Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department’s data cleanse of the magistrates’ court data will (a) help with listing, (b) benefit other court processes and (c) improve the accuracy of the statistics.
Answered by Heidi Alexander - Secretary of State for Transport
In June and September 2024, the Ministry of Justice made the decision to cancel publication of the quarterly Official Accredited statistics on the criminal courts, following concerns about the quality of criminal court performance data.
That initial work highlighted some necessary changes to court processing systems to enable robust and accurate data to be produced. These fixes do not affect the operation of the courts and are purely an issue for the data reporting.
Despite these data issues, we know that the Crown Court outstanding caseload has been increasing in the last 6 months, and remains one of the biggest pressures facing the criminal justice system.
These data fixes are being implemented alongside work to align the Ministry of Justice Official Accredited statistics and HMCTS management information methodologies. This will benefit users by providing greater transparency and coherence in court data.
Publishing accurate statistics for our criminal courts is vital for public confidence in the justice system. I recognise that the prolonged absence of timely and accurate data is an unsatisfactory position. This work is a departmental priority and, is underway to deliver an updated data series (including those missing quarters) as soon as possible when we are confident it meets the required level of accuracy. The Government looks forward to updating the House on the action we are taking soon.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the issue affecting the quality of the data for the Criminal Court Statistics affects data on the number of Crown Court cases disposed of each month.
Answered by Heidi Alexander - Secretary of State for Transport
In June and September 2024, the Ministry of Justice made the decision to cancel publication of the quarterly Official Accredited statistics on the criminal courts, following concerns about the quality of criminal court performance data.
That initial work highlighted some necessary changes to court processing systems to enable robust and accurate data to be produced. These fixes do not affect the operation of the courts and are purely an issue for the data reporting.
Despite these data issues, we know that the Crown Court outstanding caseload has been increasing in the last 6 months, and remains one of the biggest pressures facing the criminal justice system.
These data fixes are being implemented alongside work to align the Ministry of Justice Official Accredited statistics and HMCTS management information methodologies. This will benefit users by providing greater transparency and coherence in court data.
Publishing accurate statistics for our criminal courts is vital for public confidence in the justice system. I recognise that the prolonged absence of timely and accurate data is an unsatisfactory position. This work is a departmental priority and, is underway to deliver an updated data series (including those missing quarters) as soon as possible when we are confident it meets the required level of accuracy. The Government looks forward to updating the House on the action we are taking soon.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will publish a breakdown of the magistrates' court backlog showing the number of (a) Single Justice Procedure cases and (b) cases that have to go to a hearing.
Answered by Heidi Alexander - Secretary of State for Transport
In June and September 2024, the Ministry of Justice made the decision to cancel publication of the quarterly Official Accredited statistics on the criminal courts, following concerns about the quality of criminal court performance data.
That initial work highlighted some necessary changes to court processing systems to enable robust and accurate data to be produced. These fixes do not affect the operation of the courts and are purely an issue for the data reporting.
Despite these data issues, we know that the Crown Court outstanding caseload has been increasing in the last 6 months, and remains one of the biggest pressures facing the criminal justice system.
These data fixes are being implemented alongside work to align the Ministry of Justice Official Accredited statistics and HMCTS management information methodologies. This will benefit users by providing greater transparency and coherence in court data.
Publishing accurate statistics for our criminal courts is vital for public confidence in the justice system. I recognise that the prolonged absence of timely and accurate data is an unsatisfactory position. This work is a departmental priority and, is underway to deliver an updated data series (including those missing quarters) as soon as possible when we are confident it meets the required level of accuracy. The Government looks forward to updating the House on the action we are taking soon.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will publish the Criminal Court Statistics datasets due to be published in (a) June, (b) September and (c) December 2024 by the end of 2024.
Answered by Heidi Alexander - Secretary of State for Transport
In June and September 2024, the Ministry of Justice made the decision to cancel publication of the quarterly Official Accredited statistics on the criminal courts, following concerns about the quality of criminal court performance data.
That initial work highlighted some necessary changes to court processing systems to enable robust and accurate data to be produced. These fixes do not affect the operation of the courts and are purely an issue for the data reporting.
Despite these data issues, we know that the Crown Court outstanding caseload has been increasing in the last 6 months, and remains one of the biggest pressures facing the criminal justice system.
These data fixes are being implemented alongside work to align the Ministry of Justice Official Accredited statistics and HMCTS management information methodologies. This will benefit users by providing greater transparency and coherence in court data.
Publishing accurate statistics for our criminal courts is vital for public confidence in the justice system. I recognise that the prolonged absence of timely and accurate data is an unsatisfactory position. This work is a departmental priority and, is underway to deliver an updated data series (including those missing quarters) as soon as possible when we are confident it meets the required level of accuracy. The Government looks forward to updating the House on the action we are taking soon.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly for October to December 2023, published on 28 March 2024, if her Department will make an assessment of the accuracy of the estimate of the outstanding caseload in the Crown Court.
