Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the extra capacity required to reduce the backlog of outstanding cases in the criminal courts.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
There are currently no plans to legislate to reduce the statutory minimum number of jurors. Were the Ministry to propose any legislation we would provide full details of any sunset clause.
HMCTS has published a Court Recovery Plan which summarises the measures that are being taken. The Court Recovery Plan can be accessed via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/court-and-tribunal-recovery-update-in-response-to-coronavirus Jury trials have safely resumed in most Crown Courts and we have announced a number of Nightingale Courts which will further support recovery.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of criminal court rooms have been in use in each criminal court on each day in the last 12 months.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the length of time it will take to clear the backlog in the criminal courts of England and Wales.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
COVID-19 has been an unprecedented challenge for the criminal justice system, but we have kept courts open and cases flowing through the system throughout. The UK has been a global leader and we are ahead of comparable systems.
HMCTS has now published a Court Recovery Plan, which sets out that court operating hours will be extended, alternative venues will be used as courts to increase capacity and the use of the Cloud Video Platform (CVP) will be rolled out into all Magistrates’ and Crown Courts. Further measures to increase jury trial capacity are also being explored. The Court Recovery Plan can be accessed via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/court-and-tribunal-recovery-update-in-response-to-coronavirus
Public confidence requires cases to be dealt with in a timely manner and the backlog must be addressed. This goal will require ambition from the whole system. We have recently announced a record investment in court infrastructure and maintenance. We’re recruiting more court staff and we will shortly be making an announcement on use of additional court centres.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has consulted (a) legal practitioners and (b) other stakeholders on plans to reintroduce Flexible Operating Hours in the courts.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Flexible Operating Hours pilots took place at Manchester Civil Justice Centre and the County Court at Brentford from September 2019 to March 2020. Local Implementation Teams, which include legal representatives and local support groups, were set up in Manchester and Brentford to plan and deliver the pilots. To support a cross-justice system approach to the evaluation of the pilots HMCTS set up an Evaluation Advisory Group which includes representatives from the judiciary, partner government agencies, the Bar Council, the Bar Standards Board, the Law Society and CILEx.
HMCTS has appointed a consortium of IFF Research and Frontier Economics to carry out an independent evaluation of the Flexible Operating Hours pilots. The evaluation is being conducted as set out in the evaluation plan, published July 2019: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/flexible-operating-hours-evaluation-plan-and-summary. The evaluation report will be published following completion, in the autumn and we will consider its findings carefully.
Proposals to extend court operating hours are being considered as part of the HMCTS recovery plan. Working groups under the leadership of judiciary have been established to develop these proposals which include members of the legal profession across the jurisdictions.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much it costs on average to process each defendant in the Crown Court.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service currently does not calculate the average cost to process each defendant in the crown court.
Historically costs have been calculated around such metrics as the unit cost of a sitting day in the crown court, but we are unable to calculate the average cost of processing a defendant in the crown court.
Criminal cases may be multi handed resulting in multiple defendants in one trial. Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service has been working over the last 12 months to establish a variety of key financial metrics around the unit costs associated with various volumetrics.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much it costs on average to process each defendant in the magistrates court.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service currently does not calculate the average cost to process each defendant in the magistrates’ court.
Historically costs have been calculated around such metrics as the unit cost of a sitting day in the magistrates’ court. We are unable to calculate the average cost of processing a defendant in the magistrates’ court. Magistrates operate several sessions across a sitting day, which may be multi handed resulting in multiple defendants in one trial.
Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service has been working over the last 12 months to establish a variety of key financial metrics around the unit cost associated with various volumetrics.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many firms of solicitors hold a criminal legal aid contract as at 1 July 2020.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Please note for the figures provided that some firms may have more than one office. There are currently 1,146 firms holding a criminal legal aid contract, and this equates to 1,694 offices. This data is correct as at 2 July 2020.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions his Department has had with the Home Office on their consultation on proposals for reviewing pre-charge bail legislation; and what assessment he has made of the effect of the 2017 pre-charge bail reforms on criminal defence solicitors.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
MoJ officials including representatives from the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) and Home Office officials have been in contact on a regular basis since the review into “Release under investigation” (RUI) was announced in November 2019.
Following COVID-19, the consultation deadline was extended to end of May 2020. The consultation has now closed, with over 1000 responses received.
The 2017 Bail Act changes introduced a presumption against bail, with police forces increasingly using ‘Release Under Investigation’ (RUI) powers. In those cases where bail is considered appropriate, police forces must apply to a Magistrate to extend pre-charge bail beyond 3 months.
In response to these changes, the LAA made amendments to the 2017 Standard Crime Contract to ensure that legal aid funding is available for defendants in these new Magistrates’ Court proceedings. The LAA also amended legal aid contracts to allow providers to submit a claim for payment within one month of being notified of an ‘RUI’. That claim can be reopened at a later date if the police investigation continues and further work is done.
This amendment was in response to concern from defence practitioner bodies that any delays in investigations could delay the point at which they can apply for payment for work done on legal aid cases.
All amendments to the legal aid contract were undertaken in consultation with the Law Society and other representative bodies.
Asked by: Karl Turner (Labour - Kingston upon Hull East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much the Legal Aid Agency has paid out (a) since 31 March 2020 and (b) for a comparable period of time in the last three years with regard to (i) closed cases and (ii) payments on account.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The most recent statistics published for the Legal Aid Agency cover up to and including March 2020. Figures for quarters of the 2020/21 financial year are scheduled for future release, and as such payment data for part (a) of question 62405 cannot yet be provided. The figures for part (b) of the question are displayed below, matching the equivalent period of April, May and June inclusive for each financial year:
Claims for Civil Representation – First Quarter Only | ||
| Completed case expenditure (where costs met by LAA) | Payments on account (live cases) |
Q1 2017/18 | £153,943,450.58 | £53,508,814.89 |
Q1 2018/19 | £149,331,830.09 | £61,087,711.51 |
Q1 2019/20 | £168,696,887.77 | £68,007,236.47 |
The figure of £100m referred to by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State was based upon estimates produced by the Ministry of Justice relating to unbilled work for completed cases. The breakdown of the estimates is as follows:
- £130m
- £80m
All of the above estimates of unbilled work pertain to the position as at 31st March 2020.
As at 31st March 2020, the estimate produced by the Ministry of Justice of the amounts available for legal aid providers to claim in relation to unbilled work on completed matters were –
- £130m
- £80m
As at 31st March 2020, the estimate produced by the Ministry of Justice of the amount available for legal aid providers to claim in relation to payment on account for civil matters pertaining to representation in the civil and family courts was £165m.