 Nightingale courtrooms into the 2024/25 financial year, to allow courts to work at full capacity.

In the Family Court, we are working with the Department for Education and other partners on the Family Justice Board to tackle the longest running cases and increase the proportion of public law cases that conclude within the 26-week timeline. The Department for Education are also investing an extra £10m to develop new initiatives to address the longest delays in public law proceedings.

We announced in the Spring Budget an additional £55m to improve productivity, support earlier resolution of family disputes and reduce the number of cases coming to court. This includes creating a digital advice tool for separating couples, piloting early legal advice and supporting the expansion of the private law Pathfinder model. We are also investing up to £23.6m in the family mediation voucher scheme, which we intend will allow for its continuation up to March 2025. As of March 2024, over 26,000 families have successfully used the scheme to attempt to resolve their private law disputes outside of court.

With regards to civil cases, we are taking action to ensure those that do need to go to trial are dealt with quickly. We have launched the biggest ever judicial recruitment drive for District Judges, are digitising court processes and holding more remote hearings, and are increasing the use of mediation. The requirement for small claims in the county court to attend a mediation session with the Small Claims Mediation Service will start this spring and is expected to help parties resolve their dispute swiftly and consensually without the need for a judicial hearing.

With regards to tribunals, we continue to work with the Department for Business and Trade on further measures to address caseloads in the Employment Tribunal, where the deployment of legal officers, recruitment of additional judges and a new electronic case management system have helped the Tribunal to manage its caseload which remains below its pandemic peak.


Written Question
Courts: Bury South
Tuesday 27th February 2024

Asked by: Christian Wakeford (Labour - Bury South)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the backlog of court cases in Bury South constituency.

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

We are pursuing a number of measures at a national level that will contribute to the reduction of cases in the Bury South constituency, to tackle the outstanding caseload across all jurisdictions.

Over 90% of all criminal cases are heard at the magistrates’ court, where we heard 100,000 cases a month on average across 2023. While the outstanding caseload in the magistrates’ courts has slightly increased in recent months due to an increase in the number of cases coming to court, the caseload remains well below its pandemic peak and stood at 353,900 at the end of September 2023, and cases continue to be progressed quickly.

To aid our efforts in the magistrates’ courts, we have invested over £1 million in a programme of work to support the recruitment of new magistrates, and launched a new marketing campaign to target a more diverse pool of potential magistrates and raise the overall profile of the magistracy.

At the Crown Court, we remain committed to reducing the outstanding caseload.

We have introduced a raft of measures to achieve this aim. We are on course to deliver over 100,000 sitting days this year for the third financial year running, alongside recruiting more than 1,000 judges across all jurisdictions.

Judges have worked tirelessly to complete more cases, with disposals up by 9% during Q3 in 2023 compared to Q4 in 2022 (25,700 compared to 23,700). However, an increase in cases coming before the Crown Court throughout 2023 has caused the outstanding caseload to increase, and it stood at 66,500 at the end of September 2023.

Data on the outstanding caseload at Crown Court centre level is published by the Ministry of Justice on a quarterly basis. Receipts, disposals and the outstanding caseload for individual Crown Court centres can be found at: Criminal court statistics quarterly: July to September 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

We are also investing more in our criminal courts. In August 2023, we announced we are investing £220 million for essential modernisation and repair work of our court buildings across the next two years, up to March 2025.

In the Family Court, we are working closely with system partners to drive forward a cross-cutting programme of work to address delays and inefficiencies in the system and to ensure cases are ready to be heard when they reach court.

We are committed to meeting the 26-week statutory requirement for public law cases, and the Government is investing an extra £10 million to develop new initiatives to support this.

In addition, we remain committed to supporting more families to reach agreement on their children and finance arrangements earlier and, where appropriate, without court involvement. As of February 2024, over 25,400 families have successfully used the Family Mediation Voucher Scheme to attempt to resolve their disputes outside of court. We are investing up to £23.6 million, which we intend will allow for its continuation up to March 2025.

With regards to civil cases, we are taking action to ensure those that do need to go to trial are dealt with quickly. We have launched the biggest ever judicial recruitment drive for District Judges, are digitising court processes and holding more remote hearings, and are increasing the use of mediation.

We announced in July 2023 that we would introduce a requirement for small claims in the county court to attend a mediation session with the Small Claims Mediation Service, starting with specified money claims. This requirement will start in the spring and is expected to help parties resolve their dispute swiftly and consensually without the need for a judicial hearing.

With regards to tribunals, we continue to work with the Department for Business and Trade on further measures to address caseloads in the Employment Tribunal, where the deployment of legal officers, recruitment of additional judges and a new electronic case management system have already contributed to the caseload falling and remaining below its pandemic peak.

