Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 14 December to Question 126796 on Prison Sentence, for what reason IPP prisoners cannot be transferred to alternative sentences.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Transferring those prisoners still serving IPP sentences on to other types of sentence would raise issues of public protection, as it would result in the automatic release of a large number of prisoners who have been assessed by the Parole Board to be unsafe for release. For example, for those who had passed their tariff expiry date, this would result in their immediate automatic early release with no supervision in the community on licence.
Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to address the denial of free legal assistance to potential victims of modern slavery for which they are entitled.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Government has always been clear that publicly-funded immigration legal advice is available for individuals identified as potential victims of trafficking or modern slavery.
We have recently made a technical clarification about the work that can be funded, but victims of modern slavery and human trafficking in immigration cases continue to be entitled to legal aid funding.
Asked by: Anne Marie Morris (Conservative - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate his Department has made of the number of potential victims of modern slavery who have (a) sought free legal assistance and (b) been denied such assistance in each year for which information is available.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Legal Aid Agency cannot identify all applicants for legal aid that have been potential victims of modern slavery, as such a status is only captured in cases where the legal aid scheme makes specific provision for such individuals, for example, immigration advice for those identified as a potential victim of modern slavery though the National Referral Mechanism. Victims of modern slavery can also access other forms of legal aid, although such instances will not be discernible from the LAA’s systems.
Legal aid for potential victims of modern slavery is available by way of Legal Help or Controlled Legal Representation. However, as the application process for this type of legal aid is devolved to the instructed solicitor, the number of instances where such legal aid was sought or refused cannot be reported on, and furthermore such cases can only be identified when they are reported to the LAA after their conclusion.
For Civil Representation, decisions on funding are taken by the LAA and it is possible to identify applications and refusals at the outset of the case. The information below shows how many legal aid certificates have been issued to victims making claims for damages which arise from trafficking. These figures only relate to public funding where we know the applicant is potentially a victim by the nature of the service sought and will not include other cases where a victim may have sought legal aid
Qualifying for free legal assistance will depend upon an individual’s financial circumstances for cases where a means test and a merits test must be undertaken in order to obtain legal aid.
Year | Applications made | Applications refused | |
2014-2015 | 5 | 0 |
|
2015-2016 | 14 | 1 |
|
2016-2017 | 9 | 0 |
|