Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the document entitled Draft terms of reference for the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group, what updates his Department has provided on relevant developments in its area of work to that group since 2019.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Ministers and officials have regular discussions with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities over a range of issues. More broadly, I refer the hon. Member to the answer of 01 March 2024, Official Report, PQ 16019 on tackling anti-Muslim hatred.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the report entitled Celebrating Marriage: A New Weddings Law published by the Law Commission on 18 July 2022, HC 557, what steps the Government is taking to implement the changes proposed to (a) the conduct of legally binding weddings by (i) non-religious belief organisations and (ii) independent celebrants, (b) the locations in which people can get married and (c) other aspects of weddings law; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Law Commission report contains 57 recommendations for legislative reform. We are taking the time to fully consider the report’s recommendations.
Marriage will always be one of our most important institutions, and we have a duty to consider the implications of any changes to the law in this area very carefully. We will publish a response to the report in due course.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the mechanism for the allocation of specialised Independent Domestic Violence Advisors focused on the abuse of older people and the way it relates to (a) the level of older person-focused abuse and (b) the relative proportion of older people in the local population.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is using additional ringfenced funding to increase the number of Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs) and Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs) it funds by 300 to over 1,000 by 2024/2025. For 2022/23, we are providing £34 million of ringfenced funding for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to locally commission IDVAs and ISVAs. It is the responsibility of the PCCs to decide how to target recruitment of specialist IDVAs, including those that support elderly victims, based on their assessment of local need.
In addition, the Government is committed to further building capacity in specialist service provision and has launched a £6m Violence Against Women and Girls Support and Specialist Services Fund. The fund is led by the Home Office with a £3m contribution from MoJ for ‘by and for’ services, open to both national and local organisations. ‘By and for’ services are specialist services that are led, designed, and delivered by and for the users and communities they aim to serve. One of the fund’s ambitions is to increase the number of ‘by and for’ IDVAs and ISVAs.
The MoJ continually reviews the most effective mechanism for allocating funding for IDVAs and ISVAs.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what support his Department provides (a) nationally and (b) regionally to Independent Domestic Violence Advisors to help support older people who have been subject to domestic abuse.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is using additional ringfenced funding to increase the number of Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs) and Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs) it funds by 300 to over 1,000 by 2024/2025. For 2022/23, we are providing £34 million of ringfenced funding for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to locally commission IDVAs and ISVAs. It is the responsibility of the PCCs to decide how to target recruitment of specialist IDVAs, including those that support elderly victims, based on their assessment of local need.
In addition, the Government is committed to further building capacity in specialist service provision and has launched a £6m Violence Against Women and Girls Support and Specialist Services Fund. The fund is led by the Home Office with a £3m contribution from MoJ for ‘by and for’ services, open to both national and local organisations. ‘By and for’ services are specialist services that are led, designed, and delivered by and for the users and communities they aim to serve. One of the fund’s ambitions is to increase the number of ‘by and for’ IDVAs and ISVAs.
The MoJ continually reviews the most effective mechanism for allocating funding for IDVAs and ISVAs.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an estimate of the number of Independent Domestic Violence Advisors who specialise in dealing with cases of domestic abuse experienced by elderly people.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is using additional ringfenced funding to increase the number of Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs) and Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs) it funds by 300 to over 1,000 by 2024/2025. For 2022/23, we are providing £34 million of ringfenced funding for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to locally commission IDVAs and ISVAs. It is the responsibility of the PCCs to decide how to target recruitment of specialist IDVAs, including those that support elderly victims, based on their assessment of local need.
In addition, the Government is committed to further building capacity in specialist service provision and has launched a £6m Violence Against Women and Girls Support and Specialist Services Fund. The fund is led by the Home Office with a £3m contribution from MoJ for ‘by and for’ services, open to both national and local organisations. ‘By and for’ services are specialist services that are led, designed, and delivered by and for the users and communities they aim to serve. One of the fund’s ambitions is to increase the number of ‘by and for’ IDVAs and ISVAs.
