Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the legal representation status of defendants in magistrates’ courts can be derived from data recorded in the Common Platform.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Legal representation (granted, refused, pending) and the status per offence is recorded on Common Platform.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the (a) mean and (b) median length of time taken from (i) receipt at Crown Court to main hearing, (ii) main hearing to completion and (iii) receipt at Crown Court to completion was for cases heard in each year between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2022; and to provide a breakdown of those figures by (A) court and (B) offence.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministy of Justice publishes timeliness estimates for various stages of the justice process in tables accompanying our Criminal Court statistics release here: Criminal court statistics quarterly: October to December 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
We also provide further breakdowns in the form of a timeliness tool which offers the option to filter more granular stages of timeliness, including by offence and geographical area. This can be found here: (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1148226/timeliness_tool.xlsx).
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish the (a) name, (b) data type, (c) purpose and (d) other details of all data attributes recorded in the Common Platform for each criminal case; and whether recording of each data attribute is compulsory.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Common Platform receives and consumes a set standard of data (within an essential data framework) provided by prosecutors and parties to proceedings, which are set out in legislation. These dictate minimum standards of the data required to progress a case. The information is mandatory in the context of necessity for the case to function.
HMCTS are currently developing our approach to the HMCTS internal data catalogue, which would cover information of the type requested. We are also planning to create an external data catalogue that would help us share information of this type. Once completed, this project will determine what information will be published about the datasets we hold.
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 made a comparative assessment of the impact of the use of (a) section 28 pre-recorded evidence and (b) live evidence on jurors' perception of witnesses in rape and serious sexual offences cases.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Since September 2022, when we completed the rollout of pre-recorded cross-examination (Section 28) for victims of sexual and modern slavery offences in all Crown Courts in England and Wales, we have completed a process evaluation of the provision. The process evaluation, published on gov.uk on 3 April 2023, explored if the section 28 provision was working as intended and if any improvements were required. The evaluation did not examine the impact of section 28, therefore it did not compare the impact of pre-recorded versus live evidence.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average length of time is between a case being reported where section 28 evidence is recorded and the start of trial where the evidence is presented to the court.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice does not hold information on the average length of time between a case being reported where section 28 evidence is recorded and the start of a trial where the evidence is presented to the court.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many employment tribunal cases were outstanding in each region as of 1 April in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Data is provided by region and is split to show single/ multiple claims in the tables below for the last five years.
Region | As at 31 March 2018 | As at 31 March 2019 | ||||
Total | Single claims | Multiple claims | Total | Single claims | Multiple claims | |
London | 47,503 | 6,033 | 41,470 | 52,451 | 8,766 | 43,685 |
Midlands | 43,937 | 2,674 | 41,263 | 43,597 | 3,743 | 39,854 |
North East | 10,583 | 1,529 | 9,054 | 11,787 | 1,651 | 10,136 |
North West | 39,643 | 1,542 | 38,101 | 48,508 | 1,897 | 46,611 |
Scotland | 67,978 | 1,905 | 66,073 | 83,606 | 3,214 | 80,392 |
South East | 108,382 | 3,395 | 104,987 | 144,097 | 4,977 | 139,120 |
South West | 15,018 | 1,209 | 13,809 | 15,306 | 1,512 | 13,794 |
Wales | 3,593 | 829 | 2,764 | 3,725 | 904 | 2,821 |
Total | 336,637 | 19,116 | 317,521 | 403,077 | 26,664 | 376,413 |
Region | As at 31 March 2020 | As at 31 March 2021 | ||||
Total | Single claims | Multiple claims | Total | Single claims | Multiple claims | |
London | 59,157 | 11,598 | 47,559 | 86,724 | 18,036 | 68,688 |
Midlands | 51,899 | 4,642 | 47,257 | 58,332 | 5,981 | 52,351 |
North East | 16,383 | 1,930 | 14,453 | 17,591 | 2,338 | 15,253 |
North West | 58,497 | 2,403 | 56,094 | 69,709 | 3,139 | 66,570 |
Scotland | 85,543 | 2,302 | 83,241 | 89,869 | 2,503 | 87,366 |
South East | 144,049 | 5,907 | 138,142 | 155,002 | 8,008 | 146,994 |
South West | 20,749 | 2,001 | 18,748 | 24,459 | 2,712 | 21,747 |
Wales | 4,743 | 910 | 3,833 | 5,210 | 1,254 | 3,956 |
Total | 441,020 | 31,693 | 409,327 | 506,896 | 43,971 | 462,925 |
Region | As at 31 March 2022 | As at 31 December 2022 | ||||
Total | Single claims | Multiple claims | Total | Single claims | Multiple claims | |
London | 84,904 | 18,506 | 66,398 | 88,066 | 19,090 | 68,976 |
Midlands | 58,350 | 6,014 | 52,336 | 64,901 | 6,399 | 58,502 |
North East | 18,046 | 2,649 | 15,397 | 21,896 | 3,608 | 18,288 |
North West | 79,502 | 2,998 | 76,504 | 82,744 | 2,903 | 79,841 |
Scotland | 81,111 | 1,823 | 79,288 | 82,302 | 1,706 | 80,596 |
South East | 138,710 | 7,044 | 131,666 | 112,775 | 7,397 | 105,378 |
South West | 17,584 | 2,422 | 15,162 | 17,135 | 2,423 | 14,712 |
Wales | 4,582 | 1,083 | 3,499 | 5,185 | 1,232 | 3,953 |
Total | 482,789 | 42,539 | 440,250 | 475,004 | 44,758 | 430,246 |
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 December 2022.
