Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the cost to the public purse has been of prison maintenance in Wales in the latest 12 month period for which data is available.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The cost to the public purse for maintaining the public sector prisons in Wales in 2021/22 was £15.3m.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many criminal cases were withdrawn due to (a) court delays and (b) case backlogs in Wales in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
We do not collect data on the reasons why a case is dropped by the prosecution, and it is therefore not possible to attribute dropped cases to court delays. There are a number of reasons why a case may be dropped, including if there is a lack of evidence or if the prosecution is no longer in the public interest.
A case is considered dropped when the prosecution notifies the court that they wish to discontinue proceedings before the indictment has been lodged – this does not require a court hearing and the case is closed administratively. These cases will have a formal verdict of not guilty.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people aged 75 or over have been prosecuted for failure to hold a TV licence in each year since 2015.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Ministry of Justice has published the number of prosecutions, convictions and sentencing outcomes for the non-payment of television license fees up to December 2018. The number of prosecutions of individuals aged 75 or over can be found in the accompanying table.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of pregnant women placed in solitary confinement in each prison in (a) 2017, (b) 2018 and (c) 2019; and what the average length of time was for each woman to be placed in solitary confinement.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
HMPPS does not hold people in solitary confinement but there are occasions where, for their own safety or that of others and in line with PSO 1700, prisoners are segregated from the main population of the prison.
Our policy is clear that pregnant women should only be held in segregation exceptionally. Healthcare visits and assessments by a doctor and healthcare staff take place regularly on segregation units to ensure that prisoners can be removed from segregation if there are any physical or mental health grounds to do so. An initial healthcare screen is completed by a doctor or registered nurse within two hours of a prisoner being placed in segregation.
We do not hold central data on the number of pregnant women that have been placed in segregation units, although governors of individual prisons will be aware of numbers of pregnant women in segregation in their establishment.
We are conducting a review of our policy on Mother and Baby Units, which includes looking at what information related to pregnancy and birth can be collected centrally and published. The review is due to be published in the Summer.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women gave birth (a) inside each prison and (b) on the way from prison to hospital in (i) 2017, (ii) 2018 and (iii) 2019.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Every effort is made to transfer pregnant women to hospital to give birth. On the rare occasions that births take place in prisons, it is owing to the unpredictability of labour.
The information requested is not currently collected centrally as a matter of routine. Information on births in prisons is recorded by the prison, and on births in transit from prison to hospital by either the prison or the NHS Trust, depending on the mode of transport used. It would not be possible to collect and collate this information without incurring disproportionate cost.
I am able to state, however, on the basis of specific data collection exercises we have conducted, that there were fewer than five births in prison in 2018. We are unable to publish a more specific number because this would risk identifying individuals and therefore confidentiality, which contravenes the Data Protection Act.
We are conducting a review of our policy on Mother and Baby Units, which includes looking at how we can improve the data available in relation to pregnancy and births. This is a complex area and there are sensitive issues relating to use of confidential medical information. The review is due to be published in the summer.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many convictions there have been for child sexual abuse committed in the (a) 1970s and (b) 1980s since the police service began the national operation coordinating claims of non-recent child sexual abuse in 2014.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The question seeks statistics on convictions arising from Operation Hydrant, the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) co-ordination hub established in June 2014, to deliver the national policing response, oversight, and coordination of historic child sexual abuse cases. The hub covers investigations concerning persons of public prominence, or in relation to those offences which took place within institutional settings. Statistics produced by Operation Hydrant are not comparable with national crime statistics as some suspects could be charged with more than one offence.
The Ministry of Justice Court Proceedings database holds information on people who have been proceeded against, found guilty and sentenced for specific criminal offences in England and Wales. However, this system only captures information on the principal offence for which a person was convicted and does not specifically refer to cases that are part of Operation Hydrant.
A further breakdown of data held on the court proceedings database shows that there have been 3,318 convictions in total for historic child abuse offences (where the abuse occurred in the period 1 January 1970 to 31 December 1989). Specifically, this includes 1409 cases in the 1970s and 1909 in the 1980s. These cases cover convictions where:
Where a defendant has committed an offence in both the 1970s and the 1980s, these are accounted for separately. The data provided covers the period up to 30 September 2019.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have applied for the return of their child to the UK from another country under the 1980 Hague Convention in each of the last five years.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The number of cases where the return application under the 1980 Hague Convention was made through the Central Authority in England and Wales for the years 2014 - 2018 is set out in the table. This information is published by the Royal Courts of Justice at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/829393/2018_RCJ_tables.xlsx. The England and Wales figures for 2019 are expected to be published in July 2020. The numbers of cases reported from Scotland and Northern Ireland in the table have not been published separately.
| Applications for 1980 Hague Convention returns | ||
Calendar year | England and Wales | Scotland | Northern Ireland |
2014 | 170 | 30 | 4 |
2015 | 220 | 37 | 10 |
2016 | 232 | 30 | 7 |
2017 | 224 | 33 | 6 |
2018 | 154 | 33 | 8 |
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people are waiting for the return of their child to the UK from another country under the 1980 Hague Convention.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The number of current open cases where the return application under the 1980 Hague Convention was made through, and recorded by, the Central Authorities of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland is set out in the table.
| Open applications for return under the 1980 Hague Convention | ||
6 February 2020 | England and Wales | Scotland | Northern Ireland |
| 222 | 26 | 2 |
Figures are not available for cases where the application was made direct to the Central Authority or the court in the country where the child was taken or retained. There is no obligation on parents to inform the Central Authorities when the child is returned, so the figures may include cases which have been resolved by a return without notification to the relevant UK Central Authority.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure that the UK remains a world leader in lawtech after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
These questions have been passed to the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice as the Minister responsible for legal services.
Government has a shared vision for a broad, deep and flexible partnership with the EU, including ambitious arrangements for services and investment, outlined in the Political Declaration. The Ministry of Justice is working closely with the rest of government on planning for negotiations.
Ministers and officials have extensive, frequent and varied engagement with representatives from the legal services sector on a range of issues, including UK and EU relations and future trade. Part of this engagement includes sponsoring the Brexit Law Committee.
The UK is a magnet for talent and home to innovative and successful new companies, and the Government is committed to ensuring that UK legal services, courts, and English law remain world-leading, and a competitive choice for business. This includes supporting the growth of the UK lawtech sector. To this end the Ministry of Justice launched and sponsors the industry-led LawTech Delivery Panel, and recently awarded a £2m grant to Tech Nation to drive innovation in the legal sector and create an environment that allows the UK’s lawtech sector to thrive.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent discussions he has had with representatives of the legal services sector on the future relationship between the UK and the EU in relation to legal services.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
These questions have been passed to the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice as the Minister responsible for legal services.
Government has a shared vision for a broad, deep and flexible partnership with the EU, including ambitious arrangements for services and investment, outlined in the Political Declaration. The Ministry of Justice is working closely with the rest of government on planning for negotiations.
Ministers and officials have extensive, frequent and varied engagement with representatives from the legal services sector on a range of issues, including UK and EU relations and future trade. Part of this engagement includes sponsoring the Brexit Law Committee.
The UK is a magnet for talent and home to innovative and successful new companies, and the Government is committed to ensuring that UK legal services, courts, and English law remain world-leading, and a competitive choice for business. This includes supporting the growth of the UK lawtech sector. To this end the Ministry of Justice launched and sponsors the industry-led LawTech Delivery Panel, and recently awarded a £2m grant to Tech Nation to drive innovation in the legal sector and create an environment that allows the UK’s lawtech sector to thrive.