Asked by: Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative - North East Somerset)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the time taken to process cases by the Somerset Coroners Court; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Coroner Statistics 2022: England and Wales, published on 11 May 2023, indicate that, for the Somerset coroner area in 2022, the average time from the report of a death to the coroner and the completion of an inquest was 31 weeks. This was an increase from 23 weeks in 2021.
In 2022, the average time for completion of an inquest in England and Wales as a whole was 30 weeks – a decrease from 31 weeks in 2021.
The Ministry of Justice does not have operational responsibility for coroner services, which are administered and funded by individual local authorities. Consequently, this department does not hold information on remote working by staff in the Somerset coroner service.
The Chief Coroner continues to work with individual coroner areas and their funding authorities and the police to ensure that services are effectively delivered. He is engaged with the relevant authority for the Somerset coroner area on service improvements.
Asked by: Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative - North East Somerset)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of staff in the Somerset Coroners' Service have been remote working in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Coroner Statistics 2022: England and Wales, published on 11 May 2023, indicate that, for the Somerset coroner area in 2022, the average time from the report of a death to the coroner and the completion of an inquest was 31 weeks. This was an increase from 23 weeks in 2021.
In 2022, the average time for completion of an inquest in England and Wales as a whole was 30 weeks – a decrease from 31 weeks in 2021.
The Ministry of Justice does not have operational responsibility for coroner services, which are administered and funded by individual local authorities. Consequently, this department does not hold information on remote working by staff in the Somerset coroner service.
The Chief Coroner continues to work with individual coroner areas and their funding authorities and the police to ensure that services are effectively delivered. He is engaged with the relevant authority for the Somerset coroner area on service improvements.
Asked by: Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative - North East Somerset)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 7 March 2023 to Question 156952, how many administrative staff worked between midnight and 6am in each of the last six months.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
To process Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA) applications, the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) has staff working day shifts and evening shifts, and both shifts then have further overtime hours. While staff do not routinely work between 12am and 6am, for evening shift staff who work from 4pm-10pm, overtime hours are available from 10pm-2am. The below data shows the number of staff who have taken that opportunity to work overtime at least once in each month, but not all of these staff will have worked beyond 12am while working overtime.
Staff do not work beyond 2am. The table below provides the total number of administrative evening shift staff who have worked overtime beyond 10pm. It does not include day shift staff who have worked overtime.
Month | Sept 2022 | Oct | Nov | Dec | Jan | Feb |
Total number of staff who have worked overtime (i.e. past 10pm) each month. | 32 | 25 | 24 | 25 | 36 | 27 |
Asked by: Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative - North East Somerset)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have applied for but not yet received a Lasting Power of Attorney..
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
At 3 March 2023, a total of 401,196 applications for a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) were being processed by the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG). This included 163,279 applications that were in the statutory four-week waiting period for any objections to be lodged prior to registration. At 3 March 2023, the OPG had already registered 809,675 applications for an LPA in 2022/23. These figures exclude the registration of Enduring Powers of Attorney which, while valid, have been replaced by LPAs since the Mental Capacity Act 2005 came into effect.
Customers are currently advised to allow up to 20 weeks for an LPA application to be processed, including the four-week waiting period. The OPG target to register LPAs is within an average of eight weeks. OPG staff are working day and night to register LPAs and extra staff have been hired, which is increasing the number of LPAs being registered each month.
The government is also supporting the Powers of Attorney Bill which will enable a digitalised LPA application process, leading to a faster and simpler service for applicants in future.
Asked by: Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative - North East Somerset)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of the staff of the Office of the Public Guardian are working in the office.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Hybrid working is available at OPG as a modern employer, subject to business area requirements and line manager’s discretion. A third of the roles in OPG (c. 600 out of 1,700) are not suitable for hybrid working. These roles are required to be undertaken full-time in the office. For example, in the operational unit responsible for the processing of Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA), there is a requirement for many of the core manual processes to be conducted from an office and space is prioritised in the office for these roles to be undertaken.
Where OPG business areas are not directly involved in LPA processing activities, staff are required to attend an office for a minimum of two days each per week and have an obligation to attend the office when requested to do so by their line management unless a formal exemption is in place. At 7 February 2023, 1.4% of OPG staff had a formal exemption and the remaining 98.6% were required to work from the office at least two days a week.
Asked by: Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative - North East Somerset)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the working from home guidelines are for staff of the Office of the Public Guardian.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Hybrid working is available at OPG as a modern employer, subject to business area requirements and line manager’s discretion. A third of the roles in OPG (c. 600 out of 1,700) are not suitable for hybrid working. These roles are required to be undertaken full-time in the office. For example, in the operational unit responsible for the processing of Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA), there is a requirement for many of the core manual processes to be conducted from an office and space is prioritised in the office for these roles to be undertaken.
Where OPG business areas are not directly involved in LPA processing activities, staff are required to attend an office for a minimum of two days each per week and have an obligation to attend the office when requested to do so by their line management unless a formal exemption is in place. At 7 February 2023, 1.4% of OPG staff had a formal exemption and the remaining 98.6% were required to work from the office at least two days a week.
Asked by: Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative - North East Somerset)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of his Department's preparations for the UK leaving the EU with (a) an agreement on future partnership and (b) no agreement with the EU; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
Following the referendum in June 2016,The MoJ continues to make rigorous preparations for a range of possible outcomes from the UK's negotiations with the EU.
Asked by: Jacob Rees-Mogg (Conservative - North East Somerset)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the Government plans to sign and ratify Protocol 16 to the European Convention on Human Rights.
Answered by Simon Hughes
The Government has no plans to do so.