The MoJ continually reviews the most effective mechanism for allocating funding for IDVAs and ISVAs.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to Racial Bias and the Bench, published by the University of Manchester in November 2022, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of (a) including a section on anti-Black racism in the Equal Treatment Bench Book and (b) increasing the number of editors of that Book from Black communities.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
To preserve the independence of the judiciary, the Lord Chief Justice, the Senior President of the Tribunals, and the Chief Coroner have statutory responsibility for judicial training, under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, and Coroners and Justice Act 2009 respectively, exercised through the Judicial College, which produces the Equal Treatment Bench Book.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will set out a timetable for the review into the policy framework for trans prisoners.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Our review of the policy framework has completed, and we will be publishing an updated policy framework shortly, which will set out the new guidance in detail and how it will be implemented by HMPPS. The implementation of this new policy will take effect soon after we have published the revised framework.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases of racial discrimination against schools were taken in Country Courts in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. The MOJ does not centrally record information on the grounds for damages claims and as such the information could only be obtained by a manual review of the case files.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many reported cases of fraud reported to the Office of the Public Guardian have been related to a Power of Attorney in the last five years; and how many of those cases resulted in (a) further action or (b) reference to the Court of Protection in that period.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) has been recording data since April 2021 on concerns raised about Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA) that mention fraud. Since April 2021, there have been 178 initial concerns that mention fraud. OPG carry out investigations following reports of fraud and act where they have the jurisdiction to do so.
From April 2019 to 31 October 2022, 15 fraudulently created LPAs were removed from the register following investigation. In 10 of these cases, the Public Guardian removed the LPA from the register. The Public Guardian referred the remaining 5 cases to the Court of Protection, which led to LPAs being subsequently removed. Fraudulent LPAs currently represent less than 0.1% of all registered LPAs, which exceed 6 million.
The OPG records the number of reported cases of fraud, but not the number that are passed to the police or the CPS on the death of an alleged victim. The OPG’s legal authority ends upon the death of a donor (the individual who has created the LPA). As a result, where there is alleged fraud following the death of a donor, OPG would advise the concern raiser to raise their concern directly with the police if they feel it is appropriate.
The Government has in the past weeks taken steps to strengthen protections against fraud in LPAs yet further. The Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) Bill, introduced by Stephen Metcalfe MP, will bring forward government proposals to make the system quicker, easier to access and more secure for the thousands of people who rely on an LPA every year. This includes a new requirement to verify identity through official documents, such as a driving licence, passport and a pension or benefits letter, helping to prevent the registration of lasting powers of attorney created by strangers through fraud by false representation. The Bill will also allow third parties to raise objections where those close to the case are concerned and provide that all objections go to the Public Guardian in the first instance. The Public Guardian will then apply the appropriate test to determine whether to register the lasting power of attorney.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many reported cases of fraud reported to the Office of the Public Guardian relating Power of Attorney were passed to the police or the CPS from the Office of the Public Guardian on the death of the alleged victim in the last five years.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) has been recording data since April 2021 on concerns raised about Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA) that mention fraud. Since April 2021, there have been 178 initial concerns that mention fraud. OPG carry out investigations following reports of fraud and act where they have the jurisdiction to do so.
From April 2019 to 31 October 2022, 15 fraudulently created LPAs were removed from the register following investigation. In 10 of these cases, the Public Guardian removed the LPA from the register. The Public Guardian referred the remaining 5 cases to the Court of Protection, which led to LPAs being subsequently removed. Fraudulent LPAs currently represent less than 0.1% of all registered LPAs, which exceed 6 million.
The OPG records the number of reported cases of fraud, but not the number that are passed to the police or the CPS on the death of an alleged victim. The OPG’s legal authority ends upon the death of a donor (the individual who has created the LPA). As a result, where there is alleged fraud following the death of a donor, OPG would advise the concern raiser to raise their concern directly with the police if they feel it is appropriate.
The Government has in the past weeks taken steps to strengthen protections against fraud in LPAs yet further. The Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) Bill, introduced by Stephen Metcalfe MP, will bring forward government proposals to make the system quicker, easier to access and more secure for the thousands of people who rely on an LPA every year. This includes a new requirement to verify identity through official documents, such as a driving licence, passport and a pension or benefits letter, helping to prevent the registration of lasting powers of attorney created by strangers through fraud by false representation. The Bill will also allow third parties to raise objections where those close to the case are concerned and provide that all objections go to the Public Guardian in the first instance. The Public Guardian will then apply the appropriate test to determine whether to register the lasting power of attorney.