Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many legal aid providers there were in (a) Gwent and (b) Wales in (i) 2019 (ii) 2020 and (iii) 2021.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The information requested can be found in the tables below:
Providers | Mar-19 | Mar-20 | Mar-21 |
Gwent (Newport) | 25 | 26 | 25 |
Rest of Wales | 142 | 131 | 129 |
Total Provider in Wales | 159 | 149 | 146 |
Offices | Mar-19 | Mar-20 | Mar-21 |
Gwent (Newport) | 32 | 33 | 31 |
Rest of Wales | 235 | 223 | 219 |
Total Offices in Wales | 267 | 256 | 250 |
The data above shows both the total number of organisations with a presence in Gwent and Wales and the number of provider offices based in Gwent and Wales as at 31 March for each year. The term provider refers to a particular firm or organisation who holds a contract with the Legal Aid Agency (LAA). The LAA only tracks the number of contracted providers, not the number of individual practitioners who work provide legal aid services.
Providers may have one or more office and may hold a contract to provide civil legal aid, criminal legal or both civil and criminal legal aid services.
The LAA frequently reviews market capacity to make sure there is adequate provision around the country and moves quickly to secure additional provision where necessary.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average waiting time was for the completion of a coroner's report after a death in England and Wales in (a) 2018 (b) 2019 and (c) 2020.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Ministry of Justice publishes annual coroner statistics that include the average time taken to process an inquest. The timeframe of each inquest is defined between the date the death was reported, until the conclusions of that inquest.
In 2018 the average time taken to process an inquest was 26 weeks; in 2019, the average was 27 weeks. Information for 2020 is not yet available but will be included in the annual coroner statistics scheduled to be published on Gov.uk on 13 May.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the Government holds data on the number of specialist Domestic Violence courts in operation in England and Wales.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) does not hold data on the number of Specialist Domestic Violence Courts (SDVC) in operation in England and Wales. This is because the principles of Specialist Domestic Abuse Courts (SDACs) are increasingly embedded across all magistrates’ courts in England and Wales. SDACs bring together highly trained personnel and support services for victims. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), together with the police and HMCTS, implemented a Domestic Abuse Best Practice Framework for use across all magistrates’ courts. This Framework is the result of a Criminal Justice System (CJS) wide initiative to identify common components from high performing courts. Its aim is to improve the capacity and capability of the whole CJS to respond effectively to reports of Domestic Abuse.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of domestic abuse convictions related to controlling and coercive behaviour in (a) 2017, (b) 2018, (c) 2019 and (d) 2020.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Ministry of Justice does not hold data centrally on how many domestic abuse convictions relate to coercive and controlling behaviour. Offences involving domestic abuse can take various forms and are prosecuted under the offence in law that best reflects their nature and circumstances, for example, harassment, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, a public order offence. These offences can take the form of domestic abuse or non-domestic abuse and data collected centrally from courts does not distinguish between the two. The data on domestic abuse offences could only be identified by manually searching case records at disproportionate cost.
However, the Ministry of Justice regularly publishes information on all prosecutions and convictions for offences related to controlling and coercive behaviour, as defined by section 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015, in the ‘Principal Offence Proceedings and Outcomes by Home Office Offence Code 2013 to 2019’ data tool, available here:
The number of convictions can be identified for each year from 2016 to 2019. Data from 2020 will be published in May 2021.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the backlog of cases involving serious criminal offences was in the Crown Courts in (a) Wales (b) Gwent for each month from June 2019 to June 2020.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
This information is not held separately for Gwent as the Crown in Newport is administered from Cardiff.
Total outstanding serious offences in the Crown Court
Month | Wales |
June | 545 |
July | 502 |
August | 511 |
September | 461 |
October | 437 |
November | 418 |
December | 402 |
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the backlog of cases relating to the possession and supply of drugs was in the (a) Crown Courts and (b) Magistrates' Courts in (i) Wales (ii) Gwent for each month from June 2019 to June 2020.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
This information for the Crown Court is not held separately for Gwent as the Crown Court in Newport is administered from Cardiff.
Month | Wales outstanding drug offences in Crown Court | Wales outstanding drug offences in the Magistrates’ court | Gwent outstanding drug offences in the magistrates’ court |
June | 198 | 342 | 41 |
July | 186 | 325 | 30 |
August | 173 | 309 | 30 |
September | 159 | 316 | 34 |
October | 182 | 328 | 56 |
November | 183 | 298 | 25 |
December | 171 | 313 | 27 |
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the backlog of domestic violence cases was in the (a) Crown Courts and (b) Magistrates' Courts in (i) Wales (ii) Gwent for each month from June 2019 to June 2020.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
This information is not held centrally and would require reviewing individual court files in each month specified. The requested information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. However, please be reassured that Domestic Violence Protection Orders are being prioritised.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps are being taken to initiate virtual court hearings for serious criminal cases during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
We are working closely with the courts and judiciary to ensure that cases progress through the system. We introduced emergency legislation which enables courts to make greater use of audio and video hearings where appropriate. Magistrates’ court trials are now being listed wherever it is safe to do so and every effort is being made to resume Crown Court trials. Representatives from across the criminal justice system are working at pace to agree the best way of doing this safely.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average time taken to process a coroner's inquest was in weeks in (a) Gwent, (b) Wales and (c) England and Wales in each year from 2010-2019.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The requested information for 2010-2018 is set out in the attached table. It is taken from the Coroner Statistics Annual which is published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coroners-and-burials-statistics
Information for 2019 is not yet available.
Clearly, unnecessary delay between death and inquest may cause additional anguish and distress to the relatives and friends of the deceased. For this reason, the Coroners (Inquests) Rules 2013 require that an inquest must be completed within six months of the coroner being made aware of a death or as soon as is reasonably practicable after that date. The Chief Coroner has published advice for coroners to reinforce these requirements which indicates that, if there is to be a delay of over six months, a coroner should ensure that a Pre-Inquest Review hearing is held.
Coroners are also under a statutory duty to report to the Chief Coroner any inquest which is not concluded within twelve months.
The Chief Coroner undertakes regular training with all coroners on a number of issues, including the timeliness of inquests and the investigation process.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce waiting times for coroners' inquests.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The requested information for 2010-2018 is set out in the attached table. It is taken from the Coroner Statistics Annual which is published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coroners-and-burials-statistics
Information for 2019 is not yet available.
Clearly, unnecessary delay between death and inquest may cause additional anguish and distress to the relatives and friends of the deceased. For this reason, the Coroners (Inquests) Rules 2013 require that an inquest must be completed within six months of the coroner being made aware of a death or as soon as is reasonably practicable after that date. The Chief Coroner has published advice for coroners to reinforce these requirements which indicates that, if there is to be a delay of over six months, a coroner should ensure that a Pre-Inquest Review hearing is held.
Coroners are also under a statutory duty to report to the Chief Coroner any inquest which is not concluded within twelve months.
The Chief Coroner undertakes regular training with all coroners on a number of issues, including the timeliness of inquests and the investigation process.