Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many applications for permission to appeal have been made in each of the last 10 years (a) within and (b) outside the 28 day time limit.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested by The Hon. Member can be found in the table below.
| Applications for permission to appeal a conviction* |
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| Applications for permission to appeal a sentence only |
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| Outside 28 days | Within 28 days | Total | Outside 28 days | Within 28 days | Total |
2011 | 822 | 729 | 1,551 | 1,428 | 3,814 | 5,242 |
2012 | 894 | 804 | 1,698 | 1,408 | 3,873 | 5,281 |
2013 | 863 | 684 | 1,547 | 1,220 | 3,445 | 4,665 |
2014 | 746 | 678 | 1,424 | 1,227 | 3,115 | 4,342 |
2015 | 869 | 646 | 1,515 | 1,164 | 2,889 | 4,053 |
2016 | 828 | 542 | 1,370 | 1,188 | 2,803 | 3,991 |
2017 | 708 | 593 | 1,301 | 1,055 | 2,871 | 3,926 |
2018 | 633 | 594 | 1,227 | 861 | 2,892 | 3,753 |
2019 | 639 | 445 | 1,084 | 905 | 2,452 | 3,357 |
2020 | 542 | 213 | 755 | 739 | 1,593 | 2,332 |
Total | 7,544 | 5,928 | 13,472 | 11,195 | 29,747 | 40,942 |
| * includes appeals against Conviction and Sentence |
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Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the March 2021 report of the all-party Parliamentary group on miscarriages of justice, what assessment he has made of the effect of the substantial injustice test on the ability of the Court of Appeal to correct miscarriages of justice in change of law cases including joint enterprise.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
MoJ is considering the findings of the Westminster Commission but there are currently no plans to review the substantial injustice test. Amending the test would require primary legislation and has wider implications than the work of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC). It would also not be appropriate to comment on how the Court of Appeal applies the test.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the ability of children and young people to easily access the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
In 2019-20 the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) estimated that 3.5% of the people applying to the CCRC were aged 21 or under. Although this number continues to represent a small proportion of the people accessing the Commission, the CCRC continues to reach out to juveniles and others through engagement workshops, outreach videos and making improvements to its application forms, in order to increase awareness amongst young people.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many appeals against conviction to the Court of Appeal (Criminal Decision) there have been where (a) leave to appeal has been (i) sought and (ii) refused by a single Judge, (b) the applicant has renewed the application to the full Court and (c) the renewed application for leave to appeal led to the conviction(s) being quashed in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested by The Hon. Member can be found in the table below. This shows the number of applications for leave to appeal a conviction received in each of the last 10 years; the number of those applications that were then refused leave to appeal by the single Judge; the number of those that went on to renew to the full Court; and of those, how many were subsequently allowed and the conviction quashed.
| Applications for permission to appeal a Conviction* | Applications refused by the single Judge | Applications renewed to the full Court | Number of appeals allowed and conviction quashed |
2011 | 1,551 | 1,071 | 524 | 17 |
2012 | 1,698 | 1,230 | 602 | 23 |
2013 | 1,547 | 1,100 | 540 | 23 |
2014 | 1,424 | 1,109 | 539 | 16 |
2015 | 1,515 | 1,174 | 538 | 19 |
2016 | 1,370 | 1,052 | 504 | 11 |
2017 | 1,301 | 1,037 | 484 | 13 |
2018 | 1,227 | 943 | 437 | 5 |
2019 | 1,084 | 853 | 348 | 6 |
2020 | 755 | 395 | 157 | 1 |
Total | 13,472 | 9,964 | 4,673 | 134 |
* Some of these cases will still be live |
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of funding for the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The funding allocation the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is reviewed each year internally within MoJ as part of setting budgets. At each Spending Review the overall MoJ budget is reviewed with HM Treasury. Annual budgets for departments and their Arm’s Length Bodies are part of the Main Estimate, which is laid before Parliament each year by HM Treasury.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking in response to the recommendations of the Westminster Commission on Miscarriages of Justice's inquiry into the Criminal Cases Review Commission.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
I am grateful to the members of the Westminster Commission for their valuable conclusions. The Ministry of Justice is giving careful consideration to the recommendations and officials will maintain oversight of those which fall to the independent Criminal Cases Review Commission.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the merits of the Westminster Commission on Miscarriages of Justice's recommendation that the real possibility test applied by the Criminal Cases Review Commission in referring cases to the appeal courts should be amended.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
I am grateful to the members of the Westminster Commission for their valuable conclusions. The Ministry of Justice is giving careful consideration to the recommendations and officials will maintain oversight of those which fall to the independent Criminal Cases Review Commission.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he made of the implications for his policies of the 2013 Law Commission report entitled, Criminal Liability: Insanity and Automatism.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Government has considered the proposals in the Law Commission’s 2013 discussion paper.
Whilst we note the Law Commission’s proposals on the potential to update the law in this area, we have no current plans to bring forward legislative proposals in relation to this rarely-used defence. However, we continue to keep this, and the wider and related law on unfitness to plead, under review.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people are in custody for non-payment of a fine arising out of a TV Licensing conviction.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
As at 30 June 2020, there were zero people in prison for failing to pay the fine in respect of the non-payment of a TV licence in England and Wales.
Asked by: Barry Sheerman (Labour (Co-op) - Huddersfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many ongoing prosecutions there are for TV licence non-payment.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Ministry of Justice has published the number of prosecutions, convictions and sentencing outcomes for the non-payment of TV licence fees up to December 2019, available in the Outcomes by Offence data tool: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/888664/outcomes-by-offence-tool-2019.xlsx
The Ministry of Justice court proceedings database counts prosecutions at the point of completion at magistrates’ court and therefore we do not hold the number of ongoing cases for TV licence non-payment.