We are working on completing the programme of reform in the Immigration and Asylum Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal, and the judiciary have recently introduced a virtual region pilot to provide additional judicial capacity and flexibility in how appeals are heard and disposed of.


Written Question
Courts: Standards
Tuesday 23rd January 2024

Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to help reduce court backlogs.

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

We have taken your question to mean what steps are being taken to tackle the outstanding caseload across all jurisdictions.

At the Crown Court, we remain committed to reducing the outstanding caseload at the Crown Court and have introduced a raft of measures to achieve this aim. We funded over 100,000 sitting days last financial year and plan to deliver the same again this financial year. Thanks to our investment in judicial recruitment, we expect to have recruited more than 1,000 judges by the end of this financial year.

We are also investing more in our courts. In August 2023, we announced we are investing £220 million for essential modernisation and repair work of our court buildings across the next two years, up to March 2025.

In the Family Court, we are working closely with the President of the Family Division, the Department for Education, HMCTS and the cross-system Family Justice Board to drive forward a cross-cutting programme of work to address delays and inefficiencies in the system and to ensure cases are ready to be heard when they reach court.

We are committed to meeting the 26-week statutory requirement for public law cases, and the Government is investing an extra £10m to develop new initiatives to support this.

In addition, we remain committed to supporting more families to reach agreement on their children and finance arrangements earlier and without court involvement and are continuing delivery of the Family Mediation Voucher Scheme. As of December 2023, over 24,000 families have successfully used the scheme to attempt to resolve their disputes outside of court. We are investing up to £23.6m in the scheme, which we intend will allow for its continuation up to March 2025

With regards to civil cases, we are taking action to ensure those that do need to go to trial are dealt with quickly. We have launched the biggest ever judicial recruitment drive for District Judges, are digitising court processes and holding more remote hearings, and are increasing the use of mediation.

We announced in July that we would introduce a requirement for small claims in the county court to attend a mediation session with the Small Claims Mediation Service, starting with specified money claims. This requirement will start in the spring and is expected to help parties resolve their dispute swiftly and consensually without the need for a judicial hearing.

With regards to tribunals, we continue to work with the Department for Business and Trade on further measures to address caseloads in the Employment Tribunal, where the deployment of legal officers, recruitment of additional judges and a new electronic case management system have already contributed to the caseload falling and remaining below its pandemic peak.

We are working on completing the programme of reform in the Immigration and Asylum Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal and the judiciary have recently introduced a virtual region pilot to provide additional judicial capacity and flexibility in how appeals are heard and disposed of.


Written Question
Peak District National Park Authority: Training
Tuesday 24th October 2023

Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much the Peak District National Park Authority spent on equality and diversity training in the 2022-23 financial year.

Answered by Trudy Harrison

On 2 October, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a value for money audit of all EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) spending in the Civil Service. The audit will dovetail with the public sector productivity review, aiming at delivering a leaner, more efficient government. The audit forms part of our drive to improve productivity across the public sector by driving down waste and improving performance. The findings and actions of the audit will be announced by the Chancellor in the autumn.


Written Question
Barbecues: Sales
Wednesday 19th April 2023

Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will take steps to help prevent the sale of disposable barbecues in order to protect rural landscapes and wildlife.

Answered by Trudy Harrison

The public are encouraged to always behave responsibly when using products which have a fire risk.

There are no plans to prohibit the sale of disposable barbeques or sky lanterns at this time, and there are existing powers available that limit the use in certain places.

Current 'Byelaw' legislation allows for local authorities to restrict the use of disposable barbecues in parks and public spaces. These are steps that Dorset Council and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council among others have already taken. The Government encourages all local authorities to use these existing powers to take similar steps if they feel it necessary.

There are also existing powers in legislation which can be used to regulate and prohibit the lighting of fires on access land in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) and National Parks. The New Forest and Peak District National Park Authorities have already banned the use of disposable barbecues within their boundaries and have successfully collaborated with several retailers to remove disposable barbecues from a great many stores.


Written Question
Barbecues: Sales
Wednesday 19th April 2023

Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of banning the sale of disposable barbecues.

Answered by Trudy Harrison

The public are encouraged to always behave responsibly when using products which have a fire risk.

There are no plans to prohibit the sale of disposable barbeques or sky lanterns at this time, and there are existing powers available that limit the use in certain places.

Current 'Byelaw' legislation allows for local authorities to restrict the use of disposable barbecues in parks and public spaces. These are steps that Dorset Council and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council among others have already taken. The Government encourages all local authorities to use these existing powers to take similar steps if they feel it necessary.

There are also existing powers in legislation which can be used to regulate and prohibit the lighting of fires on access land in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) and National Parks. The New Forest and Peak District National Park Authorities have already banned the use of disposable barbecues within their boundaries and have successfully collaborated with several retailers to remove disposable barbecues from a great many stores.


