Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Restore Britain - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether Cafcass or the family courts hold any contracts, service agreements, or training arrangements with Women’s Aid; and whether Women’s Aid currently undertakes any funded or formal work with the family justice system.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice will be investing £550 million in victim support services over the next three years – the biggest investment into victim support services to date. This includes funding for the 42 Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) across England and Wales to commission local practical, emotional and therapeutic support services for victims of all crime types. This includes:
‘Core’ funding, which is for PCCs to allocate at their discretion, based on their assessment of local need.
Funding that is ringfenced for sexual violence and domestic abuse services.
PCCs are best placed to understand their local communities and providers, and to commission appropriate support to meet the need of victims in their area. Many PCCs across England and Wales provide funding to local Women’s Aid centres to deliver vital victim support services within their area.
We do not routinely publish the full Ministry of Jusice budget or details of grant agreements or contracts for victim and witness support services. The budgets for individual PCC areas are published on each area’s website. A breakdown of grant funding for the previous financial year is published on an annual basis on the Government Grants Information System.
Turning specifically to the Family Courts, since 13 January 2025, a process has operated that allows court staff to ensure the safe service of court documents to those who are residing at a refuge. This service ensures that courts can protect the individual’s safety (and that of everyone living in the refuge) while also supporting the right to a fair trial for all parties. Practice Direction 6D makes provision for this service.
The Ministry of Justice awarded a grant to Women's Aid Federation of England and Welsh Women's Aid to develop and deliver this service. Details of this will be published as part of the Government Grants publication which can be found here: Government grants data and statistics - GOV.UK. Routine funding is now provided to both organisations to continue its operation.
Cafcass does not hold any contracts, service agreements, training arrangements or other formal partnership arrangements with Women’s Aid.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many hours of unpaid work were (a) sentenced and (b) credited in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Between July 2021 and June 2025, a total of 24,341,125 hours of unpaid work were sentenced in England and Wales. In the same period, 17,614,065 hours of unpaid work were credited in England and Wales.
By Performance Year | Hours of unpaid work sentenced | Hours of unpaid work credited |
July 2021 to March 2022* | 4,351,655 | 2,769,930 |
April 2022 to March 2023 | 5,943,455 | 4,499,655 |
April 2023 to March 2024 | 6,108,405 | 4,683,290 |
April 2024 to March 2025 | 6,273,290 | 4,520,280 |
April 2025 to June 2025* | 1,664,320 | 1,140,910 |
Periods marked with an asterisk (*) indicate incomplete performance years.
Hours sentenced are the number of hours that the offender is required to work as part of the sentence of the court.
Upon attendance of the unpaid work session, the time the offender spends working will be credited towards the number of hours they have been ordered to complete. This includes where a person attends a session and subsequently fails to comply with instructions or is sent home due to poor behaviour, or where service issues during the day cause a session to be cancelled.
Data from April 2022 to June 2025 sourced from the latest published statistics on unpaid work. A link can be found here - Unpaid work management information, update to June 2025 - GOV.UK
Data from July 2021 to March 2022 sourced from nDelius on 13/04/2026. While these data have been assured as much as practical, as with any large administrative dataset, the data should not be assumed to be accurate to the last value presented.
Data from the biannual Unpaid Work publication are rounded to the nearest five hours worked for data suppression purposes and yearly totals are calculated on the rounded values of each quarter. To be consistent with the publication, the same principle has been applied to data between July 2021 and March 2022.
The next publication is due on 14 May 2026.
Data are provided from July 2021, the month following the reunification of the Probation Service.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many children aged (a) under one years old, (b) aged between one and four years old and (c) aged five years and older were (i) adopted and (ii) given a Special guardianship order in each year since 1996.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Data on the age of the children subject to adoption and Special Guardianship Orders is routinely published in Family Court Quarterly statistics and the relevant tables are attached.
