Asked by: Olly Glover (Liberal Democrat - Didcot and Wantage)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made with Cabinet colleagues of the effectiveness of the right to be forgotten in the Data Protection Act 2018, in the context of people acquitted of crimes.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
We have made no assessment of the effectiveness of the provisions in the Data Protection Act 2018 in respect of people acquitted of crimes. The ‘right to be forgotten’ is not an absolute right and whether there is a need for an organisation to retain data about a person’s acquittal is likely to be context specific.
Organisations in the UK that process personal data must comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA). Oversight and enforcement of these data protection laws, including the ‘right to be forgotten’, is carried out independently of the government by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO, as the UK’s independent data protection regulator, provides comprehensive guidance on its website.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign national offenders are currently released on license.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Data about the number of Foreign National Offenders (FNO) on post-release supervision is published regularly as part of the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly bulletin, with figures included under table 6.9 of the Probation chapter. The series, which includes data from the 31 March 2024, can be accessed via https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of (a) male and (b) female ex-offenders found employment within six months of release in the West Midlands in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The latest data available (April 2023-March 2024) shows that 13.0% of females and 21.8% of males in the West Midlands region were employed six months after release from custody, a gap of 8.8 percentage points. This represents 30 females and 715 males from sample sizes of 230 and 3,280 respectively.
We know that women face additional barriers to employment, including greater prevalence of trauma, substance misuse issues and being more likely to be a primary carer for children. In recognition of these additional challenges, New Futures Network, the prison service’s specialist employment team, has a dedicated employment broker for the women’s prison estate.
In addition, an expert in education and employment for women with convictions has been appointed to the cross-government Partnership Delivery Group, which supports our recently established Women’s Justice Board. The Board will set the vision for and deliver on our ambition to have fewer women in custody.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many convictions for manslaughter there have been in (a) Lancashire, (b) Greater Manchester and (c) Liverpool in cases involving suicide where domestic abuse was a contributing factor.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on convictions for manslaughter by Police Force Area in England and Wales in the Outcomes by Offences data tool. The latest data is available up to December 2024. This can be downloaded at the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page: Criminal justice statistics quarterly - GOV.UK.
However, it is not possible to provide the number of convictions for manslaughter involving suicide where domestic abuse was a contributing factor, as this information is not held centrally in the Court Proceedings Database.
Asked by: Rachel Blake (Labour (Co-op) - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to resolve ongoing issues with accessing the legal aid portal.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This is an unprecedented event involving sophisticated organised crime. Every effort is being made to restore systems following the criminal attack on our services. The Legal Aid Agency’s (LAA) digital services have been taken offline to negate the threat and prevent further exposure of legal aid providers and users. We will not reopen the system until the appropriate steps have been taken to enable us to do so. We have been able to return some to internal use, enabling an improved ability to support criminal legal aid applications and payments.
The Government are committed to ensuring that operational delivery of legal aid continues. We have put in place contingency plans to ensure that those most in need of legal support can continue to access the help that they need and that those providing vital legal services can be confident they will continue to receive payments whilst systems are offline.
Emergency legislation came into force on 27 June enabling the LAA to implement enhanced business continuity arrangements, including increased delegation of decision making to legal aid providers. These enhanced measures are designed to support legal aid providers and prevent a significant case backlog while contingency measures are in place.
The recent data breach is the result of serious criminal activity, but it was enabled by the fragility of the LAA’s IT systems as a result of the long years of underinvestment under the last Conservative Government. By contrast, since taking power this Government has prioritised work to reverse the damage of over a decade of under-investment. That includes the allocation of over £20 million in extra funding this year to stabilise and transform the Legal Aid Agency digital services. This investment will make the system more robust and resilient in the face of similar cyber-attacks in future.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of (a) foreign and (b) dual national offenders were (i) tried and (ii) sentenced in absentia in the last 12 months.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on trials, convictions and sentencing outcomes at criminal courts in England and Wales (latest data to December 2024), available from the Criminal Justice Statistics page.
However, it is not possible to provide the number of people sentenced in their absence, as this is not held. Nor is it possible to provide data on the nationality of convicted defendants who were sentenced in their absence, as this information is not collected. This information may be held in court records, but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information her Department holds on the (a) number and (b) proportion of people who abscond abroad before (i) trial and (ii) sentencing in the most recent period for which data is available; and how many and what proportion of these people were (A) dual and (B) foreign nationals.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Ministry of Justice does not centrally hold information on the numbers of people who abscond abroad before trial and sentencing or absconding abroad by dual/foreign nationals. To obtain the data to answer this question would involve a manual interrogation of court records which would result in a disproportionate cost to the department.
Asked by: Richard Tice (Reform UK - Boston and Skegness)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will take steps to ensure that (a) violent offenders and (b) people convicted of grievous bodily harm resulting in life-changing injuries are not inappropriately released early under existing early release schemes; and what review mechanisms are in place to assess whether the charge classification accurately reflects the severity of the offending behaviour in such cases.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
This Government was left an unconscionable inheritance with the prison system days from collapse. To prevent the risk of gridlock across the Criminal Justice System, we had no choice but to take decisive actions to stop our prisons overflowing and keep the public safe.
We changed the release point for certain standard determinate sentences from 50% to 40% (‘SDS40’) and increased the maximum Home Detention Curfew period from 6 months to 12 months. Both of these policies have extensive exclusion criteria, including sexual offences irrespective of sentence length and certain serious violent offences.
Harm caused is one of the two core factors always taken into account when sentencing. The Crown Prosecution Service is responsible for bringing the right charge in all serious cases and there are established mechanisms for appealing unduly lenient sentences.
Asked by: Robbie Moore (Conservative - Keighley and Ilkley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of (a) suspects were tried and (b) convicted people were sentenced in absentia in the last 12 months.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on trials, convictions and sentencing outcomes at criminal courts in England and Wales (latest data to December 2024), available from the Criminal Justice Statistics page.
However, it is not possible to provide the number of people sentenced in their absence, as this is not held. Nor is it possible to provide data on the nationality of convicted defendants who were sentenced in their absence, as this information is not collected. This information may be held in court records, but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much her Department spent on equipment for civil servants to work from home in each of the last three years.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Obtaining this data would require manually reviewing and reclassifying purchases made across multiple systems and procurement channels. Given the broad range of equipment types and purposes — particularly across a large and complex estate such as the Ministry of Justice — this process would be highly resource-intensive and result in a disproportionate cost to the Department.