Last year, we invested nearly £3 million extra to increase the number of days Employment Tribunals can operate, so around 1,700 more cases could be heard by the end of March 2023. This is in addition to hiring 114 more judges and investing in remote hearings to ensure cases can get through the system more quickly.
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 merits of adopting the proposals of the Senior President of Tribunals to have employment cases heard by a single judge by default.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Senior President of Tribunals has published a consultation seeking views on proposals for the composition of panels in the Employment Tribunals. This will help inform his decisions on the future arrangements for panel composition in the Employment Tribunals, when he becomes responsible for them when the provisions of the Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022 are brought into effect. This will bring the arrangements for Employment Tribunals into line with those that apply to the tribunals in the Unified Tribunal Structure.
The Ministry of Justice publishes annual statistics on the diversity of the judiciary. The most recent statistics, published in July 2022, can be found at the following link and includes comprehensive data on the age, ethnicity, gender of judges and non-legal members of tribunals.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/diversity-of-the-judiciary-2022-statistics
The Ministry of Justice, as a member of the Judicial Diversity Forum (JDF), works closely with the judiciary, the Judicial Appointments Commission, the Legal Services Board and the legal professions to take actions to increase judicial diversity.
The Ministry of Justice keeps the operation and performance of the Employment Tribunals under regular review. We are working closely with the Department for Business and Trade on measures to increase capacity, reduce demand and improve the efficiency of the employment dispute system.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment has he made of the adequacy of the diversity of panel members who hear Employment Tribunal cases.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Senior President of Tribunals has published a consultation seeking views on proposals for the composition of panels in the Employment Tribunals. This will help inform his decisions on the future arrangements for panel composition in the Employment Tribunals, when he becomes responsible for them when the provisions of the Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022 are brought into effect. This will bring the arrangements for Employment Tribunals into line with those that apply to the tribunals in the Unified Tribunal Structure.
The Ministry of Justice publishes annual statistics on the diversity of the judiciary. The most recent statistics, published in July 2022, can be found at the following link and includes comprehensive data on the age, ethnicity, gender of judges and non-legal members of tribunals.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/diversity-of-the-judiciary-2022-statistics
The Ministry of Justice, as a member of the Judicial Diversity Forum (JDF), works closely with the judiciary, the Judicial Appointments Commission, the Legal Services Board and the legal professions to take actions to increase judicial diversity.
The Ministry of Justice keeps the operation and performance of the Employment Tribunals under regular review. We are working closely with the Department for Business and Trade on measures to increase capacity, reduce demand and improve the efficiency of the employment dispute system.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to review the operation of employment tribunals.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Senior President of Tribunals has published a consultation seeking views on proposals for the composition of panels in the Employment Tribunals. This will help inform his decisions on the future arrangements for panel composition in the Employment Tribunals, when he becomes responsible for them when the provisions of the Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022 are brought into effect. This will bring the arrangements for Employment Tribunals into line with those that apply to the tribunals in the Unified Tribunal Structure.
The Ministry of Justice publishes annual statistics on the diversity of the judiciary. The most recent statistics, published in July 2022, can be found at the following link and includes comprehensive data on the age, ethnicity, gender of judges and non-legal members of tribunals.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/diversity-of-the-judiciary-2022-statistics
The Ministry of Justice, as a member of the Judicial Diversity Forum (JDF), works closely with the judiciary, the Judicial Appointments Commission, the Legal Services Board and the legal professions to take actions to increase judicial diversity.
The Ministry of Justice keeps the operation and performance of the Employment Tribunals under regular review. We are working closely with the Department for Business and Trade on measures to increase capacity, reduce demand and improve the efficiency of the employment dispute system.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were prosecuted under the single justice procedure in each month of 2022 broken down by offence; and what the plea rates were for offences charged under the single justice procedure in each month of 2022.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Data showing the number of defendants dealt with via single justice procedures (SJP) notices at the magistrates’ courts by plea and offence in England and Wales from January to December 2022 (latest available) can be found in the attached table.
The data supplied is a subset of published information relating to the timeliness of defendants dealt with by SJP notice which is available in Table T1 of the Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly, latest to December 2022.