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 their case files from the Common Platform.
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.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average cost was of a prison place in each of the last five years.
Answered by Edward Argar - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
An average cost per prisoner, costs per prison place and overall prison unit costs for each private and public sector prison in England and Wales are routinely published by His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service. This information is produced on an annual basis and is published after the end of each financial year.
Information on prison expenditure can be accessed in the Prison and Probation Performance Statistics pages for each financial year on the www.gov.uk website that can be accessed on this link: Prison and Probation Performance Statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The average cost per prisoner place for the last five years is provided in the table below:
Financial Year | Average Cost Per Prisoner |
2017/18 | £37,543 |
2018/19 | £41,136 |
2019/20 | £42,670 |
2020/21 | £48,409 |
2021/22 | £47,434 |
The 2022/23 figures have not yet been published.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average (a) daily and (b) annual cost of a trial in the crown court was in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mike Freer
The estimated average total cost of a Crown Court sitting day in each of last five financial years is shown in the table below.
The average daily cost of a crown court trial is not separable from average cost of a Crown Court sitting day. However, the full average cost of a trial cannot be reliably quantified from available management information sources.
These costs include all relevant operational costs borne by HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS), including a proportional share of the cost of operating the court building. However, other HMCTS corporate overheads such as IT and headquarters functions are excluded. Costs borne by other agencies in the criminal justice system (e.g. spending on legal aid, or by the Crown Prosecution Service) are also excluded.
Financial year | Average cost of a Crown Court sitting day (£) |
2018-19 | 2,719 |
2019-20 | 3,215 |
2020-21 | 3,562 |
2021-22 | 3,027 |
2022-23 | 3,036 |
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average cost of a sitting day in the crown court was for each of the last five years.
Answered by Mike Freer
The estimated average total cost of a Crown Court sitting day in each of last five financial years is shown in the table below.
The average daily cost of a crown court trial is not separable from average cost of a Crown Court sitting day. However, the full average cost of a trial cannot be reliably quantified from available management information sources.
These costs include all relevant operational costs borne by HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS), including a proportional share of the cost of operating the court building. However, other HMCTS corporate overheads such as IT and headquarters functions are excluded. Costs borne by other agencies in the criminal justice system (e.g. spending on legal aid, or by the Crown Prosecution Service) are also excluded.
Financial year | Average cost of a Crown Court sitting day (£) |
2018-19 | 2,719 |
2019-20 | 3,215 |
2020-21 | 3,562 |
2021-22 | 3,027 |
2022-23 | 3,036 |
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many early guilty pleas were made in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mike Freer
Early guilty pleas are defined as guilty pleas entered prior to trial. This data is published on a quarterly basis on the Criminal Justice System Delivery Data Dashboard and can be assessed here: Charge to case completion at court - CJS Dashboard (justice.gov.uk).
See below for the annual data for early guilty pleas from the last 5 years:
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 13 July 2023 to Question 193166 on Magistrates' Courts: ICT, how many and what proportion of the defendants in that data set entered a guilty plea; how many and what proportion of those who entered a plea of not guilty were (a) granted bail or (b) remanded into custody; and what the outcomes were for each of those groups.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Shadow Minister (Justice)
This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs. It is not possible to interrogate the original data set provided under the previous answer so as to provide the specific answers requested.
Defendants may be tried for multiple offences, with different pleas entered for different offences, and those pleas and the defendant’s remand status can change over time. This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has commissioned independent research on the experience of litigants during and prior to entering the family court process since April 2013.
Answered by Mike Freer
The Department has regularly commissioned independent research on the experience of litigants during and prior to entering the family court process since April 2013. Most recently this includes: independent research undertaken as part of the 2020 report on Assessing Risk of Harm to Children and Parents in Private Law Children Cases; externally commissioned research exploring The Factors Influencing Users’ Decisions to Bring Cases to the Civil and Family Courts published in 2023; and the Review of the Presumption of Parental Involvement due to be published in early 2024.
