Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much HM Prison and Probation Service has spent on rehabilitation programmes approved by the Correctional Services Advice and Accreditation Panel since December 2019.
Answered by Edward Argar
As the costs of rehabilitation programmes approved by the Correctional Service and Accredited Panel cannot be disaggregated from the overall budgetary provision for rehabilitative delivery costs, the information requested is not available.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will issue guidance to courts on ensuring adequate food and drink facilities for jurors.
Answered by Mike Freer
The jury trial is a critical safeguard to the fairness of criminal proceedings in the Crown Court, and as such jurors are of integral importance to the system.
Jurors are advised in information sent to them before they come to court about the court to which they are being summoned, including the available facilities at the court and in the local area, and also that they are welcome to bring a packed lunch.
During a trial or before selection, jurors are free to leave the court to get refreshments during the lunch break.
Arrangements for deliberation vary due to differences in local arrangements and are subject to judicial direction in any particular trial, but usually jurors are advised to bring a packed lunch (either in person the day before or by email/text message) if the trial is approaching its end and they are likely to go into deliberation the following day.
Jurors can claim a daily amount from the court towards food and drink costs. There does not appear to be the need for any further, central, guidance – which in any event would be difficult to prescribe at a national level, given that the available facilities and local arrangements will legitimately vary across different court centres.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of epilepsy (a) awareness and (b) first aid training for prison staff.
Answered by Edward Argar
The HMPPS National Health and Safety Arrangements for First and Emergency Aid (publishing.service.gov.uk) require each prison to complete a first aid needs assessment, taking account of local risk and demand. All sites must have in place suitable numbers of adequately trained staff, equipment, and facilities to meet the need for first aid provision. First Aid training provided to prison staff – such as the course provided by St Johns Ambulance, which includes a wide range of topics, including how to deal with epileptic seizures – meets the standard required to comply with the Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations.
Information for all HMPPS staff about epilepsy is provided on the Occupational Health employee information website https://hmpps.workplacewellbeing.com/guidance/epilepsy/. This explains how epilepsy affects safety at work, and how managers can ensure adequate first aid cover by reviewing risk assessments, implementing reasonable adjustments, and making referrals to Occupational Health.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people with epilepsy have died in prison (a) from all causes and (b) as a direct result of their epilepsy in the last ten years.
Answered by Edward Argar
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Every death in custody is a tragedy and we continue to do all we can to improve the safety of prisoners. All deaths in prison custody are subject to a coroner’s inquest.
The HMPPS National Health and Safety Arrangements for First and Emergency Aid (publishing.service.gov.uk) require each prison to complete a first aid needs assessment, taking account of local risk and demand. All sites must have in place suitable numbers of adequately trained staff, equipment, and facilities to meet the need for first aid provision. First Aid training provided to prison staff – such as the course provided by St Johns Ambulance, which includes a wide range of topics, including how to deal with epileptic seizures – meets the standard required to comply with the Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of making (a) full transcripts and (b) audio recordings of hearings in the Crown Court free for victims of crime.
Answered by Mike Freer
The government is constantly assessing how to improve the experience and support that victims receive within the criminal justice system, including mechanisms to facilitate the access to court transcripts and audio recordings of court hearings.
We understand that the ability to access transcripts from court proceedings is an essential part of maintaining transparency and accountability within the justice system. However, there is a cost attached to transcribing lengthy audio of a hearing, which in some cases can run into thousands of pounds. Providing the full transcripts of a hearing free of charge to all crime victims, risks diverting resources away from other key services. To help with transcription costs, we have made sure that bereaved family members of victims of homicide and death by dangerous driving can get a copy of the judicial Sentencing Remarks (a specific part of the hearing) paid for by the public purse. The Ministry of Justice and HM Courts and Tribunals Service continue to seek ways to reduce the fees that victims are required to pay to obtain transcripts in criminal proceedings. In particular, we will explore how technology could be used to reduce the costs of transcription, with a view of passing on the savings to parties.
With regard to audio recordings, anyone, including victims, can apply to the court for permission to listen to the recording of the hearing at a suitable court location, free of charge and at judicial discretion.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 11 September 2023 to Question 197320 on Probate: Applications, how many and what proportion of probate applications took longer than 16 weeks to be processed in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Mike Freer
The proportion of cases taking longer than 16 weeks to be processed is 33% for the period of April to June 2023, which has reduced from 37% for the period from January to March 2023.
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. Whilst HMCTS has increased resources to meet the higher demand the training and upskilling of those new and existing staff has led to applications taking longer in the short term.
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.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce the magistrates’ court backlog in Hornsey and Wood Green constituency.
Answered by Mike Freer
The magistrates’ court for Hornsey and Wood Green is Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court. Following Covid, the outstanding caseload in Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court returned to pre-pandemic levels by July 2021, and performance has been stable ever since. The outstanding caseload at Highbury Corner stood at 6760 in March 2023, compared to 7119 in March 2019.
This data is a further breakdown of published data that can be found in the criminal court statistics quarterly publication: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2023.
We want to make sure every victim has the swift access to justice they deserve, and we are working hard to ensure there is sufficient capacity in the magistrates’ courts to do so. This includes raising the statutory mandatory retirement age for all judicial office holders, including magistrates, investing over £1 million in a programme to recruit new and diverse magistrates, and increasing the use of remote hearings.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March to Question 165469 on Prisons: Electronic Government, how a constituent can contact the Money-to-prisoner Compliance Team to report a suspected fraud.
Answered by Damian Hinds
A constituent can contact the Money-to-prisoner Compliance team via the following email address: MTPCompliance@justice.gov.uk should they wish to report suspected fraud.
Constituents may also use this link to report any suspected fraudulent activity: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tackling-fraud-bribery-and-corruption-in-the-ministry-of-justice.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of fraud protection on gov.uk to send money to someone in prison system.
Answered by Damian Hinds
In 2020 we commissioned a review of the way money is paid to prisoners. The outcome of this review led to a number of improvements in the way this is done, namely:
3. We launched the Money-to-prisoner Compliance Team (MTPCT). This team examines all suspicious payments made to prisoners and can block anything assessed to be fraudulent or linked to other crimes. This team also work with law enforcement to conduct follow up investigations on certain attempted payments.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Friern Barnet)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the standard waiting time is for a grant of probate; and what steps he is taking to reduce that waiting time.
Answered by Mike Freer
Despite the unprecedented challenges faced by the probate service during the Covid 19 pandemic, and the increased volume of applications that have been seen since, the average length of time taken for a grant of probate following receipt of all the documents required has been maintained at between five and seven weeks – with the average responses being almost 1 week faster in quarter 3 of 2022 than the yearly average for 2020 and 2021.
HMCTS has increased resources to meet the higher demand following an increased number of estates requiring probate and is further increasing resourcing to further bring down overall timeliness on digital and paper applications.
Average waiting times for probate grants, up to September 2022, are routinely published on gov.uk via Family Court Statistics Quarterly (Table 24): https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2022.
Information covering up to December 2022 will be published on 30 March.