Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to protect women and girls from violent offenders who have been released.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
This Government was elected with a landmark mission: to halve violence against women and girls within a decade. The ‘Freedom from violence and abuse: a cross-government strategy’ sets out stronger perpetrator management, including the commitment to nationally rollout Domestic Abuse Protection Orders across all police forces in England and Wales, which is critical in meeting this government ambition.
The Probation Service robustly manages offenders released from custody with a range of tools in the community and can respond to any breaches of licence with recall to prison where appropriate. The Sentencing Bill strengthens this by giving new powers to Probation to prohibit offenders from driving, attending public events and entering pubs, clubs and bars. It also introduces restriction zones, which will limit the movements of serious sexual and violent offenders to a specific geographical area, where appropriate, giving victims the peace of mind they deserve.
Further, regarding Electronic Monitoring (EM), the Domestic Abuse Perpetrators on Licence (DAPOL) pilot operates across eight probation regions, allowing Probation Practitioners to impose electronically monitored licence conditions on eligible prison leavers at the point of release from custody where necessary and proportionate. Conditions may include curfews, exclusion zones, required attendance at specified appointments, and GPS trail monitoring, with multiple applied risk assessments support it. DAPOL can also run alongside Alcohol Monitoring on Licence (AML) where alcohol misuse is linked to risk. Evaluation findings indicate that DAPOL provides reassurance to victims, with Victim Liaison Officers reporting that the ability to evidence breaches quickly helps reduce victim anxiety and strengthens confidence in the justice system.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that appeals for education, health and care plans for SEND children reaching tribunal are processed swiftly.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We acknowledge that more needs to be done to reduce the time parents and young people have to wait to have their appeals heard and determined in the First-tier Tribunal (SEND). We are continuing to invest in the recruitment of up to 1,000 judges and tribunal members across all jurisdictions this year, including specific recruitment for the FTT, including SEND, which will increase judicial capacity.
Alongside this, we are supporting the Tribunal Procedure Committee’s consultation on allowing suitable, lower complexity cases to be determined on the papers—subject to judicial discretion and the option to opt-out—so that hearing time is reserved for the most complex matters. A judicial alternative dispute resolution pilot is also helping to resolve appropriate disputes earlier.
The pressures facing the Tribunal are indicative of wider pressures in the SEND system. We are working with the Department for Education in the longer term to reduce the demands on the tribunal so that the outstanding caseload, and the time taken for the tribunal to determine appeals, is reduced.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to help improve the quality of probation services across the North West of England.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
The Probation Service in the North West has developed a Quality Improvement Plan which prioritises and focuses improvement activity across Probation Delivery Units in the region, and at regional level, and includes actions derived from internal audits and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation reports. Progress is routinely monitored, assured and supported by regional and national, Performance, Assurance and Risk functions.
We regularly publish performance ratings for each region of the Probation Service, which can be found at the following link: Community Performance Annual, update to March 2024 - GOV.UK.
We are hiring 1,300 trainee probation officers by March 2026 in addition to the 1,050 already appointed last year. We are also investing in new technology to lift the administrative burden on probation officers so they can focus on what they do best – managing and rehabilitating offenders.
Probation funding will increase by up to £700 million by the final year of the spending review – a 45% increase in the next three years. We will deliver thousands more tags, more staff, and more accommodation to ensure that offenders are tracked and monitored closely in the community.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to support bereaved families who have lost loved ones as a result of serious and violent crimes committed by reoffenders.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is committed to ensuring families bereaved by homicide receive the support they need to help them build resilience to cope with the impact of these devastating crimes.
Families bereaved by homicide have rights under the Victim’s Code, which sets out the minimum level of service that victims should receive. Under the Victims’ Code, they are entitled to be given information about and be referred to victim support services by the police. The Ministry of Justice also commissions a National Homicide Service, delivered by Victim Support, to provide a consistent level of support across England and Wales to families bereaved by homicide.
Addressing reoffending is critical to public safety. We follow the evidence to tackle the root causes of reoffending by investing in a range of interventions. Serious Further Offences (SFOs) committed by offenders subject to probation supervision are rare but have a devastating impact on victims, which is why we conduct thorough investigations into each one. The findings of SFO reviews are shared with victims, as we recognise that it is vital that victims understand any improvement we need to make as a direct result of the SFO.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to target additional judicial resources toward court settings which are at capacity in Greater Manchester.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We are continuing to invest in judicial recruitment nationally, across all jurisdictions, with plans to recruit around 1000 judges and tribunal members in 2025-26; and around 2,000 magistrates in 2025-26, and annually thereafter. Following recruitment, regional and court level deployment decisions are a matter for the judiciary, and we support actions to flexibly deploy judges to maximise capacity where it is needed.
Our assessment is that overall there is currently sufficient judicial capacity in the courts in the North West, including Greater Manchester. Any vacancies which may arise as a result of departures are expected to be filled through planned recruitment.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she has considered establishing an independent national oversight mechanism for deaths involving (a) state and (b) law enforcement bodies.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is committed to improving transparency and accountability in the state’s response to learning from investigations involving state-related deaths and more widely. To this end, we are actively considering how we can most effectively address concerns about the lack of oversight and monitoring of recommendations and findings from public inquiries, inquests and other investigation processes.
For example, in the context of the recent response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 report (Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase 2 Report: Government response (HTML) - GOV.UK), we have undertaken to establish a publicly accessible record of all recommendations made by public inquiries since 2024; we will ensure that this becomes standard practice for all future public inquiry reports; and will consider putting the requirement to maintain such a record on a statutory footing.
