Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the most recent data is that his Department holds on the number of (a) unreleased people and (b) recalled people serving a serving a sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The most recent data was published in the Department’s Offender Management Statistics Quarterly on 31 December 2023. As of that date, there were a total of 2,852 prisoners serving a sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection in custody, comprising 1,227 unreleased people and 1,625 recalled people.
The next publication is due on 25 April 2024 and will publish prison population figures as of 31 March 2024. The publication will be accessible using the following link: Offender management statistics quarterly - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
We have significantly reduced the number of IPP prisoners since we scrapped the sentence in 2012 and have taken decisive action to curtail licence periods to give rehabilitated people the opportunity to move on with their lives.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to help reduce court backlogs.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
We have taken your question to mean what steps are being taken to tackle the outstanding caseload across all jurisdictions.
At the Crown Court, we remain committed to reducing the outstanding caseload at the Crown Court and have introduced a raft of measures to achieve this aim. We funded over 100,000 sitting days last financial year and plan to deliver the same again this financial year. Thanks to our investment in judicial recruitment, we expect to have recruited more than 1,000 judges by the end of this financial year.
We are also investing more in our courts. In August 2023, we announced we are investing £220 million for essential modernisation and repair work of our court buildings across the next two years, up to March 2025.
In the Family Court, we are working closely with the President of the Family Division, the Department for Education, HMCTS and the cross-system Family Justice Board to drive forward a cross-cutting programme of work to address delays and inefficiencies in the system and to ensure cases are ready to be heard when they reach court.
We are committed to meeting the 26-week statutory requirement for public law cases, and the Government is investing an extra £10m to develop new initiatives to support this.
In addition, we remain committed to supporting more families to reach agreement on their children and finance arrangements earlier and without court involvement and are continuing delivery of the Family Mediation Voucher Scheme. As of December 2023, over 24,000 families have successfully used the scheme to attempt to resolve their disputes outside of court. We are investing up to £23.6m in the scheme, which we intend will allow for its continuation up to March 2025
With regards to civil cases, we are taking action to ensure those that do need to go to trial are dealt with quickly. We have launched the biggest ever judicial recruitment drive for District Judges, are digitising court processes and holding more remote hearings, and are increasing the use of mediation.
We announced in July that we would introduce a requirement for small claims in the county court to attend a mediation session with the Small Claims Mediation Service, starting with specified money claims. This requirement will start in the spring and is expected to help parties resolve their dispute swiftly and consensually without the need for a judicial hearing.
With regards to tribunals, we continue to work with the Department for Business and Trade on further measures to address caseloads in the Employment Tribunal, where the deployment of legal officers, recruitment of additional judges and a new electronic case management system have already contributed to the caseload falling and remaining below its pandemic peak.
We are working on completing the programme of reform in the Immigration and Asylum Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal and the judiciary have recently introduced a virtual region pilot to provide additional judicial capacity and flexibility in how appeals are heard and disposed of.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent discussions he has had with the Parole Board on the process for reviewing sentences of imprisonment for public protection.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
I regularly meet with the Chair and CEO of the Parole Board and have discussed changes proposed in the Victims and Prisoners Bill.
The Parole Board is also represented on the IPP External Stakeholder Challenge Group, which meets quarterly and is chaired by an Executive Director within HMPPS. The Group was established to enable representatives of independent bodies and organisations to feed into the IPP Progression Board and hold HMPPS to account for its delivery of the IPP Action Plan.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent steps the Government has taken to improve support for bereaved families in homicide cases with regards to (a) privacy, (b) protection from press harassment and (c) mental health support.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is committed to ensuring families bereaved through homicide receive the specialist support they need to help them cope and, as far as possible, recover from the impact of these devastating crimes. This is why the Government funds the Homicide Service, providing £22 million to deliver the 2023/2027 contract. The Homicide Service supports families in England and Wales, who are bereaved through homicide both at home and abroad. The Service provides families with a caseworker to support their needs. This includes emotional, peer and advocacy support, as well as practical support such as advice on managing media attention and social media. Practical support may also include the provision of basic safety devices such as video doorbells. Where families have mental health needs, the Service facilitates access to NHS or other appropriate organisations for support, such as counselling and therapy.