Written Question
Countryside: Disability
Friday 17th March 2023

Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve access to the countryside for people who use wheelchairs in England.

Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The Government has taken steps to improve access to the countryside for people who use wheelchairs in England such as committing to make the England Coast Path as easy to use as possible for those with disabilities. Our Access for All programme has committed £14.5m to make targeted access improvements in our protected landscapes, national trails, forests and the wider countryside to help bring the benefits of spending time in nature to everyone. For example, supporting Miles without Stiles programme to improve accessibility in the Peak District National Park.

Additionally, the Government has extended its Farming in Protected Landscapes programme to improve accessibility in our National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, including installing interpretation panels, replacing gates and stiles to improve access for people who use wheelchairs, and creating new permissive paths on farms and estates.


Written Question
Aerials: Planning Permission
Monday 22nd March 2021

Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Independent - Enfield, Southgate)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which local authorities have received planning applications for emergency services communications masts as part of the Emergency Services Network roll out.

Answered by Kit Malthouse

The Emergency Services Network (ESN) is being built by EE, by upgrading their existing network. This includes building over 650 additional 4G radio masts across this country, as part of their contractual obligations to ensure coverage on 218,000km of major and minor roads.

In addition to the masts built by EE, the Home Office is building a further 292 masts in the most remote and rural areas of Britain. This set of masts is referred to as ‘Extended Area Services’ (EAS) within ESN.

The Home Office does not hold details of planning permission for ESN masts that form part of EE’s contracted ESN coverage. This response is limited to providing information with regards to the EAS sites that are being built by the Home Office.

Planning applications have been submitted by the following local authorities:

Angus Council; Argyll and Bute Council; Brecon Beacons National Park; Cairngorms National Park; Carlisle City Council; Carmarthenshire County Council; Ceredigion County Council; Conwy County Borough Council; Dartmoor National Park; Denbighshire County Council; Dumfries and Galloway; Dumfries and Galloway Council; East Lothian Council; Exmoor National Park, Highland Council; Lake District National Park; Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park; Monmouthshire County Council; North Ayrshire Council; North York Moors National Park; Northumberland County Council; Northumberland National Park; Orkney Islands Council; Peak District National Park; Perth and Kinross; Powys County Council; Scottish Borders; Scottish Borders Council; Shropshire Council; Snowdonia National Park; South Ayrshire Council; South Lakeland District Council; Teignbridge District Council; Wrexham; Yorkshire Dales National Park.


Written Question
Aerials: Planning Permission
Monday 22nd March 2021

Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Independent - Enfield, Southgate)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which local authorities have approved planning applications for emergency services communications masts as part of the Emergency Services Network roll out.

Answered by Kit Malthouse

The Emergency Services Network (ESN) is being built by EE, by upgrading their existing network. This includes building over 650 additional 4G radio masts across this country, as part of their contractual obligations to ensure coverage on 218,000km of major and minor roads.

In addition to the masts built by EE, the Home Office is building a further 292 masts in the most remote and rural areas of Britain. This set of masts is referred to as ‘Extended Area Services’ (EAS) within ESN.

The Home Office does not hold details of planning permission for ESN masts that form part of EE’s contracted ESN coverage. This response is limited to providing information with regards to the EAS sites that are being built by the Home Office.

Planning applications have been approved by the following local authorities:

Angus Council; Argyll and Bute Council; Brecon Beacons National Park; Cairngorms National Park; Carlisle City Council; Carmarthenshire County Council; Ceredigion County Council; Conwy County Borough Council; Dartmoor National Park; Denbighshire County Council; Dumfries and Galloway; Dumfries and Galloway Council; East Lothian Council; Exmoor National Park, Highland Council; Lake District National Park; Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park; Monmouthshire County Council; North Ayrshire Council; North York Moors National Park; Northumberland County Council; Northumberland National Park; Orkney Islands Council; Peak District National Park; Perth and Kinross; Powys County Council; Scottish Borders; Scottish Borders Council; Shropshire Council; Snowdonia National Park; South Ayrshire Council; South Lakeland District Council; Teignbridge District Council; Wrexham; Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Please note that whilst the above local authorities have already approved some planning applications, there may also be planning applications pending approval with the same local authorities where the Home Office is building multiple ESN EAS sites within the same local authority boundary.


Written Question
Hares: Peak District National Park
Monday 8th March 2021

Asked by: Olivia Blake (Labour - Sheffield, Hallam)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the introduction in Scotland from 1 March 2021 of a licensing regime making it illegal to intentionally kill, injure or take mountain hares at any time without a licence, whether his Department is planning to introduce protections for the last surviving population in England of mountain hares in the Peak District National Park.

Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

This Government remains committed to taking action to recover our threatened native species. We continue to consider how we might best do this for mountain hare and the role of protection of the species in law, where there is evidence that this will provide genuine benefits.