Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what representations she has received from the public on the use of reparations for those convicted of criminal offences.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Department has interpreted ‘representations’ to mean correspondence sent to the Secretary of State for Justice or her Ministers. One piece of correspondence related to this issue was received by the Department.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she plans plans to review the Legal Aid regulations where (a) assistance has been received for a case and (b) several appeals are lodged with legal aid assistance to prevent the release of information via Freedom of Information legislation about the cost of such assistance.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Legal aid for proceedings within England and Wales is subject to the provisions of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) and regulations made under that Act. The legislation places restrictions on the scope of services funded and the eligibility criteria which need to be satisfied before legal aid is granted.
Civil legal aid services relating to an appeal arising from or relating to a decision to release information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 are not within the scope of funded services. Legal aid may be available as exceptional case funding where failure to provide legal aid would breach or risk breaching an individual’s human rights or other enforceable legal rights. There are no plans to review the scope of legal aid in this area.
Applications for legal aid, including that provided as exceptional case funding, are subject to a merits test. This helps ensure that public funding is used responsibly and not spent on cases that are unlikely to succeed or are repeated without new grounds.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing Enhanced Combination Orders for more offences.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Enhanced Combination Orders are a disposal available in Northern Ireland. They are not available in England and Wales. Justice is devolved to Northern Ireland.
In England and Wales, as part of a community order, the Sentencing Framework gives courts the flexibility to choose and balance a range of requirements such as unpaid work and treatment, with the intention of punishing the offender, providing reparation to the community, and addressing any rehabilitative needs which may otherwise increase the likelihood of reoffending.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 6 June 2025 to Question 56158 on Prisons: Research, when she expects the research findings process for that Ipsos MORI research project to conclude.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Ministry of Justice officials received research findings from Ipsos MORI in November last year (2024) and are currently considering the implications of the work.
Research findings are published in accordance with Government Social Research guidelines, following a peer review process to ensure the quality and robustness of the work. Until that has taken place findings cannot be published.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Security Investment Programme.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
A full evaluation has been undertaken of the £100 million Security Investment Programme (SIP), whose aim was to help strengthen security and reduce crime in prisons. The findings of the evaluation have been published and can be found at the following: Security Investment Programme Evaluation - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases where legal aid was obtained to appeal against requests for release of the costs of legal aid to be made public remain not concluded since 2019.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The requested information is not centrally held.
It is unclear what types of ‘appeal’ are being referred to. It has been interpreted to be a reference to appeals to the General Regulatory Chamber against decisions under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to release information relating to legal aid expenditure.
Such appeals are not within the scope of legal aid funding in accordance with Schedule 1, Part 1 of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012. To the extent that legal aid for these appeals may be granted under the provision for Exceptional Case Funding they would be recorded as ‘miscellaneous’ cases on the Legal Aid Agency’s database.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 9 December 2024 to Question 17767 on Prisons: Research, when she plans to publish the response to the Ipsos MORI research project on the retributive benefit of prison.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Ministry of Justice officials received research findings from Ipsos MORI in November last year (2024) and are currently considering the implications of the work.
Research findings are published in accordance with Government Social Research guidelines, following a peer review process to ensure the quality and robustness of the work. Until that has taken place, findings cannot be published.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the cost was of her Department's language services contracts in 2024.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The cost for all language service contracts in 2024 was £31,625,158.35.
It is a legal requirement that these services are provided.
The procurement for these services follows the requirements of the Public Procurement Act, and delivers value for money for the taxpayer through robust competition and rigorous governance.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what changes have been made to prisoner recalls following the review of Probation Recall Culture and Practice, published in December 2020.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Probation published a report on 10 November 2020 entitled: ‘A thematic review of probation recall culture and practice’. In this report, the Chief Inspector found that the Probation Service was taking proportionate and necessary decisions to recall offenders on licence for public protection.
HMPPS published its Action Plan responding to the thematic review on 7 December 2020, and subsequently updated on its progress the following year.
This contains details on the actions completed and can be found at GOV.UK here: Action_Plan_Update_December_2021_Final.pdf.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Answer of 10 January 2024 to Question 7797 on Prisons: Research, what (a) conclusions she has drawn and (b) changes she has made as a result of the Ipsos MORI research project on the retributive benefit of prison.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
Ministry of Justice officials received research findings from Ipsos MORI in November this year and are currently considering the implications of the work. Officials will advise Ministers soon.
Therefore, no conclusions have yet been drawn from these findings and we have not made any changes on the basis of the research project.