Research conducted by, or on behalf of the MoJ, is published on ‘Research and statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)’ according to Government Social Research protocols.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 13 July 2023 to Question 193166 on Magistrates' Courts: ICT, what the sentencing outcomes were of defendants in that data set who were convicted.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Shadow Minister (Justice)
This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs. It is not possible to interrogate the original data set provided under the previous answer so as to provide the specific answers requested.
Defendants may be tried for multiple offences, with different pleas entered for different offences, and those pleas and the defendant’s remand status can change over time. This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will include scope and fees in the review of civil legal aid.
Answered by Mike Freer
The Ministry of Justice is currently undertaking a Review of Civil Legal Aid to identify evidence-based options for moving to a more effective, efficient, and sustainable system for legal aid providers and the people who rely on legal aid.
The Review will consider the civil legal aid system in its entirety: how services are procured, how well the current system works for users, how civil legal aid impacts the wider justice system, and whether the civil legal aid system offers a financially viable business option for legal aid providers. It will also consider the overall fee structures of the civil legal aid system. The scope of legal aid is not within the Review’s remit.
In the interim, we are continuing to make improvements across the sector to ensure legal aid is available to those who need it. From 1 August 2023, the scope of legal aid was expanded, enabling people facing the loss of their home to receive early legal advice on housing, debt, and welfare benefits issues as well as representation in court. This means an increase in funding of up to £10m each year.
In addition, we recently laid secondary legislation to bring Special Guardianship Orders brought in private law proceedings within scope of legal aid, injecting a further £13m into family legal aid per year. We have also broadened the evidence requirements for victims of domestic abuse applying for legal aid, making it easier for victims to evidence their claims. This will deliver on our commitments to support victims of domestic abuse and allow special guardians to access legal aid.
Eligibility for legal aid was considered in the Legal Aid Means Test Review. The Ministry of Justice published the Government Response to the Review’s consultation exercise in May 2023, which set out the detailed policy decisions underpinning the new means-testing arrangements. When implemented, we estimate that spending on legal aid will rise by circa £25 million. This will increase the number of people eligible for civil legal aid in England and Wales by an additional 2.5 million.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of his decision not to include (a) eligibility and (b) fees as part of his review of civil legal aid.
Answered by Mike Freer
The Ministry of Justice is currently undertaking a Review of Civil Legal Aid to identify evidence-based options for moving to a more effective, efficient, and sustainable system for legal aid providers and the people who rely on legal aid.
The Review will consider the civil legal aid system in its entirety: how services are procured, how well the current system works for users, how civil legal aid impacts the wider justice system, and whether the civil legal aid system offers a financially viable business option for legal aid providers. It will also consider the overall fee structures of the civil legal aid system. The scope of legal aid is not within the Review’s remit.
In the interim, we are continuing to make improvements across the sector to ensure legal aid is available to those who need it. From 1 August 2023, the scope of legal aid was expanded, enabling people facing the loss of their home to receive early legal advice on housing, debt, and welfare benefits issues as well as representation in court. This means an increase in funding of up to £10m each year.
In addition, we recently laid secondary legislation to bring Special Guardianship Orders brought in private law proceedings within scope of legal aid, injecting a further £13m into family legal aid per year. We have also broadened the evidence requirements for victims of domestic abuse applying for legal aid, making it easier for victims to evidence their claims. This will deliver on our commitments to support victims of domestic abuse and allow special guardians to access legal aid.
Eligibility for legal aid was considered in the Legal Aid Means Test Review. The Ministry of Justice published the Government Response to the Review’s consultation exercise in May 2023, which set out the detailed policy decisions underpinning the new means-testing arrangements. When implemented, we estimate that spending on legal aid will rise by circa £25 million. This will increase the number of people eligible for civil legal aid in England and Wales by an additional 2.5 million.