Asked by: Lord Hayward (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of the number of fines issued by the court system to individuals were unpaid in the last full year for which they have data, broken down by economic region if that breakdown is available.
Answered by Baroness Levitt - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has no ability to identify the number of fines that are unpaid in the last full year by reference to available digital system reports. Nor could any such report be created and run. Instead, it would be necessary to interrogate court records manually. Accordingly, the information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
In addition to the complexities of the way digital systems operate, assessing payment outcomes over a fixed period is complicated in and of itself. For example, complexities are introduced by later account movements, including account consolidations, Transfer of Fine Orders and write offs. These processes can remove accounts as discrete records or require them to be written off and re raised on different systems, creating a risk of misattribution and double counting. As a result, activity recorded within a given period may relate to fines imposed outside that period, meaning period-based measures of payment rates or balances are inherently unreliable without full account level review.
Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what his assessment is of the effectiveness of Reciprocal Enforcement of Maintenance Orders.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The UK fully supports the operation of the international treaties which enable the cross-border enforcement of maintenance decisions. Children have a right to care and support, and parents have a responsibility to provide it. That responsibility endures regardless of family separation and includes situations where the paying parent and the child are living in different countries.
The effectiveness of reciprocal enforcement depends on how national governments operate the procedures required under the different treaties. The administration of the reciprocal enforcement of maintenance procedures in England and Wales is kept under continuous review and officials work to address any issues arising.
Regular discussions take place between UK officials and officials from other countries.
Asked by: Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they take to ensure that child sexual abuse material is completely removed from cloud servers as well as local devices upon the conclusion of any trial concerning such material.
Answered by Baroness Levitt - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice does not hold operational responsibility for the removal of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from devices or cloud servers. Where such material is obtained as part of a criminal investigation, responsibility for the retention, secure storage and destruction of such material rests with the police who act in accordance with operational, evidential and legal requirements.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what her proposed timetable is for launching the consultation on the reform of weddings law in England and Wales; and what the proposed duration of that consultation will be.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
We will be undertaking the consultation on the reform of weddings law in England and Wales early this year. The exact publication date and duration is yet to be confirmed.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment has his department made of the potential benefits of introducing mandatory regular building surveys and maintenance plans in support of vulnerable adults under the court of protection.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
No such assessment has been made. The court can appoint a range of persons to fulfil the role of deputy in managing the financial affairs, and if appropriate the property affairs, of a vulnerable adult who lacks the capacity to make decisions about their assets.
Where a deputy is authorised to manage such property, they must act in accordance with the terms of the deputyship order and must act in the best interests of the vulnerable adult. The deputy must protect the property by ensuring it is secure and that appropriate insurance is in place. Keeping the property secure includes ensuring that any necessary maintenance is carried out by an appropriately qualified contractor.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to amend the Matrimonial Causes Act.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government has no plans to amend the Matrimonial Causes Act at this stage.
We are in the process of exploring the issues identified by the Law Commission in its 2024 report on financial remedies, ahead of issuing a consultation by Spring this year.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Answers to Questions 109199, 109198, 109197 and 109196, if he will publish the spreadsheet with the information requested in these questions with the number of previous occasions the offender has been convicted as individual categories up to a maximum of six times rather than in groups.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The information requested is provided in the attached excel tables. These tables include data covering the period 2020 – 2024 on:
- The number of offenders who were convicted of a specified offence but did not receive an immediate custodial sentence, by the number of previous convictions for that specified offence up to a maximum of 6.
As set out in response to questions 109196-109199, this data is not regularly published or held in an easily accessible format. The information supplied has been sourced from a bespoke retrieval from the Police National Computer database.
Previous convictions are already a statutory aggravating factor, with Sentencing Guidelines being clear that sentencers must consider the nature and relevance of previous convictions, and the time elapsed since the previous convictions.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department’s press release entitled Government action to avert summer prison disaster, published on 29 January 2026, on what date the 2,900 prison spaces were approved for construction.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
This Government has delivered c.2,900 additional prison places and construction on these began between 2022 and 2024. We have invested £4.7 billion over the spending review period to enable the delivery of these additional prison places at pace and have maintained our target to deliver a total of 14,000 by 2031. The places delivered by this Government so far were approved for construction between 2020 and 2024.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department’s press release entitled Government action to avert summer prison disaster, published on 29 January 2026, when the 2,900 prison spaces began construction.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
This Government has delivered c.2,900 additional prison places and construction on these began between 2022 and 2024. We have invested £4.7 billion over the spending review period to enable the delivery of these additional prison places at pace and have maintained our target to deliver a total of 14,000 by 2031. The places delivered by this Government so far were approved for construction between 2020 and 2024.
Asked by: Kieran Mullan (Conservative - Bexhill and Battle)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many probation officers have been recruited since 5 July 2024.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Between 5 July 2024 and 30 September 2025, 55 qualified Band 4 probation officers joined HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). This figure reflects only those who already held the required qualification at the point of appointment.
The majority of Band 4 probation officers join HMPPS as trainees and qualify within the Department, rather than being recruited directly into Band 4 roles.