Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what action he has taken against the Community Rehabilitation Companies that have failed to deliver a quality service; and whether such companies will still be able to bid for future contracts despite this failure.
Answered by Rory Stewart
I have been clear that probation services need to improve. We have taken decisive action by ending current Community Rehabilitation Company contracts early, investing in improvements to Through the Gate services and conducting a consultation on future arrangements.
We continue to hold Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) to their contractual obligations using a variety of levers. These include putting in place action plans for all CRCs where concerns relating to quality have been identified by Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service or Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation, and applying service credits where appropriate for underperformance on any one of 12 Service Levels focusing on particular aspects of delivery.
We will award contracts to those best placed to deliver them. Any bidder in a future competition will need to provide evidence of their ability to deliver probation services.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people represented themselves at (a) magistrates and (b) Crown courts in Wales in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Department publishes County Court, Family Court and Crown Court figures on defendants or parties with no (or unknown) representation. These data do not represent the number of litigants in person, however, because a party may be without representation for only part of a case. Information on unrepresented defendants in Magistrates’ Courts is not held centrally.
The Ministry of Justice holds data on representation status at (a) first hearing and (b) any hearing for defendants dealt with in the Crown Court, and the latest available data is published here for England and Wales combined: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-annual-january-to-march-2018. Data specifically for Wales is shown in the following tables.
Representation status, at first hearing, of defendants dealt with in the Crown Court, Wales, annually 2014 - 2017
Year | Total number | Representation status at first hearing | |||
Known represention1 | No advocate representation/ unknown2 | ||||
Number | Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | |
2014 | 5,368 | 5,175 | 96% | 193 | 4% |
2015 | 5,677 | 5,433 | 96% | 244 | 4% |
2016 | 4,759 | 4,587 | 96% | 172 | 4% |
2017 | 4,343 | 4,244 | 98% | 99 | 2% |
Representation status, any hearing, of defendants dealt with in the Crown Court, Wales, annually 2014 – 2017
Year | Total number | Representation status at any hearing3 | |||
Known represention4 | No advocate representation/ unknown5 | ||||
Number | Number | Percentage | Number | Percentage | |
2014 | 5,368 | 5,351 | 100% | 17 | 0% |
2015 | 5,677 | 5,655 | 100% | 22 | 0% |
2016 | 4,759 | 4,729 | 99% | 30 | 1% |
2017 | 4,343 | 4,313 | 99% | 30 | 1% |
Notes
1) Includes defendants who were known to be represented by an advocate or solicitor at first hearing.
2) Includes defendants who did not have an advocate recorded at the first hearing and defendants whose advocate representation was unknown.
3) These figures do not indicate how many hearings, within a trial, had representation.
4) Includes defendants who were known to be represented by an advocate or solicitor at any hearing.
5) Includes defendants who did not have an advocate recorded at any hearing and defendants whose advocate representation was unknown.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the total amount spent on Criminal Legal Aid was in cases in which the defendant’s place of abode was in Wales in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Lord Chancellor (via the Legal Aid Agency) has a duty to ensure that qualifying individuals who require assistance at the police station or the magistrates’ courts and who do not have their own solicitor have access to a Duty Solicitor. The LAA monitors capacity in each duty scheme area based on the number of solicitor organisations in that area, as well as the proportion of duty solicitors each of those organisations engages. There are currently 126 offices contracted to deliver criminal legal aid services in the Wales area. Additionally, across the 16 areas which make up the Duty Solicitor scheme in Wales, there are 260 solicitors listed on the rota who are available to provide advice and assistance. We are confident we have solicitors to fulfil criminal cases and will make sure we continue to do so.
The Legal Aid Agency monitors access to public funding according to the location of the solicitor providing the service. Client location is not reliably captured for the majority of the criminal legal aid scheme and therefore accurate data based on a defendant’s residence is not available. Information on expenditure under criminal legal aid by solicitor offices located in Wales is proactively published, and is available to view at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/720217/legal-aid-statistics-crime-provider-area-data-to-mar-2018.ods.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the availability of solicitors qualified to conduct Criminal Legal Aid work in rural Wales.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Lord Chancellor (via the Legal Aid Agency) has a duty to ensure that qualifying individuals who require assistance at the police station or the magistrates’ courts and who do not have their own solicitor have access to a Duty Solicitor. The LAA monitors capacity in each duty scheme area based on the number of solicitor organisations in that area, as well as the proportion of duty solicitors each of those organisations engages. There are currently 126 offices contracted to deliver criminal legal aid services in the Wales area. Additionally, across the 16 areas which make up the Duty Solicitor scheme in Wales, there are 260 solicitors listed on the rota who are available to provide advice and assistance. We are confident we have solicitors to fulfil criminal cases and will make sure we continue to do so.
