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Written Question
Courts
Tuesday 26th March 2024

Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the backlog in the courts.

Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

We remain committed to tackling the outstanding caseloads across our courts and tribunals and have introduced a range of measures to achieve this aim.

Over 90% of all criminal cases are heard at the magistrates’ court, where we heard 100,000 cases a month on average across 2023. While the outstanding caseload in the magistrates’ courts has slightly increased in recent months due to an increase in the number of cases coming to court, the caseload remains well below its pandemic peak and stood at 353,900 at the end of September 2023, and cases continue to be progressed quickly. To aid our efforts in the magistrates’ courts, we invested £1 million in a programme of work to support the recruitment of more magistrates. We aim to recruit 2,000 new magistrates this year, and similar numbers for each of the next couple of years.

At the Crown Court, we remain committed to reducing the outstanding caseload. Last financial year we sat over 100,000 days and this financial year, we plan to deliver around 107,000 sitting days and recruit more than 1,000 judges across all jurisdictions. Judges have worked tirelessly to complete more cases, with disposals up by 9% during Q3 in 2023 compared to Q4 in 2022 (25,700 compared to 23,700).

We are also investing in our criminal 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. We have also continued the use of 20 Nightingale courtrooms into the 2024/25 financial year, to allow courts to work at full capacity.

In the Family Court, we are working with the Department for Education and other partners on the Family Justice Board to tackle the longest running cases and increase the proportion of public law cases that conclude within the 26-week timeline. The Department for Education are also investing an extra £10m to develop new initiatives to address the longest delays in public law proceedings.

We announced in the Spring Budget an additional £55m to improve productivity, support earlier resolution of family disputes and reduce the number of cases coming to court. This includes creating a digital advice tool for separating couples, piloting early legal advice and supporting the expansion of the private law Pathfinder model. We are also investing up to £23.6m in the family mediation voucher scheme, which we intend will allow for its continuation up to March 2025. As of March 2024, over 26,000 families have successfully used the scheme to attempt to resolve their private law disputes outside of court.

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. The requirement for small claims in the county court to attend a mediation session with the Small Claims Mediation Service will start this 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 helped the Tribunal to manage its caseload which remains below its pandemic peak.


Written Question
Offenders: Employment
Tuesday 14th December 2021

Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to support offenders in gaining employment following their release from prison.

Answered by Kit Malthouse

The Prisons Strategy White Paper sets out our ambition to deliver a step-change in the number of prisoners who work in prison, on temporary licence, and secure employment on release.

We will open our doors to the private sector to overhaul the opportunities for work offered in prisons and on Release on Temporary Licence. We will implement dedicated Employment Advisors in prisons and develop a digital tool that will match prisoners to jobs on release.

We will establish more local employment boards to link prisons with business networks. The Secretary of State recently hosted an employment summit, attended by over 600 organisations, at which he set out this department’s commitment to improving employment rates for prison leavers and also establish ‘Employment Hubs’, the equivalent of a ‘jobcentre in a prison’ where prisoners can find out about job opportunities.


Written Question
Children: Access
Wednesday 10th June 2020

Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department's policy on parents access to children is based on a presumption of equal access, subject to additional risk factors.

Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

The welfare of the child is the court’s paramount concern when making any decision about a child’s upbringing, including with whom the child is to live or spend time. The legislative framework is contained in the Children Act 1989, which is gender neutral.

While the court must presume that a parent’s involvement in the child’s life will further their welfare this can be rebutted, for example in cases of domestic abuse. If a parent can be involved in the child’s life in a way that is safe, the nature of that parental involvement will then be determined by the court based on all the facts.


Written Question
Family Courts
Tuesday 9th June 2020

Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on the proportion of family court cases where discouraged access to the child was reported by one of the parents.

Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

Incidences of alleged or apparent parental alienation by either parent in relation to family proceedings about child arrangements are not recorded centrally and such information could only be obtained from individual case files at disproportionate cost.

The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) is continuing to develop its work in addressing parental alienation when it arises in such cases. Its Child Impact Assessment Framework (CIAF) includes various tools and guidance that further support social work practitioners in identifying how individual children are experiencing parental separation, including any alienating behaviour by one parent against the other. Further information about the Framework is available on the Cafcass website at www.Cafcass.gov.uk.


Written Question
Family Courts
Tuesday 9th June 2020

Asked by: Jerome Mayhew (Conservative - Broadland)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the adversarial approach of the Family Courts in dealing with child access cases.

Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

We are committed to ensuring that the Family Courts deal with child arrangement order cases to achieve the best possible outcomes for children and their families. In May 2019 the MoJ established a panel of experts to review how the family courts handle cases involving domestic abuse and other serious offences. The panel received submissions from over 1200 individuals and organisations, many of whom had experience of the adversarial system. The panel is finalising its report and will publish findings and recommendations for next steps in the coming weeks.