Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 7 December 2020 to Question 123733 on HM Courts & Tribunals Service: Finance, how much and what proportion of the £3.364 million of additional covid-19-related funding for tribunals he plans spend on (a) immigration tribunals, (b) social security tribunals, (c) employment tribunals and (d) other tribunals.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
In the answer to question 123733 we set out the proportion of the additional Covid-related funding announced in September 2020 which could be directly attributed to each of the major jurisdictions as well as spend which benefits multiple jurisdictions. The majority of Covid recovery spend is for costs such as additional cleaning of the court estate, the provision of additional safety and security works, the provision of technology to enable remote hearings which have been critical to Tribunals this year, and the provision of some additional court rooms (often referred to as ‘Nightingale Courts’). Much of this spend will be of direct benefit to Tribunals but cannot be directly attributed to it. Very little of the spend is directly attributable to a single tribunal, and so I am unable to provide a further breakdown.
We are also investing record amounts which will also improve our resilience going forward, including £153m investment in 20/21 to improve court and tribunal buildings – the biggest single investment in court estate maintenance for more than 20 years.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many employment claims were waiting to be heard by a tribunal in each quarter since 2017.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Whilst we do not hold data relating to claims awaiting hearing, the outstanding caseload in the Employment Tribunal for each quarter since 2017 until June 2020 can be found in these published statistics. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunal-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2020
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of outstanding (a) rape and (b) sexual offences court cases in (a) England and (b) Wales in each year since 2015.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The number of outstanding rape and sexual offences court cases at the Crown Court in England and Wales each year since 2015 are presented in the table below:
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Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of outstanding (a) rape and (b) sexual offences court cases waiting more than two years for an outcome in (a) England and (b) Wales.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The number of outstanding rape and sexual offences court cases at the Crown Court in England and Wales each year since 2015 are presented in the table below:
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Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of amending section 41 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 to ensure that it is fit for purpose in the digital age.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Government wants to ensure that victims of sexual offences are treated with dignity and respect in court.
Section 41 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 provides critical protection for complainants in sex offence cases, by restricting the introduction of a complainant’s sexual history by the defence in sexual offence cases.
In 2017, we carefully looked at how the law was working in practice and found that the law was operating as Parliament intended, while striking the balance between the need to protect complainants and ensure defendants receive a fair trial.
As part of the End to End Review of the Criminal Justice’s system response to rape we are working to ensure disclosure is proportionate, taking into account the increasing digital nature of evidence.
The Government will publish its initial findings and recommendations for action in due course and we are committed to continuing work with partners from across the criminal justice system after that to improve the system in the longer term.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prosecutions were made under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 relating to the use of inhumane animal traps across (a) England and (b) Wales in each year since 2015.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Ministry of Justice has published information on prosecutions and convictions made under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 in England and Wales, up to December 2019 in the ‘Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code’ data tool, available here:
Offences under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 relating to the use of inhumane animal traps are included within the offences ‘Causing, permitting or failing to prevent unnecessary suffering’ and ‘Carrying out, permitting, causing to be carried out or failing to prevent prohibited procedure on protected animal’. It is not possible to disaggregate the requested offence from within these general offences. Offences specifically related to inhumane animal traps may be held on court record but can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Using the data tool linked above, enter the following Home Office offence codes into the ‘Offence code’ filter, in order to isolate data on prosecutions associated with each offence:
In order to identify breakdowns across England and Wales, use the ‘Police Force Area’ filter and select either all areas of Wales, or all of England.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prosecutions have been made under Section 4 of the Animal Welfare Act each year since 2015.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Ministry of Justice has published information on prosecutions and convictions made under Section 4 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 in England and Wales, up to December 2019 in the ‘Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code’ data tool, available here:
Offences contrary to Section 4 of the Animal Welfare Act include:
These are collectively housed under the Home Office offence code 108/29. In the data tool above, enter ‘10829’ into the ‘Offence code’ filter in order to see prosecutions under this offence, in Row 31, each year since 2013.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much and what proportion of the £80 million of additional covid-19-related funding for HM Courts & Tribunals Service announced on 6 September 2020 is planned to be spent on (a) criminal court services, (b) civil court services, and (c) tribunal services.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
A jurisdictional breakdown of forecast expenditure in relation to the additional covid-19-related funding for HM Courts & Tribunals Service announced on 6 September 2020 is provided below.
The financial forecast is provisional, as at 30th November, and reflects latest projections of judicial demand and supply, physical court room capacity and current recovery trajectories. This forecast remains subject to change during the recovery phase, as resources are deployed in line with HMCTS recovery priorities.
Jurisdiction | £000’s | % of total |
Crime | 27,515 | 34% |
Civil and Family | 14,116 | 17% |
Tribunals | 3,364 | 4% |
Probate | 400 | 0% |
Multi-Jurisdiction | 35,351 | 44% |
Total | 80,738 |
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*Multi-jurisdiction includes services accounted for at a national basis, for which a jurisdiction is not identifiable in the financial system – examples include resources working across jurisdictions to manage priorities and demand, corporate services, telephone conferencing.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) stakeholder group meetings, (b) literature reviews and (c) expert interviews have been undertaken to examine the role of juries and courts in rape cases as part of the Government's Rape Review.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government recognises that the decline in the number of rape and serious sexual offences being charged and prosecuted in England and Wales is a cause for significant concern.
As such an end-to-end review of the criminal justice response to rape and serious sexual offences was commissioned in March 2019 by the National Criminal Justice Board (CJB). A sub-group of the CJB made up of experts and operational partners from across the criminal justice system is driving forward the review
To answer your questions in turn:
a) The review has established a Stakeholder Reference Group, which is made up of victim organisations, and is consulted to ensure the review considers the victim experience of the whole criminal justice system. The review team has met with this group three times, in May 2019, February 2020 and April 2020. Members of the Group have also been engaged by the Review team separately to discuss specific elements of the review.
b) The review has commissioned a Literature Review of research currently in the public domain that studies the end to end progression of rape cases in England and Wales, including findings relevant to the role of juries and courts
c) Five expert interviews were undertaken with barristers as part of a wider suite of qualitative and quantitative work which included 23 focus groups and in-depth interviews and 691 surveys with police officers, specialist victims support services including Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs), barristers, HMCTS and CPS prosecutors.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the Government's Rape Review will examine potential barriers to reporting rape and sexual offences crimes for migrant victims.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
In March 2019 the National Criminal Justice Board (CJB) commissioned a review to consider the decline in the number of rape and serious sexual offences being charged and prosecuted in England and Wales. A sub-group of the CJB is driving forward the review and continues to gather and analyse detailed views from key groups and agencies across the criminal justice system.
The review is currently focussed on understanding how the system’s response to rape cases can be improved from the time a report is made to when a case reaches court, as such barriers to reporting fall outside of the scope.
The Government is committed to ensuring that all victims of rape and sexual violence have access to high-quality support services to help them cope with and, as far as possible, recover from the effects of crime. These services are available to all, provided by specialist local organisations at a physical location, free of charge and regardless of whether a person reported the crime to police.