Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many fines were (a) imposed by the courts and (b) paid in 2019.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Data on the number of fines issued at all courts (on a principal offence basis) is published in the Outcomes by Offence data tool available here. It shows that a total of 926,993 fines were issued by all courts in 2019: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/938568/outcomes-by-offence-tool-2019.xlsx
Data on the value of fines issued in 2019, the amount paid relating to the fines issued in 2019 and the amount paid that relates to fines issued in prior years, can be viewed in this table:
Value of impositions made in the period Jan to Dec 2019 | Collections received in 2019 relating to impositions made in the period Jan to Dec 2019 | Collections received in 2019 relating to impositions made prior to December 2018 | |
£000 | £000 | £000 | |
Compensation | 29,224 | 8,236 | 19,046 |
Victim Surcharge | 45,216 | 19,316 | 14,030 |
Crown Prosecution Costs | 29,281 | 11,362 | 17,364 |
Prosecutor Costs | 95,663 | 34,010 | 41,536 |
Fines | 327,004 | 102,503 | 136,345 |
Total | 526,388 | 175,427 | 228,321 |
Notes:
The data provided is all for the 2019 calendar year.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of re-opening recently closed Courts in order to help tackle the backlog in cases arising from the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
On 19 July, HM Courts & Tribunals Service announced ten Nightingale court locations to provide additional capacity for the courts and tribunals estate on a temporary basis. We assessed the merits of using unsold former court buildings as Nightingale courts and are using the former Fleetwood Magistrates’ Court and former Telford County Court buildings for this purpose.
HMCTS has published an update on their response to covid-19 in the criminal courts in England and Wales (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/court-and-tribunal-recovery-update-in-response-to-coronavirus). This includes details on the use of Nightingale courts and our plans to open additional locations. We will continue to consider former court buildings as we work to increase our capacity.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of applications for probate were processed within his Department's target for processing those applications.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
There are no prescribed target times for dealing with probate applications. The average time for a grant of probate to be issued following receipt of an application for January to March 2020 is set out below
|
|
| Application submission to grant issue6 |
| Document receipt to grant issue4,6 | ||
Year | Quarter | Grants issued | Mean weeks | Median weeks |
| Mean weeks | Median weeks |
2020 | Q1 | 49,712 | 6.7 | 4.3 |
| 6.5 | 4.1 |
Source: HMCTS Core Case Data
Notes:
1) HMCTS Core Case Data came into effect at the end of March 2019, following a transition between data systems recording information regarding The Probate Service
2) The average timeliness figures are produced by calculating the time from application/document receipt (which may be from an earlier period) to the grant issued made in that period.
3) Averages presented here may be based on a small number of grants. Where this occurs, any conclusion drawn from these will be limited.
4) Document receipt occurs after payment has been made and all accompanying paperwork has been received by HMCTS
5) Due to quality issues in the transition between data systems, the breakdown by type of grant has not been published for Q2 2019 (denoted by :).
6) For digital applications the receipt is instant but no work can start until the Will is sent to us. Therefore, for digital cases the measure of waiting times is from document receipt rather than the application submission.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the Government's timescale is for allowing tribunals to sit as the covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tribunals have continued to sit during the covid-19 lockdown restrictions by making use of online and remote technology to hear cases and ensure continued access to justice for users. Face to face hearings are now starting to resume where it is safe to do so in line with comprehensive and ongoing risk assessments.
Having responded effectively to the immediate crisis, HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is now fully focused on recovering its operations to increase courts and tribunals capacity to deal both with normal workloads across jurisdictions and outstanding cases. HMCTS has recently published a progress update on its recovery plans.
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/896779/HMCTS368_recovery_-_COVID-19-_Overview_of_HMCTS_response_A4L_v3.pdf
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate he has made of the unemployment rate among former male inmates compared with the rate among the general male population.
Answered by Robert Buckland
In May last year, we published our plans for reforming prison education and improving employment outcomes for ex-offenders in the Education and Employment Strategy. The strategy created a system in which each prisoner was set on a path to employment, with prison education and work geared towards employment on release from the outset.
In line with this, we introduced new performance measures to record the rates of employment for prison leavers at six weeks post-release. The Department is scheduled to publish the statistical data for this on 25 July in an annex to Community Performance Statistics on Gov.uk, at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/prison-and-probation-trusts-performance-statistics
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to support people leaving prison to move directly to employment on their release.
Answered by Robert Buckland
One year ago, our Education and Employment Strategy set out plans to transform the way prisoners develop the skills they need to secure employment on release.
Since then, we have introduced the New Futures Network (NFN), which brokers partnerships between prisons and employers in England and Wales. The Network places prisoners in jobs ahead of their release as well as facilitating Release On Temporary Licence (ROTL) placements, which offer continuity and can lead to immediate employment on release.
In addition, our new ROTL framework aims to increase the number of people these opportunities are available to by allowing more prisoners to access ROTL sooner and for longer.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases have been prosecuted under the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The number of individuals proceeded against and convicted of an assault against an emergency worker can be found at:
Using the pivot table, filter by ‘Offence’ for:
`8.22 Assault against an emergency worker’.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to his Answer of 15 January 2018 to Question 121252, on Coroners, whether he has made an assessment of whether the actions of the Coroner for Inner North London are in line with that guidance; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Phillip Lee
Coroners are independent judicial office holders. As such, it would be inappropriate for Ministers to comment.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what guidance is issued to Coroners on respect for religious beliefs which require speedy burial following death.
Answered by Phillip Lee
Guidance for coroners is issued by the Chief Coroner.
The needs of those faiths which require early burial can only be fully met if coroners provide an out of hours service. In his Annual Report for 2016-2017 the Chief Coroner recommended that coroner areas should provide an out of hours service but that they should normally do so on a ‘light touch’ basis. He went on to say however that “in some areas an out of hours service will require more, particularly in order to assist families who seek early burial for their loved ones”.
In addition, the Ministry of Justice’s Guide to Coroner Services, which is available on gov.uk and is aimed in particular at bereaved families, says that “the coroner’s office will take account where possible of individuals’ views and expectations, including family and community preferences, traditions and religious requirements relating to mourning, post-mortem examinations and funerals”.
Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to respond to the letter from the Right hon. Member for Warley on Mr Maxwell.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The response you have requested was sent out on 13 November 2017.