Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of outstanding Social Security and Child Support Tribunals in (a) Caernarfon County Court and Family Court, (b) Prestatyn Justice Centre, (c) Chester Magistrates' Court, (d) Chester Civil and Family Justice Centre and (e) Welshpool County Court and Family Court.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The information requested is set out in the tables below.
HMCTS VENUES | . Average time (weeks) receipts HMCTS to Outcome1 Personal Independence Payment Appeals2 | |||
April - June (Quarter 1) 2017_2018 3 | July- September (Quarter 2) 2017_2018 3 | October to December (Quarter 3) 2017_2018 3 | April to December (Quarter 1-3 ) 2017_2018 3,4 | |
Caernarfon | 21 | 37 | 40 | 37 |
Chester5 | 19 | 23 | 27 | 22 |
Prestatyn | 33 | 37 | 48 | 39 |
Welshpool | 21 | 25 | 31 | 26 |
HMCTS VENUES | Outstanding load of all SSCS appeals as at 31st December 2017 3,4 |
Caernarfon | 258 |
Chester | 944 |
Chester Magistrates' Court | 23 |
Prestatyn | 658 |
Welshpool | 46 |
1 Includes cases cleared with and without a tribunal hearing.
2 Personal Independence Payment (New Claim Appeals) which replaces Disability Living Allowance was introduced on 8 April 2013, also includes Personal Independence Clams (Reassessments).
3 Provisional data
4 The latest period for which data are available
5 Chester venue is Chester Civil Justice Centre. For the period April-December (Quarter 1-3) 2017_2018 there were no PIP clearances for appeals listed for Chester Magistrates Court.
Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system and are the best data that is available.
The data may differ slightly to that of the published stats as theses data were run on a different date.
Clearance times, and caseload, are dependent on several factors, such as hearing capacity at the venue closest to the appellant, or the local availability of Tribunal panel members. Other factors might include the availability of the appellant or their representative, or the provision of further evidence. Additionally, a decision on the appeal may be reached after a hearing has been adjourned (which may be directed by the judge for a variety of reasons, such as to seek further evidence), or after a hearing has been postponed (again, for a variety of reasons, often at the request of the appellant). An appeal may also have been referred back to the First-tier Tribunal by the Upper Tribunal for disposal.
HMCTS has been working with the Tribunal’s judiciary both to appoint additional judges and panel members and take forward initiatives with potential to increase the capacity and performance of the Tribunal. These include reviewing current listing practices to increase the number of cases being listed on a Tribunal session, and introducing case management “triage” sessions, with the aim of reducing the time taken for appeals to reach final determination. All these measures will increase the capacity of the Tribunal with the aim of reducing waiting times for appellants.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 11 September 2017 to Question 8402, what assessment he has made the reasons for the increase in the average waiting times for a personal independence payment appeal to be heard between 2013-14 and 2016-17.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) was introduced in 2013 by the Department for Work and Pensions, and extended incrementally over subsequent years. In 2013-14 1,107 appeals were received by Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service – 104,205 were received in 2016-17. As would be expected, the average age of cleared PIP appeals has increased over this period and performance during 2013-14 cannot be regarded as typical.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of turnover of the membership of personal independence payment appeal tribunals.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) monitors the number of panel members required for Social Security and Child Support appeals. As a result, in 2017/18 and 2018/19 the Judicial Appointments Commission has been recruiting extra judicial office holders to the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal, where Personal Independent Payment appeals are heard, resulting in the following appointments: -
Panel members who sit on Social Security and Child Support appeal panels hear appeals on a range of benefits, one of which is Personal Independence Payment. Information is not held centrally on levels of turnover specific to that benefit.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 11 September 2017 to Question 8402 on Personal Independence Payment: Appeals, what the average waiting time was for a personal independence payment appeal to be heard for the 2017-18 reporting period.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The average waiting time1 for Personal Independence Payment Appeals between April 2017 and December 2017 (the latest period for which figures are available) was 22p weeks.
1Waiting time is interpreted as average clearance time – time taken for appeal receipt to outcome. Includes both appeals cleared at tribunal hearing and those cleared without the need of a tribunal hearing.
p Provisional data, which will be reconciled when the annual statistics are published and are therefore subject to change.
Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system and are the best data that are available.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the longest waiting time recorded from the lodging of a personal independence payment appeal to the confirmation of a date for the appeal tribunal, in each region of the UK in each year since its inception.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the satisfaction levels of claimants during the tribunal stage of the Personal Independence Payments claims process in each of the last two years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) does collect data on various types of issue that may be disputed in an appeal before the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) (SSCS). These include entitlement to, or rate of payment of, a particular benefit, such as personal independence payments. However, data on satisfaction levels of claimants is not currently collected centrally.
The Government is investing in the modernisation of our courts and tribunals. The SSCS Track My Appeal project will provide users appealing a social security decision through a tribunal with a digital service which allows them to track their appeal through SMS, email, and an online platform. The digital process will give appellants clear, accessible and regular updates on the progress of their appeal. The new service is due to roll out nationally later this year and HMCTS will collect user satisfaction data on the service.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) male and (b) female people ordinarily resident in Wales served custodial sentences in England in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The table below sets out the number of sentenced prisoners held in English prisons with an origin address in Wales since 2009. No data is available for 2008.
