Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Manzoor on 29 January (HL12848), how many successful prosecutions there have been in the UK for female genital mutiliation; and how many prosecutions are pending.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
Up until 31 December 2017, there have been two prosecutions in England and Wales (one in 2014, and one in 2016) but no convictions for the principal offence of female genital mutilation under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003. Data for 2018 will be published in May 2019.
Whilst not yet recorded in the official statistics, a jury convicted the first defendant of an FGM offence on 1 February 2019.
Information around pending prosecutions is held by the Crown Prosecution Service.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of (1) prisoners, and (2) managing chaplains in prisons in England and Wales are Muslims; and which prisons in England and Wales have managing chaplains who are Muslims.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
Data on the prisoners’ religion is published and can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/offender-management-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2018 (table 1.5 of the prison population tables for 30 September 2018). Latest data shows that 16% of prisoners in England and Wales identify themselves as Muslims.
There are 33 prisons in which there are Muslim Managing Chaplains. These are HMPs Aylesbury, Bedford, Brinsford, Bristol, Brixton, Buckley Hall, Bullingdon, Channings Wood, Cookham Wood, Deerbolt, Doncaster, Featherstone, Forest Bank, Garth, Gartree, Grendon/Springhill, Highpoint, Humber, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Long Lartin, Nottingham, Oakwood, Pentonville, Preston, Stoke Heath, Sudbury, Swinfen Hall, Thameside, Werrington, Whitemoor, and Wormwood Scrubs.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 17 November 2017 (HL2955), how many successful prosecutions there have been of police, social workers or other relevant authorities for failing to help the victims of grooming gangs.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The Ministry of Justice court proceeding database does not hold data specifically relating to different types of misconduct in a public office, nor the authority the defendant belongs to.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what funding they provide to impartial advocacy services to help the families of victims of grooming gangs.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
This Government attaches the highest priority to tackling grooming and all forms of sexual exploitation and to ensuring that all victims, whether they are a child or an adult, get the protection and support they need. Impartial advocacy for victims of sexual exploitation and abuse, and their families, is a key part of this, and is integral to the support the Government funds, including the role of Independent Sexual Violence Advisors.
In each of the last three years the Government has allocated around £7.2m in funding to sexual violence support services to provide independent, specialist support to female and male victims of sexual violence, including victims of child sexual abuse. This includes £1.7m to rape support services across England and Wales to provide specialist support to victims of child sexual abuse and exploitation. A further £4.7m has been allocated to Police and Crime Commissioners specifically to commission services supporting victims of child sexual abuse and exploitation.
From April 2019, rape and sexual abuse support services will receive an £800,000 increase in funding, allowing them to help more victims of sexual violence (including recent and non-recent child sexual abuse), often including but not restricted to funding of ISVAs.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many prosecutions of women there have been for non-payment of the BBC licence fee in the last 12 months; how many of those have led to a prison sentence; and what proportion of all women prisoners this represents.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
There were 98,999 females prosecuted for TV licence evasion in the year ending December 2017, the latest published data.
No prosecutions resulted in a custodial sentence.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many residence orders were given by the family courts to fathers in 2017, and how many to mothers.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
A child arrangements order provides for a child to live with and spend time with a person or persons named in the order and replaced separate contact and residence orders in 2014. Such orders may address various arrangements for a child’s upbringing involving more than one person.
The welfare of the child is the court’s paramount concern when making any decision about a child’s upbringing, including with whom the child is to live or spend time with.
The Ministry of justice publishes data on the number of child arrangements orders made in respect of contact and residence. Statistics can be obtained at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-court-statistics-quarterly in Table 4. However, the Department does not collate figures centrally on the applicant’s connection to the child. This information could only be obtained by checking each case file at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what records they keep on the outcomes for children who have been subject to child arrangements orders in the family courts since 2000; and how many of those orders setting out parenting time between a father and his children were broken in 2017.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
Child Arrangements Orders replaced separate contact and residence orders in April 2014. The Department does not hold information on the outcomes for children who have been subject to such orders in the family courts. This information, including court ordered time with a father, could only be obtained by checking each court file at disproportionate cost. The Department does, however, publish information on the number of children who are the subject of applications and orders for enforcement in private law Children Act 1989 proceedings where a breach of an order is alleged. This is set out in Tables 3 and 4 of Family Court Statistics Quarterly available from www.gov.uk.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, in the light of the Report on an unannounced inspection of HMP Onley: 25 July – 5 August 2016 by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, published on 2 December 2016, why Tommy Robinson has been moved from HMP Hull to HMP Onley; and what steps they are taking to ensure his safety and wellbeing.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
As per my answer to your previous question, HL8306, we do not comment on individual cases. We take very seriously our duty of care to ensure all prisoners are able to serve their sentences in a safe environment. Every prisoner is risk assessed on their reception into custody and extra measures are put into place to protect prisoners where there are concerns for their welfare.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure the safety in prison of Tommy Robinson.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
We do not comment on individual cases. However, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service takes very seriously its duty of care to ensure all prisoners are able to serve their sentences in a safe environment. Each prisoner is risk assessed on their reception into custody and extra measures are put into place to protect prisoners where there are concerns for their welfare.
Asked by: Lord Pearson of Rannoch (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Faulks on 24 June (WA 141), what are the "decision-making processes for making European Union legislation" which are not made public.
Answered by Lord Faulkner of Worcester
Article 4 of Regulation 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents sets out exceptions from the duty to provide access. These exceptions include those intended to protect internal deliberative processes where appropriate. For example, Article 4(3) allows documents to be withheld if they relate to a matter where the decision has not been taken by one of the three institutions, if disclosure of the document would seriously undermine the institution's decision-making process, unless there is an overriding public interest in disclosure.
Article 3(4) also allows a document to be withheld if it contains opinions for internal use as part of deliberations and preliminary consultations within one of the three institutions, and if disclosure of the document would seriously undermine the institution's decision-making process, unless there is an overriding public interest in disclosure.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 also contains exemptions from the duty to release. For example, section 27 allows information to be withheld where its release would, or would be likely to, prejudice international relations. Section 35 allows information to be withheld where it relates to the formulation of government policy. Both of these exemptions are subject to a public interest test.