Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many staff their Department has seconded from Hakluyt since July 2024.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Information about secondments in the Ministry of Justice is not held in a central location, and therefore we are not able to report on the number of employees seconded from Hakluyt since July 2024.
All Civil Servants are subject to a Loans and Secondments policy and the provisions of the Official Secrets Act. HR policies outline the Department’s stance on political activity, with declaration requirements varying by grade. All Civil Servants are expected to abide by rules governing political activities and to avoid situations that lead to conflicts of interest, such as the non-disclosure of sensitive information.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many of their Department's officials have been seconded from (a) the Institute for Economic Affairs, (b) the Policy Exchange, (c) the Adam Smith Institute and (d) Labour Together since July 2024.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Information about secondments in the Ministry of Justice is not held in a central location and therefore we are not able to report on the number of employees seconded from the Institute for Economic Affairs, Policy Exchange, Adam Smith Institute or Labour Together since July 2024.
All Civil Servants are subject to a Loans and Secondments policy and the provisions of the Official Secrets Act. HR policies outline the Department’s stance on political activity, with declaration requirements varying by grade. All Civil Servants are expected to abide by rules governing political activities and to avoid situations that lead to conflicts of interest, such as the non-disclosure of sensitive information.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many staff her Department has seconded from Palantir since July 2024.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice hold no contracts with Palantir for the provision of goods or services, including contracts for seconded staff. As such, the Department has no staff on secondment from Palantir.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure that legal aid remains accessible.
Answered by Mike Freer
Access to justice is a fundamental right, and in 2022/23 we spent £1.86 billion on legal aid: £926 million on civil, £873 million on crime, and £56 million through central funds (central funds provide funding for, amongst other things, Defence Costs Orders, which are made in respect of non legally-aided defendants who are acquitted, and independent cross examination of vulnerable witnesses in criminal and civil proceedings).
The Ministry of Justice published the Government Response to the Means Test Review consultation exercise in May 2023, which sets out the detailed policy decisions underpinning the new means-test arrangements.
Our changes will increase the number of people eligible for civil legal aid in England and Wales by an additional 2.5 million, with 3.5 million more people eligible for criminal legal aid at the magistrates’ court.
We have also injected up to £10 million a year into housing legal aid through the Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service (HLPAS). HLPAS provides early legal advice on housing, debt, and welfare benefits problems for anyone facing the loss of their home.
In 2023, we broadened the evidence requirements for victims of domestic abuse applying for legal aid. Special Guardianship Orders in private law proceedings were also brought into the scope of legal aid. This represented an injection of £13 million a year.
We will shortly be consulting on expanding the provision of legal aid at inquests related to major incidents where the Independent Public Advocate is appointed or in the aftermath of terrorist incidents. If implemented, this would mean that no family involved in such cases in future would face an inquest without proper legal representation.
To support and strengthen the criminal legal aid sector, in responding to the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review, we uplifted most criminal legal aid fee schemes by 15% in 2022. We are also consulting on reforms to the police station fee scheme and the Youth Court fee scheme, for which we have allocated an extra £21 million per year. These changes increase spend by up to £141 million a year - taking expected criminal legal aid spend to £1.2 billion per year. The additional funding into the system will help contribute towards the sustainability of the market and help ensure legal aid is accessible for the future.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much his Department spent on hospitality in (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (c) 2023.
Answered by Mike Freer
We do not routinely publish this data, as has been the case under successive administrations.
All Business Units within the Ministry of Justice have a responsibility to keep official hospitality costs as low as possible and demonstrate good value for money.
Details of ministerial and senior official hospitality are published on a quarterly basis, and are available on GOV.UK
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much his Department spent on taxi cabs for (a) ministers and (b) civil servants in each of the last three years.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The question cannot be answered within cost exemption. You may wish to know that total the department’s expenditure on travel, subsistence and hospitality is published in the annual report and accounts.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much his Department spent on first class train travel for (a) ministers and (b) civil servants in (i) 2020, (i) 2021 and (iii) 2022.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
| 2020 Apr - Apr | Total spend on 1st class train travel | £150,189.50 |
| Of which was Judiciary | £144,017.30 | |
| Civil Servants | £6,172.20 | |
| 2021 Apr - Apr | Total spend on 1st class train travel | £287,039.60 |
| Of which was Judiciary | £261,289.25 | |
| Civil Servants | £25,750.35 | |
| 2022 (YTD) Apr - Sept | Total spend on 1st class train travel | £215,246.05 |
| Of which was Judiciary | £195,015.65 | |
| Civil Servants | £20,230 |
We are unable to break down the amount spent on ministerial travel as Ministers are not considered employees of the department. They are therefore not required to create accounts and book their own travel which can be monitored through our management reports. Instead, their travel is booked by Private Office employees and logged as guest users.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much his Department has spent on (a) agency workers and (b) agency retainer fees in (i) 2020, (ii) 2021 and (iii) 2022.
Answered by Sarah Dines
MOJ spend on agency workers (also commonly referred to as “Contingent Labour” or “Temporary Workers”) in the periods requested is as follows.
We have interpreted the reference to agency retainer fees as the fees charged at the commencement of the provision of a search recruitment service. This is only applicable when recruiting for a permanent or fixed term post. Agency retainer fees are not applicable to the contingent labour market.
Financial Year | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 |
| £197.6m | £233.3m | £196.0m |
MoJ is taking several steps to reduce its reliance on agency workers. This includes monitoring resourcing levels and delivering recruitment campaigns which aim to adequately address shortfalls in staffing numbers, aiming to recruit 1500 trainee Probation Officers per FY to qualify in the Professional Qualification in Probation (PQiP) to reach the Target Operating Model by 2025, and running regional ready-qualified Probation Officer recruitment campaigns to incentivise agency workers to apply for permanent positions with HMPPS. We are also developing internal progression routes for existing Probation Services Officers (PSOs) to apply to the PQiP learning programme internally. Recruitment activity is underway to prioritise the backfilling of PSOs to continue the pipeline throughout.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much their Department has spent on air travel for (a) Ministers and (b) officials in (i) 2020, (ii) 2021 and (iii) 2022.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost as costs for air travel for senior officials and ministers are aggregated with other costs.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much their Department has spent on advertising in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The cost breakdown of publicity and advertising spend for MoJ is set out in the table below.
| 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 |
Publicity & Advertising | £452,612 | £611,205 | £ 1,019,663 |
The drive in prison officer recruitment and a new campaign in offender employment has contributed to the increase in spend.