Answered by Heidi Alexander - Secretary of State for Transport
In June and September 2024, the Ministry of Justice made the decision to cancel publication of the quarterly Official Accredited statistics on the criminal courts, following concerns about the quality of criminal court performance data.
That initial work highlighted some necessary changes to court processing systems to enable robust and accurate data to be produced. These fixes do not affect the operation of the courts and are purely an issue for the data reporting.
Despite these data issues, we know that the Crown Court outstanding caseload has been increasing in the last 6 months, and remains one of the biggest pressures facing the criminal justice system.
These data fixes are being implemented alongside work to align the Ministry of Justice Official Accredited statistics and HMCTS management information methodologies. This will benefit users by providing greater transparency and coherence in court data.
Publishing accurate statistics for our criminal courts is vital for public confidence in the justice system. I recognise that the prolonged absence of timely and accurate data is an unsatisfactory position. This work is a departmental priority and, is underway to deliver an updated data series (including those missing quarters) as soon as possible when we are confident it meets the required level of accuracy. The Government looks forward to updating the House on the action we are taking soon.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what her planned timetable is for publishing family court data series that are paused due to the roll out of Core Case Data.
Answered by Heidi Alexander - Secretary of State for Transport
The work required to amalgamate data on family public law cases across the legacy system and the reform system Core Case Data before publication has now been completed. Most of the family court statistics have been reinstated. However, selected data series remain paused, pending further work to engineer and validate the data. We are working at pace to process the data required for these data series and will publish these as soon as possible.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what her planned timetable is for (a) completing the migration of the Upper Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber to new case management systems and (b) publishing complete datasets for that tribunal’s workload.
Answered by Heidi Alexander - Secretary of State for Transport
A project to deploy a new case management system to multiple jurisdictions including all four chambers of the Upper Tribunal, including the Immigration and Asylum Chamber (UTIAC) was completed in May 2022.
The planned timetable for publishing datasets based on the UTIAC work types is as follows:
Judicial Review – data relating to judicial review is currently published on a quarterly basis.
Appeals – in order to publish data relating to appeals (challenging decisions of the First-tier Tribunal), further substantial technical work is required to pull the raw data from the new case management system into our secure and robust data platform and transform it into meaningful jurisdiction specific information for publication. This work is planned for 2025.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what her Department's timescale is for ensuring that reforms to operational systems resulting from HMCTS's transformation programme capture more detailed management information; and whether her Department plans to publish that detailed management information.
Answered by Heidi Alexander - Secretary of State for Transport
As the Reform Programme concludes in March 2025 and new systems are implemented and embedded, they will - in most instances - ensure more detailed data is captured.
Not only are reformed services making a difference directly to those who use them, they’re now giving us quality insights we need for the first time, to support evidence-based decisions around further improving service. For example, Reform has made it possible to collect a much wider range of data on our users including their protected characteristics, which means we can better understand how to improve access to justice.
This ability will be an ongoing feature of our work in future and help us inform improvements in the wider system.
As new data becomes available it will be considered for publication as management information or accredited official statistics to meet user needs in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many applications were received for compensation following a conviction being quashed in each year since 2018; what proportion of those applications were successful; and what the average compensation award was for successful claims.
Answered by Heidi Alexander - Secretary of State for Transport
The Miscarriages of Justice Application Service (MOJAS) has published management information which provides an overview of all applications received and decisions made for miscarriage of justice between April 2016 and March 2024. The statistics cover applications, outcomes, compensation awarded and time taken.
The link to this published data is here: Miscarriage of Justice application service (MOJAS) claims Management Information - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
However, it is important to note that the overall number of applications made for compensation under section 133 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 includes applications to the scheme by those who have not had a conviction quashed. The data on the proportion of applications which are successful specifically where the individual did have a quashed conviction can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Autumn Statement 2023, published on 22 November 2023, whether the proposal to end access to legal aid for sanctioned Universal Credit claimants (a) relates to (i) criminal and (ii) civil legal aid and (b) would prevent those people from (A) passporting and (B) accessing all legal aid.
Answered by Mike Freer
The DWP proposals on the Back to Work Plan will not remove access to legal aid for those Universal Credit (UC) claimants who may be sanctioned. Whilst anyone whose UC claim is closed would no longer be passported through the legal aid means test income assessment, the individual would remain eligible for civil or criminal legal aid, subject to the application of the full means assessment in the usual way. The additional provisions being built into DWP’s policy proposals will also mean that no vulnerable individual would face having their claim closed, thereby providing a further tier of protection for many legal aid user groups, such as the disabled and the homeless.
Over coming months, MoJ officials will be working closely with DWP officials as the policy develops.