Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effect of the transfer of multi-hander trials on the length delays to outstanding cases in regions where those multi-hander trials were transferred to.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Listing is a judicial function and the decision as to whether a case is heard within the same region as the alleged offence, or within another region, is a judicial one.
In general terms the more defendants involved in a case the lengthier the trial is likely to be. Due to requirements for social distancing, multi-hander trials are particularly challenging where dock sizes are not able to accommodate the number of persons required to appear. The Crown Court is using a range of solutions to overcome these challenges, such as using multiple courtrooms to hear multi-hander jury trials or transferring the case to another court that can accommodate larger sized trials.
In addition to opening temporary Nightingale courts, we are ensuring we have additional capacity to alleviate the pressure on courts by increasing capacity in existing courtrooms to hear multi-hander trials. Around 70 courtrooms have been approved, subject to survey and value for money decisions, for modifications to increase capacity for listing multi-hander jury trials.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of the number of adjournments related to child sexual abuse cases in 2020.
Answered by Alex Chalk
HMCTS do not hold data relating to child sexual abuse adjournments. Cases with serious safeguarding implications continue to be prioritised for listing by the independent judiciary.
Adjournments are not specifically covered in the Criminal Court Statistics. However, data on vacated trials in the first and second quarters of 2020 have been published as part of the National Statistics on criminal courts in June and September 2020 respectively.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made on the effect on (a) public safety, (b) victim welfare and (c) witness safety of the unavailability of court dates.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
We take the delays caused by Covid-19 in the courts extremely seriously. We are aware of the impact of delayed justice and we are doing everything in our power to address this, while taking the measures needed to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and protect those involved in the justice system.
We acknowledge the impact that delays have on victims and witnesses. We have established strong partnerships working with the Home Office, Police, APCC, CPS and HMCTS to ensure we are supporting the needs of victims and witnesses. We are providing an additional £25m in 2021/22 for victims and support services. This recognises the negative impact that Covid-19 has had on vulnerable victims of crime and builds on the £20 million we provided in 2020/21 to help domestic abuse and sexual violence community-based services meet Covid-driven demand.
Section 28 for vulnerable victims and witnesses in Crown Courts was also rolled out to all court sites on 23 November. It provides the option to pre-record evidence in advance of a trial for vulnerable complainants of a crime, as well as witnesses, including children. This is helping support these individuals to give evidence in court closer to the time of the offence.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many outstanding trials are currently awaiting a court date to be assigned in (a) Magistrates and (b) Crown courts in (i) the UK and (ii) each region of the UK.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice only has responsibility for England and Wales. Trials have been interpreted to mean cases which have received a not guilty plea to one or more offence/s, and we have interpreted the question as seeking to ask whether there is a trial court date set for such a case.
Crown Court
|
|
Region | Awaiting date |
London | 1325 |
Midlands | 473 |
North East | 248 |
North West | 102 |
South East | 801 |
South West | 190 |
Wales | 41 |
Grand Total | 3180 |
Notes
Data has been taken from the Crown Court system Xhibit. Xhibit is a live system and as such data is liable to change.
The data is based on a defendant entering a not guilty plea to one or more counts and no verdict code has been recorded against the count or a guilty plea having been entered against any other count.
The next trial date is the earliest date recorded in a warned, firm or fixed list.
The data represents the outstanding trial cases position as at w/e 20-DEC-2020.
If a trial involves more than one case number, these have been counted separately.
Magistrates’ Court
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to increase sitting days for Judges in Crown Courts in regions with high numbers of outstanding trials.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
We are continuing to work to maximise capacity across the entire Courts and Tribunals system. Recorders are integral to these plans, particularly in the Crown Court, playing a key role in ensuring that we deliver as many sitting days as possible in order to provide access to justice.
Data relating to sitting days, including recorders will be published in the first half of 2021 as part of the regular Official Statistics relating to Civil Justice.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will provide a regional breakdown of (a) existing and (b) planned Nightingale Courts.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Nightingale courts are one of the ways in which we are ensuring we have additional capacity to alleviate the pressure on courts and tribunals resulting from the pandemic. The regional breakdown of the 16 operational Nightingale courts is as follows.
