Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of conditional cautions in relation to hate crime.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
National guidance issued by the Director of Public Prosecutions for Adult Conditional Cautions states that they are not considered suitable for offences involving hate crime. However, there are rare cases when, because of the nature of the crime or the circumstances of the offender, exceptionally a Conditional Caution could be considered. Any such case considered suitable by the police for a Conditional Caution must be referred to a prosecutor and cannot be issued without the expressed authorisation of the Crown Prosecution Service.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent discussions he has had with his counterparts in the (a) Welsh and (b) Scottish devolved administrations on the (i) establishment and (ii) operation of the New Homes Ombudsman scheme.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Ministers and officials have regular engagement with the devolved administrations on a range of issues.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she has made an assessment of the impact of private copy levy schemes on the creative sector in the European Union.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government has made no recent assessment of the impact of private copy levy schemes on the creative sector in the European Union.
The 3rd Trade Specialised Committee on Intellectual Property under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement discussed Private Copying Levies on 23 October 2023 and the Minutes were published on gov.uk here.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to implement the framework for out-of-court disposals introduced in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is committed to delivering a strengthened and consistent Out of Court Disposals framework in England and Wales through the reformed two-tier cautions framework set out in the Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Act 2022. We are continuing to work towards implementing it effectively.
Our draft Code of Practice, covering the use, administration, and scrutiny of the revised framework of the Diversionary and Community Cautions, was put to public consultation from 2 August to 13 October 2023. We are analysing the responses received to inform any necessary revisions to the draft Code of Practice and we will publish a Government response to the consultation in due course. We will confirm the implementation timeline for the revised framework once this process is complete.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of (a) system upgrades and (b) maintenance on the time taken to produce biometric residence permits.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office releases weekly upgrades, including maintenance, to the Atlas caseworking system. Such releases are completed without the Atlas caseworking system, or services like BRP production, being down at all and so there is no impact upon caseworking or BRP production.
Where a maintenance release requires the system to be taken down temporarily, it is done so in quiet periods and for a very short time period, so that caseworking operations are not adversely affected.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of (a) system upgrades and (b) maintenance on the time taken to process leave to remain applications.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office releases weekly upgrades, including maintenance, to the Atlas caseworking system. Such releases are completed without the Atlas caseworking system, or services like BRP production, being down at all and so there is no impact upon caseworking or BRP production.
Where a maintenance release requires the system to be taken down temporarily, it is done so in quiet periods and for a very short time period, so that caseworking operations are not adversely affected.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to increase the speed of processing Leave to Remain applications.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office publishes a range of data including some on processing times. Please see link: Migration transparency data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The resources available are deployed to decide applications as quickly as possible.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his oral statement of 16 October 2023 on Prison Capacity, Official Report column 59, what assessment he has made of the potential impact on victims of less serious offenders being moved out of prison onto licence earlier than their automatic release date.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Protecting the public is our number one priority – and so it is right that we take the tough and decisive action so we can keep putting the most serious offenders behind bars and for longer, as the public would rightly expect.
We understand that information is deeply important for victims which is why those who have been victims of crime can get information and updates about developments relating to their case where they are eligible for the Victim Contact Scheme (VCS).
There is a duty to inform victims signed up to the VCS before an offender is moved out of prison onto licence and to seek their views on whether they would like to see particular licence conditions included, such as an exclusion zone or non-contact conditions. That duty will apply equally under this scheme and offenders will not be moved onto licence on ECSL unless and until that victim contact has been completed.
Offenders will also have a supervision plan put together by probation, including strict licence conditions, to ensure that they can be safely managed in the community. As my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Justice, set out in his speech to parliament, this scheme will simply bring forward that removal onto licence by no more than 18 days. And if they fail to comply or behave in a way that puts the public at risk, they can be immediately brought back to prison for the remainder of their sentence.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his oral statement of 16 October 2023 on Prison Capacity, Official Report column 59, what criteria his Department will use to decide which less serious offenders will be moved out of prison on licence up to 18 days before their automatic release date.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Only lower-level offenders serving a Standard Determinate Sentence and due for automatic release on licence at the half-way point will be considered for removal onto licence under these arrangements. More serious and higher risk offenders whose release is a matter for the Parole Board to assess will not be in scope.
Those serving a sentence for any kind of sexual offence, terror offence or any violent offence with a sentence of more than four years will also automatically be ruled out. Offenders eligible for End of Custody Supervised Licence will be subject to strict licence conditions, as identified by probation in their release management plan.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his oral statement of 16 October 2023 on Prison Capacity, Official Report column 61, when he plans to report to the House on the curtailing of the licence period for offenders held on Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Justice, advised in his statement to this House on 16 October that he would be looking at options to curtail the licence period to restore greater proportionality to Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences in line with recommendation 8 of the report by the Justice Select Committee report. He will revert to Parliament on this as soon as parliamentary time allows.