Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much was paid in unemployment pay to offenders in each prison in England and Wales under paragraph 2.2.1 of Prison Service Order 4460 in the last (a) week, (b) month and (c) year for which data is available.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The National Offender Management Service's central accounting system has a single accounting code for Public Sector prisoners' earnings. It does not separately identify unemployment pay or details of the number of prisoners in receipt of such payments.
To obtain this information for both public and private prisons would require us to examine individual prisoner employment records from each establishment to establish those who are in receipt of unemployment pay last week, month and year and this would be a significant exercise and could only be done at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many determinate sentence prisoners with more than two years to serve to their earliest release date were moved to open prisons in (a) 2013-14, (b) 2012-13 and (c) 2011-12.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
Determinate sentence prisoners are not allocated to open prisons with more than two years to serve to their expected release date.
Categorisation and allocation to open prison is never an automatic progression. Public protection is foremost in the decision making process. Only prisoners who have successfully completed offending behaviour essential to their risk reduction and whose risks are manageable in conditions of low security will be allowed to an open prison.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much the National Offender Management Service spent on subsidising its retail canteen service contract in each year since 2010.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) does not subsidise its retail canteen service contract.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many officials employed by his Department, of each grade, have remained at that grade since 2010 but received a pay rise; and how much of a rise each such person at each such grade has received.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
In the emergency budget on 22 June 2010 the Chancellor announced that the Civil Service, alongside the wider public sector, would be subject to a two year pay freeze from 2011-12, with those earning a full-time equivalent salary of £21,000 or less seeing an increase of at least £250, subject to continuing to make progression payments where these were contractual. In the 2011 Autumn Statement, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that public sector pay awards will average at one per cent for the two years following the pay freeze.
The pay freeze took effect in MoJ (excluding NOMS) from August 2011 and MoJ exited the pay freeze on 1 August 2013. MoJ's pay arrangements from August 2013 target actions at the most pressing issues to ensure our proposals remain affordable within the 1% public sector pay cap whilst aiming to reward high performers, better enable recruitment and talent retention, and protect the lowest paid staff by improving their starting salaries.
NOMS have separate pay bargaining arrangements, linked to the Prison Service Pay Review Body. From 2010/11 - 2011/12 under the pay freeze NOMS were unable to increase the pay scales within its structures. However, NOMS has continued to honour annual pay progression increases for eligible staff (those who have not reached the maxima of the pay scale).
In 2012, the Prison Service Pay Review Body and the Government endorsed NOMS' proposals to invest into reforming pay structures so that they are more fair and sustainable going forward. The review of NOMS' pay structures is based on data about the wider labour market (i.e., how levels of pay in NOMS compares to public and private sector labour markets), cost of living and inflation. From April 2012 new employees into NOMS, transfers into NOMS from Other Government Departments and those moving within NOMS on promotion are subject to the new pay and grading structures; those moving within NOMS on level transfer have an option to move across to the new structures.
The cost of providing information on the pay rise received by each official that has remained in grade and has received a pay rise in MOJ and NOMS would exceed the disproportionate cost threshold.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many mobile telephones, BlackBerrys and laptops were lost by his Department in (a) 2013 and (b) 2014 to date.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
It has not been possible to answer the question within the timeframe. I will write to the hon. friend in due course.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps the Government is taking to reverse the fall in take-up of family mediation for separating and divorcing couples.
Answered by Simon Hughes
We have changed the law to require people to consider mediation before applying to the Family Court. This will encourage people to resolve their issues through mediation rather than court, where appropriate.
We are delivering a wide-ranging programme of activity to improve public awareness about family mediation and to make sure that advice agencies are providing the right information about it. This includes being very clear that legal aid is still available for mediation and for legal support for mediation.
I have taken the opportunity to engage directly with mediation and legal practitioners about the issues facing them at the moment. I have hosted a webchat for people to come forward and offer ideas to encourage people to use family mediation and launched an online tool called Dialogue where people can post their ideas.
I have hosted two roundtable meetings to discuss increasing the take-up of family mediation with key figures in the mediation profession. The ideas from these events were considered by the Family Mediation Task Force, which was chaired by David Norgrove. The ‘Report of the Family Mediation Task Force' has been published on the mediation Dialogue webpage at: http://bit.ly/1o7roWW. The report makes recommendations about increasing the uptake of family mediation. The Government will respond in due course.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of cases in which compulsory mediation and information meetings would have been appropriate in 2013-14; and what funding is being made available in 2014-15 to provide that service.
Answered by Simon Hughes
We do not have the data to allow us to assess how many family court applications filed in 2013-14 might have been appropriate for a Mediation Information and Assessment Meeting (MIAM) in comparison with the number of MIAMs actually attended. In 2013/14 13,354 couples attended a publicly funded MIAM (that is, where at least one of the parties was legally aided).
Implementation of the Children and Families Act 2014 on 22 April 2014 means that attendance at a MIAM is now compulsory for the potential applicant.
