Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the possible impact of the closure of the Professional and Career Development Loans scheme on those from low-income households seeking to qualify as solicitors through the Solicitors Qualifying Exam, due to be introduced in 2021.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie - Shadow Minister (Justice)
The legal services sector in England and Wales is independent of Government, and as such, the Government does not have a role in setting or approving the framework for admission into the legal profession.
In March 2018, the Legal Services Board (LSB) approved a rule change application made by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). This application laid out a framework upon which the SRA could seek to introduce new requirements for trainee solicitors to pass a centralised Solicitors Qualifying Exam before being admitted into the profession. However, the application only established the framework. The SRA will need to submit another rule change application to LSB in order to implement it.
In its March 2018 decision notice, the LSB set out the substantive issues that it had not been able to fully assess and would need to evaluate before it approved any further application from the SRA seeking to implementing the framework. This included assessing the full costs of the Solicitors Qualifying Exam and accessibility of assessments.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they plan to take to ensure that aspiring solicitors from low-income households have access to the funds necessary to complete the Solicitors Qualifying Exam, alongside any associated preparation or training courses.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie - Shadow Minister (Justice)
The legal services sector in England and Wales is independent of Government, and as such, the Government does not have a role in setting or approving the framework for admission into the legal profession.
In March 2018, the Legal Services Board (LSB) approved a rule change application made by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). This application laid out a framework upon which the SRA could seek to introduce new requirements for trainee solicitors to pass a centralised Solicitors Qualifying Exam before being admitted into the profession. However, the application only established the framework. The SRA will need to submit another rule change application to LSB in order to implement it.
In its March 2018 decision notice, the LSB set out the substantive issues that it had not been able to fully assess and would need to evaluate before it approved any further application from the SRA seeking to implementing the framework. This included assessing the full costs of the Solicitors Qualifying Exam and accessibility of assessments.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to ensure that the solicitor profession remains accessible to all applicants.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie - Shadow Minister (Justice)
Under the framework established by the Legal Services Act 2007, the legal profession in England and Wales is independent from government. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is responsible for authorising, and setting the qualifications standards for, solicitors in England and Wales.
Following the publication of the Legal Education and Training Review, the Legal Services Board issued statutory guidance on regulatory arrangements for education and training in 2014, and all the legal services regulators reviewed their arrangements. Subject to the approval of the Legal Services Board, the Solicitors Regulation Authority is planning to introduce a new Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) from September 2021. It is hoped that the flexibility and projected lower costs of the SQE will help attract a more diverse range of candidates.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many prosecutions for (1) selling, and (2) supplying, age-rated video games to under-age children have taken place in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie - Shadow Minister (Justice)
Defendants proceeded against for selling or supplying age rated video games to under age children in England and Wales 2012 to 2016 can be viewed in the table below.
Defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts for selling or supplying age-rated video games (1) to under-age children in England and Wales 2012-2016 (2)(3).
2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
8 | - | 1 | - | - |
' - ' = Nil
(1) section 9(1) to 13(1)(3)(5) of the Video Recordings Act 1984.
(2) The figures given in the table relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.
(3) This information was obtained from a manual review of court case files that centrally held data indicated may be relevant, and as such has not been through the same quality assurance processes as for routinely published data. However, every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. It is also important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.
Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services - Ministry of Justice.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many prosecutions have been brought for unlawful sexual discrimination in the field of employment in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie - Shadow Minister (Justice)
Sexual discrimination is not a prosecutable offence.
Employment tribunals are not criminal courts and therefore it is not possible to prosecute for unlawful sexual discrimination before an employment tribunal.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the re-offending rates of prisoners who have completed (1) GCSEs, and (2) A-levels, while in prison.
Answered by Lord Faulks
Re-offending rates are not currently available broken down by different levels of education attainment.
We want to improve education so prisoners are less likely to commit crime on release. That is why we are investing in a modern prison estate, where governors are empowered to run prisons in the way they think best, and prisoners are given a chance to work or learn. It is only through more effective rehabilitation that we will reduce reoffending, cut crime and improve public safety.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many youth offending teams have dyslexic accreditation.
Answered by Lord Faulks
Information on the number of Youth Offending Teams with dyslexic accreditation is not held centrally.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many transgender prisoners are gaoled in a prison for people of their previous gender designation.
Answered by Lord Faulks
This information is not held centrally. The Minister for Prisons, Probation and Rehabilitation announced on 20 November that HM Government will publish data on the number of trans people in prison in due course.