Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she plans to reform the law on super-injunctions; and whether she has had discussions with the Law Officers on super-injunctions.
Answered by Heidi Alexander - Secretary of State for Transport
There are no plans to reform the law. The courts determine individual applications for interim injunctions to restrain publication of confidential information (and the existence of the injunction) on the merits of each case, and in accordance with the law and specific Practice Guidance.
The Practice Guidance on Interim Non-Disclosure Orders was issued by the then-Master of the Rolls as part of the implementation of the Superinjunctions Committee’s recommendations, which he chaired and whose final report was published in 2011. It provides detailed guidance on the law, principle of open justice and model court orders.
The Ministry of Justice has had no recent discussions with the Law Officers on this topic.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on the number of people that have been appointed to posts in her Department, other than special advisers, who have (a) worked for and (b) been seconded to (i) the Labour party and (ii) the office of a Labour hon. Member since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice does not hold the requested information in a central location. HR policies outline the Ministry of Justice’s stance on political activity, with declaration requirements varying by grade.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what (a) direct ministerial and (b) other public appointments to her Department and associated bodies have (i) been (A) removed from their posts and (B) asked to resign and (ii) made since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Since 4 July 2024:
i. (A and B) Departments do not routinely record and collect the reasons why appointees leave their positions, so departments are not in a position to answer this part of the question. Additionally, the reasons why an appointee has left their role is the appointee’s personal information and identifiable and would elicit GDPR considerations.
ii. Since 4 July 2024, 152 public appointments have been made. 144 of these are members of the Independent Monitoring Boards (139) and Lay Observers (5) and are exempt from publication. Details of the other 8 public appointments have been published on GOV.UK.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people, other than special advisers, have been appointed to civil service posts in her Department without open competition since 4 July 2024; what their (a) job titles and (b) salary bands are; and on what basis each was appointed.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice recruit on merit and on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles.
The Ministry of Justice holds all the information requested. However, in line with statistical guidance and GDPR, we cannot release the data about individual appointments as this could lead to the identification of individuals, given the small sample sizes involved.
I can confirm forty-three contracts were signed for roles in the Ministry of Justice (HQ, HMPPS, HMCTS, LAA, CICA and OPG) between the 5 July 2024 - 6 October 2024 inclusive. These contracts were issued as Exceptions, outside of fair and open competition.
Twenty-seven appointments were made under Exception 1 – Temporary Appointments. These appointments were made where either the urgency of the need or the short duration of the role made a full competition impracticable or disproportionate.
Six of the appointments were made under Exception 10 - Conversion to permanency. These appointments were for the conversion to permanency of suitable candidates appointed under Exceptions 1 and 2. For example, to convert roles to permanency following appointment through Life Chance Recruitment Schemes such as Going Forward into Employment.
Ten of the appointments were made under Exception 5 – Former Civil Servants. These appointments were made to re-appoint former, experienced, civil servants who were previously appointed on merit on the basis of fair and open competition.
The salary bands provided below incorporate both the national and London pay scales.
Eight individuals were appointed at the Administrative Officer pay grade - £22,940 - £27,000.
Six individuals were appointed at the Executive Officer pay grade - £27,223 - £32,760.
Seven individuals were appointed at the Higher Executive Officer pay grade - £32,827 - £40,403.
Twelve individuals were appointed at the Grade 7 pay grade - £54,358 - £66,670.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the current total balance is of outstanding financial penalties imposed by courts.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
The total balance of outstanding financial impositions (fines, compensation, victim surcharge, prosecution costs and criminal courts charge) can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2015
At the end of December 2015 (latest published period) there were 1,226,716 live financial accounts. An account can include one or any combination of the different imposition types.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many financial penalties imposed by courts are currently outstanding.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
The total balance of outstanding financial impositions (fines, compensation, victim surcharge, prosecution costs and criminal courts charge) can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2015
At the end of December 2015 (latest published period) there were 1,226,716 live financial accounts. An account can include one or any combination of the different imposition types.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what total amount his Department spent on ministerial travel by (a) the Government Car and Despatch Agency and (b) other car hire in (i) 2007-08, (ii) 2008-09 and (iii) 2009-10.
Answered by Andrew Selous
(a) This information has already been published and can be found at:
(i) http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmhansrd/cm080722/wmstext/80722m0008.htm
(ii) http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmhansrd/cm090716/wmstext/90716m0009.htm
(b) To provide the ministerial spend for the other car hire will incur disproportionate costs.
Under this Government the number of ministerial cars in the Department has fallen from four to one and the cost to the taxpayer reduced by 91%.