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Written Question
Journalism: Russia
Wednesday 24th May 2023

Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of giving (a) legal and (b) financial support for journalists who are the subject of strategic litigation against public participation lawsuits undertaken by (i) businesses and (ii) individuals linked to the Russian state.

Answered by Mike Freer

The Government​​ ​remain​s​ determined to take robust action to tackle strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPPs) as soon as parliamentary time allows. We are committed to introducing targeted legislation to stop anyone – linked to the Russian state or otherwise - from abusing our legal system and using improper means to intimidate those acting in the public interest.

Reforms will include a statutory definition of SLAPPs, an early dismissal mechanism, and costs protection for SLAPPs cases. Our intention is that journalists subject to SLAPPs in future will benefit from costs protection (determined by the court), which will lessen legal and financial risks associated with lengthy proceedings.

Written Question
Personal Independence Payment: Appeals
Monday 2nd November 2020

Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment her Department has made of trends in the time taken for a personal independence payment appeal to be heard at Tribunal after an application to attend the Tribunal is made.

Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary

I accept that waiting times for proceedings in the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) (SSCS) service remain higher than we would like. The impact of the Coronavirus outbreak has significantly increased the challenges we currently face.

We have taken a number of measures to improve SSCS performance:

  • Over the past two-years 38 salaried judges, 194 fee paid judges, 232 medical members and 118 disability qualified members have been appointed to the Social Entitlement Chamber.
  • As part of the £1.2 bn court reform programme, we have invested in digital systems so that appellants to the SSCS can now lodge their appeal, track its progress and receive the outcome online.

We have also introduced emergency measures to ensure the tribunal can continue to function safely during the pandemic:

  • We have increased our capacity to hold remote hearings by telephone and video link;
  • Appeals may also be decided by a judge sitting alone without a hearing using the evidence before them in the case papers;
  • HMCTS has also introduced safety measures so that face to face hearings can be held.

The decision on how a hearing is conducted is a matter for the judge, who will determine how best to uphold the interests of justice. In considering the suitability of video/audio hearings to replace face to face hearings, judges will consider matters such as the nature of the dispute at stake and any issues the use of video/audio technology may present for participants in the hearing, having regard to individuals’ needs.

Statistics on the performance in the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) (SSCS) are regularly published in the statistical bulletin, Tribunal Statistics Quarterly, which are available at the following link: www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.

Publication of SSCS statistics is currently suspended due to data quality issues identified as the Tribunal is migrated to a new operational system. These data will be made available as soon as these issues have been resolved and data quality is assured.