In addition, the Ministry of Justice is undertaking a programme of work in light of the Justice Committee’s recent recommendations for the coroner service, including those aimed at better learning from death investigation and other fact-finding processes. This will include further work to improve accessibility to information from coroners’ Prevention of Future Death reports; and to ensure, particularly across government, that lessons from these reports are learned; that learning is disseminated as quickly and widely as possible; and that it is effectively monitored and evaluated. We are also working with the Chief Coroner to identify ways to further improve the transparency and availability of the published reports and accountability for responses to them.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to increase sentences for individuals that sell knives to (a) teenagers and (b) young people.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
While it is the function of the independent judiciary to decide the sentence in individual cases, subject to the maximum sentence available and sentencing guidelines, tackling knife crime is a priority and the Government is determined to halve knife crime in a decade as part of its Safer Streets Mission. This is why, through the Crime and Policing Bill, we will increase the maximum penalty for offences relating to offensive weapons from six months to two years’ imprisonment.
These are for the offences of manufacturing, selling, hiring, offer for hire, lending or possessing in private any prohibited offensive weapon as detailed in the Criminal Justice Act 1988 (Offensive Weapons) Order 1988. These also cover the offence of selling a knife or bladed article to anyone under 18 years of age.
Currently, the law is that anyone over 18 years of age found guilty of any of these offences will face a maximum penalty of six months imprisonment, an unlimited fine or both. This Government believes that the maximum penalty does not reflect the seriousness of these offences, and that the maximum penalty should be in line with the current offence of unlawful marketing of knives which carries a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment. This will align the maximum penalties for the offences in relation to sales of knives.
In addition to this, the Government has launched an Independent Review of Sentencing chaired by former Lord Chancellor, David Gauke. The Review aims to ensure that the sentencing framework is consistent, protects the public and that there is always a place in prison for violent offenders.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to reduce backlogs in family courts in (a) Greater Manchester Combined Authority and (b) Rochdale Borough Council.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Delays in the court process can have a significant impact on children and families. We are committed to improving timeliness and reducing the outstanding caseload.
The Family Justice Board agreed system-wide national targets for reducing delay in 2024/25. These are focused on closing the longest running cases in private and public law, and increasing the proportion of public law cases concluded within the statutory 26-week timeframe.
As part of system-wide efforts, the Department for Education is investing £10 million to develop and implement local area initiatives to address the longest delays in public law cases. This includes a pre-case management hearing pilot which involves an information sharing meeting between the Local Authority Social Worker and the Cafcass Guardian. The pilot aims to reduce family court delay by ensuring that the case management hearing is as effective as possible at reducing the need for additional hearings. Rochdale and other local authorities within Greater Manchester have been actively participating in the pilot which is due to conclude at the end of March 2025. The pilot is being independently evaluated which will help inform future plans to reduce family court delay.
The Government has committed further funding for Pathfinder for private law in the next financial year, which is live in four areas. It will start in Mid and West Wales on 3 March and West Yorkshire on 3 June. Further expansion of the scheme will be confirmed in due course.
The Lord Chancellor agrees the programme of recruitment every year with the Lady Chief Justice, prioritising building judicial capacity where it will have the greatest impact on securing government objectives. This includes recruiting additional judges to hear Family cases.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she has taken to reduce the amount of time taken for cases related to perpetrators of domestic abuse to reach court in (a) Greater Manchester and (b) Rochdale Borough.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Tackling violence against women and girls is a top priority for this Government and our manifesto included the mission to halve levels of these crimes in a decade.
Most domestic abuse cases are heard in magistrates’ courts, where cases move more swiftly than at the Crown Court. The average number of days from charge to completion was 67 days in Q3 2024. However, we recognise that some cases are taking longer to work through the system. This financial year, we have funded 108,500 sitting days at the Crown Court, the highest level in almost 10 years (since FY15/16). The Lord Chancellor has also commissioned an independent review of the Criminal Courts, led by Sir Brian Leveson, which will consider how the criminal courts could operate as efficiently as possible to deliver swifter justice for all victims, including victims of domestic abuse.
We are also working to improve protection for victims. Greater Manchester was one of the first areas in England and Wales to offer greater protection for victims of domestic abuse, through our Domestic Abuse Protection Order pilot, launched last November.
At the national level, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and National Police Chiefs’ Council are working together to transform how cases are investigated and prosecuted. Their Domestic Abuse Joint Justice Plan, launched last November, is grounded in the recognition that better communication between police and CPS, throughout the life of a case, improves outcomes for victims.
Asked by: Elsie Blundell (Labour - Heywood and Middleton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the Pathfinder family court scheme being rolled out in (a) Wales, (b) West Yorkshire and (c) Greater Manchester.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Pathfinder pilot started in February 2022 in Dorset and North Wales. It was expanded to Southeast Wales and Birmingham in 2024. On 3 February this year we announced it will start in Mid and West Wales on 3 March and in West Yorkshire on 3 June.
Data published in February showed that Pathfinder courts in North Wales and Dorset resolve cases 11 weeks earlier on average and the backlog of cases has reduced by over 50% since the pilot started.
A two-part evaluation of the pilot in North Wales and Dorset is underway and will be published this year. That will include a process evaluation based on the experience of practitioners, as well as research with children and families who have taken part in the pilot. A feasibility study is currently underway which will develop feasible options to inform our longer-term evaluation strategy.
No assessment has been made to date about the potential implications of the Pathfinder pilot being rolled out in Greater Manchester.