Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of (a) barristers, (b) solicitors and (c) CILEX practitioners have registered for work under the Cross Examination Prohibition Scheme in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Laura Farris
We have assumed that both questions refer to the Qualified Legal Representative (QLR) scheme which was introduced in July 2022 and follows the Government’s Domestic Abuse Act (2021) which prohibited unrepresented perpetrators or alleged perpetrators of abuse from cross-examining their victims or alleged victims in family and civil proceedings, and vice versa. The prohibition ensures that vulnerable victims and witnesses are not traumatised by being cross-examined directly by their alleged perpetrator.
Barristers, solicitors, and CILEX practitioners can register to undertake work as part of the QLR scheme at GOV.UK: Register to be a qualified legal representative (justice.gov.uk). The statutory guidance sets out the requirement for QLRs to have undertaken advocacy and vulnerable witness training, or to have made a commitment to attend such training within six months of having registered on the court list of qualified legal representatives: Statutory Guidance for the Qualified Legal Representative Scheme. The Government encourages professionals to take up this important work to assist in both the family and civil courts.
As of 27 February 2024, in total, there were 363 QLRs registered for family cases, and 78 QLRs registered for civil cases. We do not hold monthly data on registrations, or central data on how many QLRs have completed or applied for training, which they are able to access from a range of external providers. The QLR register does not record whether practitioners are barristers, solicitors, or CILEX practitioners. We do not collect data on the number of QLRs that have presented cases under the scheme.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the total number of claims sitting with the Tribunals Service was on 9 February 2024.
Answered by Mike Freer
Information about the number of open Tribunal cases administered by HM Courts and Tribunals Service is published quarterly in Tribunal Statistics. The most recent date for which information is available is 31 October 2023: Tribunals statistics quarterly: July to September 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of claimants appeared before the Tribunals Service as litigants in person in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mike Freer
Information about the number and proportion of litigants in person appearing before Tribunals administered by HM Courts and Tribunals Service is not centrally collated.
However, information specific to the Employment Tribunal only has been published up to 2022/23:
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases before the Tribunals Service have waited more than (a) three months, (b) six months, (c) one year and (d) two years.
Answered by Mike Freer
Information about waiting times for Tribunal cases administered by HM Courts and Tribunals Service is not centrally collated in the format requested. However, data on clearance times in the largest jurisdictions is published quarterly in Tribunal Statistics: Tribunals statistics quarterly: July to September 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases the Tribunals Service has completed in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mike Freer
Information about the number of Tribunal cases administered by HM Courts and Tribunals Service that were disposed in each of the last five years is published in Tribunal Statistics: Tribunal Statistics Quarterly: July to September 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
HMCTS continues to invest in improving tribunal productivity through the recruitment of additional Judges, deployment of Legal Officers to actively manage cases, the development of modern case management systems and the use of remote hearing technology.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of claims to the Tribunals Service since 1 April 2023 were not in relation to financial awards.
Answered by Mike Freer
Tribunals administered by HM Courts and Tribunals Service exercise a wide and diverse range of jurisdictions, including appeals against decisions made by public bodies and party versus party claims.
The number and proportion of claims not relating to financial awards varies by tribunal jurisdiction and a breakdown of claims by jurisdiction is published quarterly in Tribunal Statistics: Tribunal Statistics Quarterly: July to September 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of claims to the Tribunals Service were in relation to (a) unfair dismissal, (b) unpaid wages, (c) unpaid holiday pay and (d) unlawful discrimination since April 2023.
Answered by Mike Freer
Information on the proportion of claims accepted by the Employment Tribunal Service for the period up to September 2023 are outlined in the attached table.
Data is a subset of the published statistics.
Statistical information in relation to the Employment Tribunal can be found in our published stats: www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.
We currently only have data published up to September 2023.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the report by the University of Manchester entitled Racial Bias and the Bench, published in November 2022, whether he has had recent discussions with the Lady Chief Justice on the recommendation to (a) publish the Judicial Executive Board report into judicial bullying and racism and (b) make the judiciary more (i) transparent and (ii) accountable.
Answered by Mike Freer
It is standard practice not to comment on discussions between Ministers and the judiciary.
To protect the independence of the judiciary, it is a matter for the judiciary to determine which judiciary commissioned reports are published. Under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, the Lady Chief Justice (LCJ), as Head of the Judiciary of England and Wales, has responsibility for the maintenance of appropriate arrangements for the welfare, training and guidance of the Judiciary of England and Wales. The LCJ carries out these responsibilities through the Judicial Executive Board (JEB) and the Judges’ Council. Successive LCJs have laid annual reports before Parliament. The report published by the previous LCJ in September 2023 reported on training, welfare and related matters.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the report by the University of Manchester entitled Racial Bias and the Bench, published in November 2022, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the implications for its policies of the findings on the adequacy of the level of take-up of race training by legal professionals; and if he will take steps with the (a) Lady Chief Justice and (b) Chief Coroner to increase the take-up of this training.
Answered by Mike Freer
Everyone has a right to be confident in the justice system, regardless of their background. In 2023, the government published an update to the Inclusive Britain Strategy – our ambitious response to the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities Report – which included the important work we are doing to improve diversity in the judiciary and magistracy.
To preserve the independence of the judiciary, the Lady Chief Justice, the Senior President of the Tribunals, and the Chief Coroner have statutory responsibility for judicial training, under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, and Coroners and Justice Act 2009 respectively, exercised through the Judicial College.
The legal profession in England and Wales is independent of Government. Legal professional training and statutory responsibility for encouraging a diverse legal profession sits with the approved regulators, overseen by the oversight regulator, the Legal Services Board.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the ability of unrepresented defendants to access CCTV evidence stored on the Common Platform before their trials.
Answered by Mike Freer
In both the magistrates' court and the crown court, unrepresented defendants do not have access to IT heritage systems and the same principle applies to Common Platform. The prosecution has a responsibility for serving all relevant materials, whether this is on paper or, where appropriate, using other media and they must also keep a record of what is served on the defendant. This extends to CCTV evidence, which is viewable to users of Common Platform. As unrepresented defendants do not have access to the Platform, alternative arrangements are made to enable the defendant to view the material being relied upon – e.g. providing a copy of the recording on disc.