Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many disabled people over 18 years old are not able to access their Child Trust Funds because their parents or guardian have not applied to the Court of Protection to access the funds on their behalf.
Answered by Baroness Levitt - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
It is not possible to provide the information requested as this data is not held by the Ministry of Justice. This is because a lack of mental capacity cannot be inferred simply from a person’s disability or condition. Capacity is decision-specific and timebound.
Many disabled young adults are able to manage their own finances, including accessing their matured Child Trust Fund (CTF), with appropriate support where needed. An application to the Court of Protection to access a CTF is only required where the account holder lacks mental capacity to make decisions about their property and affairs and does not have an existing court order or court appointed deputy in place. A deputy may be appointed to manage a range of assets, including any CTF, or the court can make a one-off order for CTF access.
The Government recognises that the transition to adulthood can be a challenging time for young disabled people and their families. To support them, guidance has been published on GOV.UK in the form of a toolkit, “Making financial decisions for young people who lack capacity”, which raises awareness on the arrangements that they need to have in place.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to publish their response to the Mental Capacity Act: Small Payments Scheme, which closed on 12 January, to help disabled families access Child Trust Funds.
Answered by Lord Bellamy
We are preparing the Government's response to the consultation and are aiming to provide an update to the House in the near future. The consultation exposed a number of issues which warranted further consideration, especially in relation to the design, security, simplicity and effectiveness of a scheme when compared to existing processes. In the meantime we have been collaborating with the Court of Protection to improve access to payments under current legislation, and pilot processes and documentation are currently being developed.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken in the last 12 months to maintain visiting rights for prisoners while there have been restrictions in place to address the COVID-19 pandemic; how many visits were permitted for each category of prisoner each month; what estimate they have made of the percentage of all prisoners who have received visitors since March 2020; and whether all prison visitors are required to produce a negative COVID-19 test.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar - Shadow Attorney General
In response to COVID-19, the MoJ/HMPPS took decisive action to protect staff and prisoners. These changes are set out in ‘COVID-19: National Framework for Prison Regimes and Services’, available attached and here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-national-framework-for-prison-regimes-and-services. In line with this framework and public health advice, at different times during the pandemic social face-to-face visits in the adult estate have had to be temporarily suspended (other than on exceptional compassionate grounds which need to be agreed in advance with the prison). Visits to children in the Youth Custody Estate (YCS) have continued. Official/ legal visits have continued, conducted remotely where possible.
Social visits during the pandemic have taken place in line with the National Framework and a regime Exception Delivery Model with additional measures put in place to ensure that they can do so in a COVID-19 secure manner. These have had to include restricting the numbers of visits, length of visits and numbers of visitors in each session. We do not require evidence of a negative test as a pre-cursor to visiting. Decisions as to how visits operate at each establishment within this framework are determined through locally led assessments informed by Public Health advice. Information on how visits operate is set out on each establishment’s information page on GOV.UK, available here; https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/prisons-in-england-and-wales, and communicated to those wishing to visit as part of the local booking arrangements. In line with the National Framework, arrangements for social visits remain under constant review in light of public health guidance.
Data on the numbers of visits is not collated and held nationally. This information cannot therefore be provided without disproportionate cost.
As part of a wider package of measures to enable those in prison and the YCS to maintain contact with families and significant others throughout the pandemic, we also introduced circa 1,500 additional mobile PIN phones, have provided additional PIN credit and have introduced an emergency secure Video Calling service which to date has supported over 100,000 calls.