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Written Question
Offenders: Care Leavers
Friday 12th January 2024

Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Independent - Enfield, Southgate)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will update the HM Prison and Probation Service Strategy for Care-Experienced People to include a specific focus on race.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

We are updating our strategy for people with care experience in the criminal justice system, to ensure we are using care-experienced people’s time in the criminal justice system to support them to lead crime-free lives.

This will include a focus on race and its role in shaping the experiences and outcomes of those with care experience in the criminal justice system, and will link to wider departmental efforts to address racial disproportionality in the criminal justice system.

We are aiming to publish this strategy later this year.


Written Question
Probate: Waiting Lists
Tuesday 5th December 2023

Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Independent - Enfield, Southgate)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to help reduce waiting times for grant of probate.

Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The probate service received record levels of applications during 2022 and this has continued to grow with higher levels of receipts during January to June 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.

HMCTS has significantly increased staffing levels in Probate over the past year to help process applications faster. The training and upskilling of those new and existing staff have led to applications taking longer in the short term.

HMCTS have streamlined internal processes to cut down on administrative delay and reduce processing times. We are continuing to invest in improving digital systems and online filing capabilities so users can track progress more easily.

Average waiting times for probate grants are routinely published on gov.uk via Family Court Statistics Quarterly and currently cover the period up to June 2023.


Written Question
Legal Aid Scheme
Thursday 17th March 2022

Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Independent - Enfield, Southgate)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the level of need for (a) all civil legal aid services and (b) education-related legal aid services as of 14 March 2022.

Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) keeps market capacity under constant review, ensuring access across England and Wales and taking immediate action where required.

Wherever you are in England and Wales, legal advice is available through the Civil Legal Advice (CLA) telephone service, which provides specialist telephone advice in education as well as on other civil and family matters within the scope of legal aid.

There is currently at least one provider in every procurement area for the education category, contracted to deliver services via face-to-face advice or remote advice according to client preference.


Written Question
Civil Proceedings: Legal Aid Scheme
Thursday 17th March 2022

Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Independent - Enfield, Southgate)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the impact of civil legal aid capacity on (a) individuals who are entitled to legal aid but cannot access a legal aid provider and (b) the voluntary sector in England; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The Legal Aid Agency keeps market capacity under constant review, ensuring access across England and Wales and takes immediate action where required. Wherever you are in England and Wales, legal advice is available through the Civil Legal Advice (CLA) telephone service.

We recognise the vital role not-for-profit organisations play in ensuring people can access advice and information and through 2020 and 2021 we provided a total of £7.4m to the not-for-profit sector.


Written Question
Family Proceedings
Wednesday 15th September 2021

Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Independent - Enfield, Southgate)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to help ensure the prompt rectification of errors that are identified in reports submitted in family court proceedings.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The manner in which errors or alleged errors contained within a report submitted in family court proceedings are rectified is a matter for the court to decide, however in all cases the court will seek for such errors to be dealt with promptly and without undue delay.

Under the Family Procedure Rules 2010 (FPR) Part 1 “the overriding objective” requires the court to deal with cases expeditiously and fairly and for the parties to assist the court in this objective. This general obligation could require the court, or the parties, to act to ensure any issues with a report are rectified.

Depending on the nature of the error contained within a report, if the court considers that the error needs to be rectified in the written report, the court could use its general case management powers (FPR rule 4.1) to direct that an amended or addendum report be submitted to the court.

Where it is alleged by one or more of the parties that a report contains errors, the accuracy and veracity of the information included within the report can be tested during the court hearing, in order for the court to make a determination on this issue.

Proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth. (FPR, rule 17.6)


Written Question
Family Proceedings
Wednesday 15th September 2021

Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Independent - Enfield, Southgate)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to help ensure that accurate information is provided to the family courts by the criminal courts when allegations of abuse or criminal convictions are made in family court proceedings.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The ‘2013 Protocol and Good Practice Model’ for disclosure of information in cases of alleged child abuse provides for the local authority to notify the police on issue of family court proceedings, if not before. This notification serves as a request for disclosure to the police.

In April 2021, amendments were made to rules 3.3 and 3.5 of the Criminal Procedure Rules. These changes imposed a duty on parties to criminal proceedings to alert the criminal court to any related family proceedings and encourage the exchange of relevant information with a court dealing with those proceedings. Information about criminal proceedings may be obtained from criminal courts under Part 5 of the Criminal Procedure Rules by those who are parties to the criminal proceedings and by members of the public generally.

The Government regularly considers how the join up between the criminal and family jurisdictions can be improved. In 2022, we aim to pilot a new “one family, one judge” approach to hearing cases where the same judge will hear the criminal and family court proceedings.


