Asked by: Lord McCabe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will give registrars discretion to extend the period of validity for Superintendent Registrar Certificates when weddings have had to be postponed as a result of covid-19.
Answered by Alex Chalk
The Government acknowledges the significant upheaval that Covid-19 is causing for couples who were looking to marry at this time. The requirement to solemnize a marriage within twelve months of giving notice to marry is set out in primary legislation and would require primary legislation to amend.
We are exploring what changes might be possible in relation to marriages at this time, and in line with Public Health England guidance on social distancing.
Asked by: Lord McCabe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the proportion of enquiries made by Members of Parliament to the Legal Aid Agency that receive a response within 20 working days.
Answered by Alex Chalk
For the most recent completed financial year, 98% of enquiries made by Members of Parliament to the Legal Aid Agency received a response within 20 working days.
Information for the remaining questions posed could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord McCabe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of complaints made to the Legal Aid Agency that involve a statutory charge on an individuals property in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Alex Chalk
For the most recent completed financial year, 98% of enquiries made by Members of Parliament to the Legal Aid Agency received a response within 20 working days.
Information for the remaining questions posed could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord McCabe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average length of time is for the Legal Aid Agency to resolve a complaint.
Answered by Alex Chalk
For the most recent completed financial year, 98% of enquiries made by Members of Parliament to the Legal Aid Agency received a response within 20 working days.
Information for the remaining questions posed could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord McCabe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many complaints have been made to the Legal Aid Agency on not implementing a court order, in each year since 2009.
Answered by Alex Chalk
For the most recent completed financial year, 98% of enquiries made by Members of Parliament to the Legal Aid Agency received a response within 20 working days.
Information for the remaining questions posed could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord McCabe (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October to Question 866 on Prisons: Overcrowding, what estimate he has made of the effect on the prison population of those sentencing reforms.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
On 14 October, the Government laid a draft statutory instrument (SI) that will mean offenders sentenced to a standard determinate sentence of at least 7 years for specified serious sexual and violent offences will serve two-thirds of their sentence in custody, rather than being released halfway. If approved by Parliament, this change will come into effect from April 2020.
Alongside the SI we published a full impact assessment. The impact on the prison population will be felt gradually. We estimate that the prison population will increase by around 2,000 places over 10 years, i.e. by March 2030.
This is the first step in a package of sentencing reforms which will be brought forward in a Sentencing Bill, announced in the Queen’s Speech. The Government has been clear that violent and sexual offenders must serve sentences that truly reflect the severity of the crime – helping to protect the public and giving victims confidence that justice has been served.
The full impact assessment is available at:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2019/9780111190524/resources