Public funding (legal aid) remains in scope for family mediation for those who qualify on means and merits, and the budget for legal aid for mediation is uncapped. In 2013/14, the LAA spent £9m on mediation. If one party is funded the other will be covered for the MIAM as well. Legal help with mediation is also available for the funded party and includes help from a lawyer with applying to the court for a consent order based on the agreement reached in mediation.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what his policy is towards funding the Help with Family Mediation scheme.
Answered by Simon Hughes
There has been a significant decrease in referrals to publicly funded family mediation since April 2013 when the legal aid reforms were implemented. This is in part due to fewer people visiting solicitors who previously would have directed clients to mediation.
Before April 2013, attendance at a Mediation Information Assessment Meeting (MIAM) was a pre-requisite for legal representation for people eligible to obtain public funding. We introduced a statutory MIAM in April 2014 as part of the Children and Families Act. This placed a legal obligation on an applicant to attend a MIAM for the purpose of considering mediation, before being permitted to issue court proceedings in certain private family law matters (children and financial disputes).
Legal aid remains available for mediation (and for legal help with mediation) for those who meet the eligibility criteria. We are keen to encourage mediation as an alternative to court both for those eligible for public funding and for privately funded cases.
We are aware that a small number of mediation services have closed or are in difficulty. The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) is constantly monitoring the situation to make sure there is sufficient provision for client access to mediation services. While a decline in demand is a contributory factor in mediation service closures, another significant factor is poor and unsustainable business models. There is some evidence that a number of the mediation services which have closed following legal aid reforms were vulnerable to closure before the reforms took effect.
I have convened a Family Mediation Task Force, chaired by David Norgrove, which has considered many of the issues raised by the Member of Parliament for Exeter, including how to reverse the fall in referrals and engage the second party in the mediation process, and incentivising mediators and lawyers to work in partnership to support clients through the resolution of their dispute in compliance with the new legislation. A number of short-term financial options have been considered as well as the long term view for the future of dispute resolution services.
The Taskforce report will be published imminently. The Government will respond to the report in due course.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much has been spent on legally aided family mediation in each of the last four years for which figures are available.
Answered by Simon Hughes
Statistics on the volume and value of family mediation funded through legal aid are contained within legal aid statistics: April 2013 to March 2014 (www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/322466/legal-aid-statistics-2013-14.pdf ). Tables 7.1 and 7.2 contain family mediation data between 2006-07 and 2013-14.
An extract of the legal aid spend on family mediation is included in the table below:
| MIAMS Volumes | MIAMS expenditure | Mediations Starts | Mediations |
2010-11 | 26,388 | £6,276,568 | 14,186 | £6,997,924 |
2011-12 | 31,338 | £7,796,253 | 15,357 | £6,917,892 |
2012-13 | 30,662 | £8,053,106 | 13,609 | £6,307,518 |
2013-14 | 13,354 | £3,182,662 | 8,400 | £4,291,680 |
The large drop off in 2013-14 was due to removal of mandatory MIAM for onward legal aid funding, which meant that solicitors were no longer referring to mediation. We introduced a statutory MIAM in April 2014 as part of the Children and Families Act which places a legal obligation on an applicant to attend a MIAM before being able to issue court proceedings in certain private family law matters (children and financial disputes).
It is too early to say what impact the introduction of statutory MIAMs has had on referral numbers but anecdotally we have heard from mediators and the judiciary that referrals are increasing and the message is getting through to the public.
Family mediation is not regulated by this Department but legal aid remains available for mediation for those who meet the eligibility criteria.
Asked by: Ben Bradshaw (Labour - Exeter)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure that family mediation fees remain affordable.
Answered by Simon Hughes
Statistics on the volume and value of family mediation funded through legal aid are contained within legal aid statistics: April 2013 to March 2014 (www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/322466/legal-aid-statistics-2013-14.pdf ). Tables 7.1 and 7.2 contain family mediation data between 2006-07 and 2013-14.
An extract of the legal aid spend on family mediation is included in the table below:
| MIAMS Volumes | MIAMS expenditure | Mediations Starts | Mediations |
2010-11 | 26,388 | £6,276,568 | 14,186 | £6,997,924 |
2011-12 | 31,338 | £7,796,253 | 15,357 | £6,917,892 |
2012-13 | 30,662 | £8,053,106 | 13,609 | £6,307,518 |
2013-14 | 13,354 | £3,182,662 | 8,400 | £4,291,680 |
The large drop off in 2013-14 was due to removal of mandatory MIAM for onward legal aid funding, which meant that solicitors were no longer referring to mediation. We introduced a statutory MIAM in April 2014 as part of the Children and Families Act which places a legal obligation on an applicant to attend a MIAM before being able to issue court proceedings in certain private family law matters (children and financial disputes).
It is too early to say what impact the introduction of statutory MIAMs has had on referral numbers but anecdotally we have heard from mediators and the judiciary that referrals are increasing and the message is getting through to the public.
Family mediation is not regulated by this Department but legal aid remains available for mediation for those who meet the eligibility criteria.