Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women received an immediate custodial sentence for (a) less than six months and (b) six months or more in each of the four Police Force areas in Wales in (i) 2014, (ii) 2015, (iii) 2016, (iv) 2017 and (v) 2018 in each offence category.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Ministry of Justice has published information on the number of adult females sentenced to immediate custody broken down by custodial sentence length, by Police Force Area and by offence group in the Court Outcomes by Police Force area data tool available here:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/804509/court-outcomes-by-PFA-2018.xlsx
Select ‘All’ in the Court Type filter.
Select ’02: Female’ in the Sex filter and ’03: Adults’ in the Age Group filter.
Select ’15: Immediate Custody’ in the Outcome filter.
In the pivot table, filter Police Force Area to Dyfed-Powys, Gwent, North Wales and South Wales.
In the pivot table field list, drag ‘Offence Group’ from Filters to Rows, beneath ‘Police Force Area’.
Custodial sentence lengths can be selected using the Custodial Sentence Length filter.
Police Force Areas provide breakdowns of where offences were dealt with (not where they were committed).
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, by what (a) criteria and (b) date the performance of his Department’s New Futures Network initiative supporting offenders into employment will be assessed.
Answered by Robert Buckland
We are completing the roll-out of the New Futures Network, with 13 of the 15 geographical prison groups across England and Wales now covered.
The New Futures Network is responsible for three things:
It will be assessed against those criteria at the end of this financial year, as part of the annual HMPPS reporting cycle.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, which Government Department is responsible for ensuring people due to be released from prison are released with a (a) valid photo ID, (b) bank account and (c) JobCentre appointment for universal credit.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Ministry of Justice has responsibility for ensuring people are released from prison with a valid photo ID and a bank account. We recognise the importance of this support and have made changes so that Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC) are clearly responsible for the provision of identification documents and bank accounts, as part of Through the Gate support to prisoners on release. We have invested an additional £22 million per annum to improve delivery of these vital services for the remainder of the CRC contracts.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has responsibility for Universal Credit and Jobcentre appointments. We are working closely with the DWP to agree a National Partnership Agreement which sets out how the two Departments work together to support ex-offenders into employment. We are also working with DWP to help support these work coaches, and to further ensure they have the tools and support to do their jobs effectively.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when his Department plans to publish the pay award for prison officers following the recommendations made by the Public Sector Pay Review Board.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
At this time I am unable to confirm when the response to the Prison Service Pay Review Body recommendations will be published.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the Litigant in Person portal will be expanded to include minor personal injury claims by April 2020.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government is working closely with a broad group of expert stakeholders to develop the new accessible IT Service. This will support and enable both represented and unrepresented claimants to progress all Road Traffic Accident related personal injury claims where the value of the personal injury claims is under the new small claims track limit of £5,000.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many meetings (a) he and (b) officials in his Department have held with representatives of claimant bodies on the operation of the Litigant in Person portal in the last three months.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Secretary of State has not met with any representatives of claimant groups in the last three months. However, officials have met with representatives of the Motor Accident Solicitors Society and the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers on four occasions between April and June 2019 to discuss the whiplash reform programme generally, including aspects of the new IT Service.