Written Question
Family Proceedings
Wednesday 15th September 2021

Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Independent - Enfield, Southgate)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to tackle the backlog of cases in the family courts.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The protection of children, particularly those who are most vulnerable, is a priority for this government and this has never been more important than during this period. The family courts were quick to respond to the pandemic and I am extremely grateful for the dedication of family justice professionals at this unprecedented time.

In March, we launched the £1 million Family Mediation Voucher Scheme, to encourage and support separating parents to explore mediation before coming to court. We want to ensure that every parent coming to court is able to resolve their case in the most effective way, including through mediation where safe and appropriate. Last month, we invested a further £800,000 into the scheme, which is expected to help around 2000 more families.

We continue to focus on bringing down the outstanding caseload by investing in more judicial sitting days and increasing the overall level of disposals. Cases with the most significant safeguarding issues remain our priority, and where suitable, cases are being heard remotely to continue maximising our use of our estate.


Written Question
Prison Accommodation: Females
Monday 26th April 2021

Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Independent - Enfield, Southgate)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many temporary accommodation cells were installed in the women's prison estate since April 2020 as part of the Government's plans to limit the spread of covid-19 in prisons.

Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

A total of 112 temporary accommodation cells have been installed in the women’s estate at HMP & YOI Drake Hall, HMP & YOI East Sutton Park, HMP Foston Hall and HMP & YOI Askham Grange to limit the spread of covid-19 in the women’s prison estate.


Written Question
Prisons: Coronavirus
Wednesday 21st April 2021

Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Independent - Enfield, Southgate)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether temporary cells were installed in women's prisons since April 2020 as part of the government's plans to limit the spread of covid-19 in prisons.

Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

We expanded the prison estate by introducing temporary accommodation cells to increase space and help reduce the spread of coronavirus. A total of 112 temporary accommodation cells have been installed in the women’s estate at HMP & YOI Drake Hall, HMP & YOI East Sutton Park, HMP Foston Hall and HMP & YOI Askham Grange. This accommodation is part of the quick and decisive action we have taken to limit the spread of the virus across all prison establishments including restricting regimes, minimising inter-prison transfers and compartmentalising our prisons into different units to isolate the sick, shield the vulnerable and quarantine new arrivals.


Written Question
Women's Prisons
Monday 1st March 2021

Asked by: Bambos Charalambous (Independent - Enfield, Southgate)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the announcement on the 23 January 2021 that up to 500 new prison places will be built in existing women’s prisons, if his Department will publish the modelling used in the programme’s Strategic Case that the recruitment of an extra 20,000 police officers is expected to cause a temporary increase in the female prison population.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

Our prison population projections published in November last year, show that the female prison population is projected to rise by around two-fifths by 2026 (1,300 women) with most of that rise coming in the next two years. Our projections took in to consideration the impact of the planned recruitment of a further 23,400 police officers – which is likely to increase charge volumes and future prison populations.

Our projections further assumed the future gender composition of the prison population will be broadly consistent with the pre-COVID 19 composition, although there is a fair degree of uncertainty here however particularly due to the additional police recruitment. As such we modelled a total of four scenarios which included a 20% higher/lower throughput from the Police and a fast court recovery scenario. Table 2.1 and 4.1 taken from our prison population projections, illustrate this below:

Table 2.1 below shows the two extra scenarios of a lower and a higher impact police scenario for both men and women.

Central Scenario

Lower Police Scenario

Higher Police Scenario

Fast Court Recovery Scenario

September 2020

79,235

79,235

79,235

79,235

September 2021

83,200

83,000

83,500

85,900

September 2022

88,100

87,200

89,100

88,600

September 2023

93,000

91,300

94,700

91,900

September 2024

96,000

93,800

98,300

94,900

September 2025

97,700

95,000

100,300

97,000

September 2026

98,700

95,900

101,600

98,400

All figures are rounded to the nearest hundred. Components may not sum due to rounding.

Table 4.1 below shows the projections separately for children, females over 18 years and males over 18 specifically for the central scenario.

Total

Children

Female 18+

Male 18+

September 2020

79,235

395

3,217

75,623

September 2021

83,200

600

3,800

78,900

September 2022

88,100

600

4,100

83,500

September 2023

93,000

700

4,300

88,100

September 2024

96,000

700

4,400

90,900

September 2025

97,700

700

4,500

92,500

September 2026

98,700

700

4,500

93,500

All figures are rounded to the nearest hundred. Components may not sum due to rounding.

Both tables are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/prison-population-projections-2020-to-2026

The business case has not yet reached a position where it could be published. We intend to continue dialogue with stakeholders as to how best to meet the needs of those women sentenced to a custodial sentence