The Legal Aid Agency monitors access to public funding according to the location of the solicitor providing the service. Client location is not reliably captured for the majority of the criminal legal aid scheme and therefore accurate data based on a defendant’s residence is not available. Information on expenditure under criminal legal aid by solicitor offices located in Wales is proactively published, and is available to view at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/720217/legal-aid-statistics-crime-provider-area-data-to-mar-2018.ods.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the ability of people living in rural areas to access justice.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Based on the most recent data available, the table below shows how many firms (and where a firm has multiple branches, the total number of offices) were active in any given year providing legal aid services in criminal matters.
Numbers of both firms and offices have fluctuated due to a number of factors, including mergers and acquisitions, trends in the rates of criminal offending, and the impact of other policies and market conditions.
Year | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 |
Firms | 1,861 | 1,722 | 1,656 | 1,603 | 1,517 | 1,512 | 1,388 | 1,314 | 1,271 |
Offices | 2,598 | 2,415 | 2,338 | 2,282 | 2,172 | 2,240 | 1,991 | 1,998 | 1,921 |
The Legal Aid Agency measures capacity according to the type of scheme in question. For criminal legal aid, all Criminal Justice System Areas over England and Wales have firms of solicitors operating under a criminal legal aid contract, in addition to approximately 250 Duty Solicitor schemes providing advice and representation in Police Stations and Magistrates courts. The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) monitors capacity across criminal legal aid contracts on an ongoing basis. Where issues are identified, the LAA takes action to ensure there is ongoing availability of criminal legal advice for the public.
For civil legal aid, there is at least one firm operating in each ‘Procurement Area’ providing services in every category of law, save for the ‘Housing and Debt’ category. Of the 134 Procurement Areas for this category, 4 do not currently have a provider holding a Housing and Debt contract, representing over 97% coverage across England and Wales. The Legal Aid Agency has since undertaken a further tender to secure provision in the remaining areas. In addition to the Civil Legal Advice Telephone Service, offering legal services in a range of issues to those who need it, we are establishing a £5m innovation fund to help people access legal support wherever they are in England and Wales.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the number of solicitors’ firms accepting Criminal Legal Aid cases in the last five years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Based on the most recent data available, the table below shows how many firms (and where a firm has multiple branches, the total number of offices) were active in any given year providing legal aid services in criminal matters.
Numbers of both firms and offices have fluctuated due to a number of factors, including mergers and acquisitions, trends in the rates of criminal offending, and the impact of other policies and market conditions.
Year | 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 |
Firms | 1,861 | 1,722 | 1,656 | 1,603 | 1,517 | 1,512 | 1,388 | 1,314 | 1,271 |
Offices | 2,598 | 2,415 | 2,338 | 2,282 | 2,172 | 2,240 | 1,991 | 1,998 | 1,921 |
The Legal Aid Agency measures capacity according to the type of scheme in question. For criminal legal aid, all Criminal Justice System Areas over England and Wales have firms of solicitors operating under a criminal legal aid contract, in addition to approximately 250 Duty Solicitor schemes providing advice and representation in Police Stations and Magistrates courts. The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) monitors capacity across criminal legal aid contracts on an ongoing basis. Where issues are identified, the LAA takes action to ensure there is ongoing availability of criminal legal advice for the public.
For civil legal aid, there is at least one firm operating in each ‘Procurement Area’ providing services in every category of law, save for the ‘Housing and Debt’ category. Of the 134 Procurement Areas for this category, 4 do not currently have a provider holding a Housing and Debt contract, representing over 97% coverage across England and Wales. The Legal Aid Agency has since undertaken a further tender to secure provision in the remaining areas. In addition to the Civil Legal Advice Telephone Service, offering legal services in a range of issues to those who need it, we are establishing a £5m innovation fund to help people access legal support wherever they are in England and Wales.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on how many occasions (a) police officers and (b) other additional support has had to be brought in to prisons in each of the last five years.
Answered by Rory Stewart
This information is not held by the MoJ. Police Officers can perform a variety of roles in assisting Her Majesty’s Prisons and Probation Service (HMPPS) establishments ranging from Scenes of Crime preservation to Perimeter Security.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of non-appearances by (a) defendants and (b) witnesses in magistrates’ courts over the last three years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
There are two main sources of data on defendants failing to appear (FTA). Data on trials where the defendant fails to appear in the magistrates’ court shows that there has been an increase between 2015 and 2017.
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Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps the Office of the Public Guardian is taking to ensure that non-UK EU citizens within its remit register for settled status.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Office of the Public Guardian remit covers England and Wales. This is a matter for the attorneys and deputies to consider as part of their best interest considerations towards the donor/clients. It is not something OPG can insist upon. If the donor/client is disadvantaged, e.g. through lack of access to healthcare and benefits or Local Authority support because of the failure to apply for settled status, then this may be an issue for OPG to consider when determining whether decisions are being made in the best interest of the donor/client. OPG will review its guidance as appropriate.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effect of magistrates’ court closures on access to justice.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The decision to close a court is never taken lightly. In the case of each magistrates’ court closure, we undertook a public consultation exercise and considered the responses we received very carefully. The Lord Chancellor only agreed to close the court when satisfied that effective access to justice would be maintained when the court closed.