Data prior to 2011 is not readily available and to source it would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Zöe Franklin (Liberal Democrat - Guildford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of average waiting times for fact-finding hearings in the family courts; and what steps he is taking to reduce those waiting times.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
This Government is committed to improving the performance of the Family Courts, and the Family Justice Board has agreed system-wide priorities and targets for reducing delay across England and Wales. While we do not have specific figures for the timeliness of fact-finding hearings, the latest published data shows a reduction in the national average case duration for both public and private law cases.
The Government recently announced the national rollout of the Child Focused Model for private law over the next three years. It currently operates in 10 of 43 Family Court areas and seeks to enhance the experience of children and families. The model has additionally demonstrated a significant impact on timeliness and reductions in the number of average hearings per case. Cases are concluding between 11-30 weeks quicker and outstanding caseloads have been reduced by up to 50%.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many children aged (a) under one, (b) one, (c) two, (d) three, (e) four, (f) five, (g) six, (h) seven, (i) eight, (j) nine and (k) ten and over years old were (i) adopted and (ii) subject of a Special Guardianship Order in each year since 2021.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Data on age of children subject to adoption and Special Guardianship Orders is routinely published in the quarterly Family Court Statistics and the relevant tables are attached.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the costs arising from his role as Deputy Prime Minister are being met from the department’s budget.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
As outlined on gov.uk, the Deputy Prime Minister acts on behalf of the department and also deputises for the Prime Minister. Engagements completed on the Prime Minister's behalf, including international visits, are generally paid for by the Cabinet Office.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential for a role for the voluntary sector in helping support the Probation Service during the period after release.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We recognise the valuable role played by the thousands of voluntary sector organisations that work in partnership with prisons and the Probation Service to provide vital support to people serving their sentences in prison and on returning to the community.
We welcome the Independent Sentencing Review’s recommendations on how we can better harness the value the Third Sector can add to probation work, building even stronger partnerships to enable better targeting of resources and improve outcomes for offenders.
The Ministry of Justice and H M Prison and Probation Service are continuing to work with voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations to define the role that they can play in the Probation Service of the future.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing the participation of the voluntary sector to assist with the probation service.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We recognise the valuable role played by the thousands of voluntary sector organisations that work in partnership with prisons and the Probation Service to provide vital support to people serving their sentences in prison and on returning to the community.
We welcome the Independent Sentencing Review’s recommendations on how we can better harness the value the Third Sector can add to probation work, building even stronger partnerships to enable better targeting of resources and improve outcomes for offenders.
The Ministry of Justice and H M Prison and Probation Service are continuing to work with voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations to define the role that they can play in the Probation Service of the future.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Restore Britain - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the reoffending rate is for foreign national offenders convicted of sexual or violent offences against women in Great Yarmouth, compared with UK nationals convicted of comparable offences.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice does not hold data which would enable us to identify sexual or violent offences committed against women in Great Yarmouth.
Foreign nationals who commit crime should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced. We refer all foreign national offenders (FNOs) in receipt of custodial sentences to the Home Office where they are considered for removal under the Early Removal Scheme (ERS). The ERS enables the removal of FNOs at an earlier point in their sentence than would otherwise be possible. It is the most effective mechanism for removing eligible FNOs as quickly as possible, freeing up prison spaces and saving taxpayer money.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of the implementation of fixed release dates by the Parole Board.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Prisoners serving a determinate sentence are usually released automatically at a point fixed by legislation relating to their sentence. In contrast, indeterminate sentenced prisoners can only be released by the Parole Board after the expiry of their tariff. They must serve a minimum term, in full, in prison, at the end of which they can only be released if the independent Parole Board is satisfied that it is no longer necessary for the protection of the public for the offender to be confined. Therefore, introducing release dates fixed by the Parole Board would primarily affect indeterminate sentences.
In accordance with legislation, an indeterminate sentenced prisoner must have a parole review to consider whether the release test is met and if not, to confirm further detention. Reviews take place just prior to tariff expiry and then at least every two years thereafter. The setting of fixed release dates would not be compatible with the need for release to be based on the current risk posed by offenders and whether they could be managed safely if released into the community on licence.
During the passage of the Sentencing Act 2026, the House of Lords voted against an amendment to legislate for the Parole Board to fix a future release date for IPP prisoners.