On 29 March, we introduced our landmark Victims and Prisoners Bill to Parliament, to improve victims’ experiences of the criminal justice system. Families bereaved by crime are entitled to receive services under the Victims’ Code, which includes requiring that criminal justice agencies respect their privacy. We have also clarified the Bill’s definition of a victim to include families bereaved by crime, to ensure they benefit from the Bill’s measures
If members of the public have concerns about media reporting, IPSO, the independent press standards regulator, has a 24/7 helpline that offers support and advice. People concerned about breaches of their privacy, inaccurate reporting or harassment can bring a complaint against media via IPSO.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to implement the recommendations of the Independent Review of Criminal Legal Aid.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
We have introduced a 15% uplift across most fee schemes in line with the recommendations made in the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review. Uplifts for solicitors and barristers have already started being paid for new cases following the increased rates which came into force on 30 September 2022.
We have also applied the recent fee uplifts to the vast majority of existing Crown Court cases to address concerns that the uplifted fees did not apply to previous work. This came into force on 31 October 2022.
This, alongside longer-term reforms and our investment in court recovery this would take expected criminal legal aid spend to £1.2 billion per year.
We plan to publish our response to the remaining areas of our consultation by the end of November.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps the Government is taking to address the decrease in legal aid firms in the UK over the past 12 years.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
In 2021/22, the Department spent £1.6 billion on legal aid to ensure this vital support is accessible.
The volume of providers holding legal aid contracts at any given time is subject to change due to market forces, and other factors such as the internal management and updating of contract schedules. As such, a decline in contracts does not necessarily equate to a loss of provision in the area as this can occur due to mergers or other consolidation activity.
The Legal Aid Agency keeps market capacity under constant review, ensuring access across England and Wales and taking immediate action where required. We are also undertaking a review of the civil legal aid market to identify changes which could be pursued in the longer term to make the market more effective and efficient.
We have introduced a 15% uplift across most fee schemes in line with the recommendations made in the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review. Uplifts for solicitors and barristers have already started being paid for new cases following the increased rates which came into force on 30 September 2022.
We have also applied the recent fee uplifts to the vast majority of existing Crown Court cases to address concerns that the uplifted fees did not apply to previous work. This came into force on 31 October 2022.
Alongside this, we have consulted on changes to the Legal Aid Means Test which will mean an additional 3.5 million people in England and Wales will have access to legal aid at the magistrates’ court, and 2 million more will have access to civil legal aid. Additionally, wherever you are in England and Wales, legal advice on a range of civil issues is available through the Civil Legal Aid telephone service.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 19 October 2022 to Question 59770 on Ministry of Justice: Consultancy, if he will list the external management consultants that were engaged with by his Department.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to HMP Wandsworth restricting prisoner’s postal services to Moonpig and Funky Pigeon, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of restrictions on postal services on prisoner’s families finances during the cost of living crisis.
Answered by Rob Butler
HMP Wandsworth does not currently restrict postal services to Moonpig and Funky Pigeon. Any decisions to apply restrictions to communications are made locally by assessing the level of risk against what is a proportionate and necessary response to that risk.
HMP Wandsworth has seen an increased ingress of illegal substances through the postal system – this unfortunately is a developing area of conveyance in several of our prison establishments, notably Synthetic Cannabinoid Receptor Antagonists (SCRA) commonly known as ‘Spice’. HMP Wandsworth ensures all mail that does not test as positive for Spice is issued to prisoners.
To address this, prisons that identify SCRA as an issue have implemented several countermeasures which in some cases include the use of photocopying domestic mail and greetings cards in line with the national policy.
An assessment has not been made of the impact of restrictions on postal services on prisoner’s families.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to HMP Wandsworth restricting prisoner’s postal services to Moonpig and Funky Pigeon, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of expanding this policy this to include other affordable card companies.
Answered by Rob Butler
An assessment has not been made, nor does HMPPS endorse the use of any specific internet-based company for cards, photographs or letters nor has HMPPS entered into any exclusive agreements with the companies mentioned. HMP Wandsworth does not currently restrict postal services to Moonpig and Funky Pigeon.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to HMP Wandsworth restricting prisoner’s postal services to Moonpig and Funky Pigeon, whether any other prisons in the UK are subject to similar restrictions.
Answered by Rob Butler
HMP Wandsworth does not currently restrict postal services to Moonpig and Funky Pigeon. Data of postal services restrictions within prisons is not collected and retained nationally.