HMCTS region | Operational Nightingale courts |
London | Ministry of Justice - 102 Petty France, Prospero House |
Midlands | Former Telford County Court |
North East | Cloth Hall Court, Leeds, Middlesbrough Town Hall, York Hilton, Middlesbrough Jurys Inn |
North West | Chester Town Hall, Former Fleetwood Magistrates’ Court, Liverpool, St George’s Hall, Salford Lowry Theatre |
South East | East Pallant House, Knight’s Chamber, Peterborough Cathedral |
South West | Bristol Law Society, Winchester, The Guildhall |
Wales | Swansea Civic Centre |
We are considering a number of locations for future Nightingale courts, but no final decisions have been made.
HMCTS has published an update on their response to covid-19 in the criminal courts in England and Wales (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/court-and-tribunal-recovery-update-in-response-to-coronavirus). This provides a comprehensive update on our recovery plans.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to his oral contribution of 14 July 2020, Official Report, column 1373, what assessment he as made of the suitability of the wrongdoing integrity hotline for reporting health and safety concerns in prisons.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Ministry of Justice Integrity Hotline is in place to allow staff in prisons to raise any concerns they may have about the workplace or their own wellbeing. HMPPS has effective and reliable systems for reporting and recording adverse security, and health and safety incidents. This allows staff to voice any concerns, and for health and safety teams to monitor and take action where necessary.
We are also taking action to address unacceptable behaviours within HMPPS. In the coming months and will be putting in place a dedicated Unit to support our objective of reducing discrimination, bullying and harassment. This will include a phone line to provide advice and guidance.
The Ministry of Justice Integrity Hotline forms part of the whistleblowing arrangements across the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice whistleblowing policy applies to all workers including non-directly employed prison staff.
The existing Ministry of Justice whistleblowing policy was reviewed by the Ministry of Justice HR Policy team during 2020. Drafts of the updated policy and supporting guidance documents were shared with the HMPPS trade unions, as part of a wider consultation exercise. We are aiming to conclude this and launch the new policy in the Autumn.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to his oral contribution of 14 July 2020, Official Report, column 1373, whether non-directly employed prison staff have access to the wrongdoing integrity hotline; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Ministry of Justice Integrity Hotline is in place to allow staff in prisons to raise any concerns they may have about the workplace or their own wellbeing. HMPPS has effective and reliable systems for reporting and recording adverse security, and health and safety incidents. This allows staff to voice any concerns, and for health and safety teams to monitor and take action where necessary.
We are also taking action to address unacceptable behaviours within HMPPS. In the coming months and will be putting in place a dedicated Unit to support our objective of reducing discrimination, bullying and harassment. This will include a phone line to provide advice and guidance.
The Ministry of Justice Integrity Hotline forms part of the whistleblowing arrangements across the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice whistleblowing policy applies to all workers including non-directly employed prison staff.
The existing Ministry of Justice whistleblowing policy was reviewed by the Ministry of Justice HR Policy team during 2020. Drafts of the updated policy and supporting guidance documents were shared with the HMPPS trade unions, as part of a wider consultation exercise. We are aiming to conclude this and launch the new policy in the Autumn.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to his oral contribution of 14 July 2020, Official Report, column 1373, what steps he is taking to ensure effective consultation with representatives from trades unions during the HMPPS review into the whistleblowing process for prison staff.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Ministry of Justice Integrity Hotline is in place to allow staff in prisons to raise any concerns they may have about the workplace or their own wellbeing. HMPPS has effective and reliable systems for reporting and recording adverse security, and health and safety incidents. This allows staff to voice any concerns, and for health and safety teams to monitor and take action where necessary.
We are also taking action to address unacceptable behaviours within HMPPS. In the coming months and will be putting in place a dedicated Unit to support our objective of reducing discrimination, bullying and harassment. This will include a phone line to provide advice and guidance.
The Ministry of Justice Integrity Hotline forms part of the whistleblowing arrangements across the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice whistleblowing policy applies to all workers including non-directly employed prison staff.
The existing Ministry of Justice whistleblowing policy was reviewed by the Ministry of Justice HR Policy team during 2020. Drafts of the updated policy and supporting guidance documents were shared with the HMPPS trade unions, as part of a wider consultation exercise. We are aiming to conclude this and launch the new policy in the Autumn.