Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether it is his policy that all bankruptcy hearings are held in London courts; whether options are available for such hearings to be held on a regional basis; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
The case management and listing of cases is a Judicial function.
The Business & Property Courts hear cases in London as well as in seven regional centres across England and Wales (Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff, Bristol, Liverpool, Leeds and Newcastle). Bankruptcy cases can be heard in those centres, as well as in District Registries (for Bankruptcy petitions issued in the High Court where the debtor lives outside London). In the case of lower value petitions, certain county courts also have bankruptcy jurisdiction.
The statutory committee which makes the rules in relation to Insolvency proceedings is chaired by the Judiciary and independent of Government. Parties are able to make an application to court to elect where their case is heard and there is encouragement for matters to be heard locally in the regions.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
If he will take steps to invite all magistrates under the age of 75 who were automatically retired at the age of 70 to state whether or not they wish to rejoin the Bench.
Answered by Alex Chalk
When the new judicial mandatory retirement age comes into force, there will be a transitional provision to enable retired magistrates to apply to return to the bench, subject to business need.
We will be contacting recently retired magistrates later this year to invite them to express their interest in rejoining the bench.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2021 to Question 170517 on the reinstatement, after the enactment of forthcoming legislation, of retired magistrates between the ages of 70 and 75, whether (a) all such magistrates will be invited individually to indicate whether they wish to return to the Bench and (b) the transitional process for those magistrates to be reinstated will provide for (i) preference to be given to the most senior magistrates who are willing to travel to courts throughout designated areas facing backlogs of cases, (ii) decisions on reinstatement to be taken at regional level and not at the level of individual courts to maximise (A) availability and (B) flexibility in the deployment of the most experienced reinstated magistrates and (iii) use to be made of the network of Justices' Training, Approvals, Authorisations and Appraisals Committees in managing the return and reallocation of magistrates who retired at age 70 but are about to become eligible for reinstatement.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
When the new mandatory retirement age (MRA) comes into force, there will be a transitional provision to enable retired magistrates to apply to return to the bench, subject to business need. The process by which such applications are to be made and considered will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what reason the (a) hearings and (b) deliberations of the Parole Board for England and Wales are not held in public; and if he will take steps to alter this policy in the interests of (i) transparency and (ii) accountability.
Answered by Alex Chalk
It is a statutory requirement under the terms of the current Parole Board Rules for all hearings to be heard in private. That gives the Parole Board no flexibility to consider holding a public hearing even where that may be justified in all the particular circumstances of the case. In February, following a public consultation last year, the Government announced its intention to amend the current rules so that hearings can be held in public when the Parole Board determines it would be in the interests of justice to do so. These changes will be made to the Parole Board Rules later this year.
This is being taken forward as part of the root and branch review of the parole system which was launched in October 2020. The Terms of Reference for the review, and one of the government’s priorities, includes looking at ways to increase the transparency and openness of the parole system so as to improve public confidence and accountability. We plan to build on previous reforms to improve transparency, such as the introduction of Parole Board decision summaries in 2018 which provide reasons for its decisions, mainly to victims. The review is due to report later this year and will set out how the new transparency measures and other reforms to the parole system will be implemented.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 11 March to Question 164329 on reinstating recently retired magistrates under 75 years of age who wish to rejoin the Bench, if he will set up an application process based on establishing a regional pool of magistrates who can (i) be called upon at short notice to support different courts in a given area, and (ii), in the case of highly experienced, recently retired Presiding Justices, assist in the conducting of JP appraisals.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
When the new mandatory retirement age comes into force, there will be a transitional provision to enable retired magistrates to apply to return to the bench, subject to business need. The process by which such applications are to be made and considered will be set out in due course.