Quarter | Sentenced prisoners in English prisons with origin addresses in Wales | Male sentenced prisoners in Welsh prisons with origin addresses outside Wales | Total Population | ||||||
Female | % of Total Population | Male | % of Total Population | Total | % of Total Population | Total | % of Total Population | ||
2009 | 173 | 0.21% | 1,568 | 1.89% | 1,741 | 2.10% | 360 | 0.43% | 82,772 |
2010 | 191 | 0.22% | 1,722 | 2.03% | 1,913 | 2.25% | 385 | 0.45% | 85,009 |
2011 | 193 | 0.23% | 1,509 | 1.77% | 1,702 | 2.00% | 453 | 0.53% | 85,137 |
2012 | 209 | 0.24% | 1,597 | 1.84% | 1,806 | 2.08% | 428 | 0.49% | 86,980 |
2013 | 200 | 0.24% | 1,769 | 2.11% | 1,969 | 2.35% | 396 | 0.48% | 83,842 |
2014 | 201 | 0.24% | 1,709 | 2.00% | 1,910 | 2.23% | 412 | 0.48% | 85,509 |
2015 | 215 | 0.25% | 1,660 | 1.93% | 1,875 | 2.18% | 482 | 0.56% | 86,193 |
2016 | 220 | 0.26% | 1,610 | 1.89% | 1,830 | 2.15% | 475 | 0.56% | 85,134 |
2017 | 221 | 0.26% | 1,567 | 1.83% | 1,788 | 2.08% | 866 | 1.01% | 85,863 |
The data are based on snapshots and do not provide an indication of all prisoners with origin addresses in Wales who have served/are serving custodial sentences between 2009 and 2017. Furthermore, the data should not be taken to be representative of prisoners who identify as Welsh/English. When allocating prisoners to suitable establishments closeness to home is one of a number of factors considered. We also consider other factors such as length of sentence, security category and offending behaviour requirements. On occasion the offence itself may dictate location, with (for example) sex offenders mainly being held in prisons where they can receive specialist treatment.
All data shown are based on the prison population at either May or June of each representative year. This tool has been designed for high level analytical purposes only. The detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. While the figures shown have been checked as far as practicable, they should be regarded as approximate and not necessarily accurate to the last whole number shown in the tables. They are fit to be used for comparing the relative magnitude of components.
Around 97% of prisoners have origin locations. Those with no origin are typically foreign nationals or recently received into custody and have been excluded from this table.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) male and (b) female people ordinarily resident in England who were serving custodial sentences in Wales in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The table below sets out the number of sentenced prisoners held in Wales with an origin address in England since 2009. No data is available for 2008. As there are no female prisons in Wales the table only shows the number of male sentenced prisoners.
Quarter 1 | Male sentenced prisoners in Welsh prisons with origin addresses outside Wales | Total Prison Population | Percentage of total population made up of male sentenced prisoners in Welsh prisons with origin addresses outside Wales |
2009 | 360 | 82,772 | 0.43% |
2010 | 385 | 85,009 | 0.45% |
2011 | 453 | 85,137 | 0.53% |
2012 | 428 | 86,980 | 0.49% |
2013 | 396 | 83,842 | 0.48% |
2014 | 412 | 85,509 | 0.48% |
2015 | 482 | 86,193 | 0.56% |
2016 | 475 | 85,134 | 0.56% |
2017 | 866 | 85,863 | 1.01% |
The data are based on snapshots and do not provide an indication of all prisoners with origin addresses in England who have served/are serving custodial sentences between 2009 and 2017. Furthermore, the data should not be taken to be representative of prisoners who identify as Welsh/English. When allocating prisoners to suitable establishments closeness to home is one of a number of factors considered. We also consider other factors such as length of sentence, security category and offending behaviour requirements. On occasion the offence itself may dictate location, with (for example) sex offenders mainly being held in prisons where they can receive specialist treatment.
All data shown are based on the prison population at either May or June of each representative year. This tool has been designed for high level analytical purposes only. The detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. While the figures shown have been checked as far as practicable, they should be regarded as approximate and not necessarily accurate to the last whole number shown in the tables. They are fit to be used for comparing the relative magnitude of components.
Around 97% of prisoners have origin locations. Those with no origin are typically foreign nationals or recently received into custody and have been excluded from this table.
The Ministry of Justice is undertaking a programme of large scale prison reform which includes modernising the prison estate, closing older prisons that are not fit for purpose and creating in their place high-quality, rehabilitative establishments. As part of this programme we have started to redevelop the prisons at Glen Parva (Leicestershire) and Wellingborough (Northamptonshire); and we are building a new houseblock at Stocken prison (Rutland).
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of his Department's spend on day-to-day goods comprised fair trade products in each of the last eight years.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, to which organisations his Department has outsourced functions since 2011.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The requested information is not stored centrally. The MoJ would be required to write to each business within MoJ to advise what works has been outsourced since 2011 and the information requested could therefore only be obtained at disproportionate cost.