Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the judgment in Hand v George [2017] EWHC 533, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of his proposed reforms to sections 3 and 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 on the entitlement of adoptive children to equal inheritance rights in wills made before 1976.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
In December, the Deputy Prime Minister announced that the Government is consulting on proposals to overhaul and replace the Human Rights Act (HRA) with a Bill of Rights. The consultation process is ongoing and we are carefully considering the impact of proposed policies on the legislative framework and legal systems of each devolved nation within the UK. Engagement with stakeholders, including in the devolved administrations, is underway and roundtable events with religious, humanist and secularist groups are planned. In line with our manifesto commitment, we want to ensure there is a proper balance between the rights of individuals, our national security and effective government.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the judgments in A (Surrogacy: s.54 Criteria) [2020] EWHC 1426 and X (Parental Order: Death of Intended Parent Prior to Birth) [2020] EWFC 39, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of his proposed reforms to sections 3 and 6 of the Human Rights Act on existing human rights protections.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
In December, the Deputy Prime Minister announced that the Government is consulting on proposals to overhaul and replace the Human Rights Act (HRA) with a Bill of Rights. The consultation process is ongoing and we are carefully considering the impact of proposed policies on the legislative framework and legal systems of each devolved nation within the UK. Engagement with stakeholders, including in the devolved administrations, is underway and roundtable events with religious, humanist and secularist groups are planned. In line with our manifesto commitment, we want to ensure there is a proper balance between the rights of individuals, our national security and effective government.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent discussions he has had with the devolved Administrations on the potential impact of his proposed reforms to sections 3 and 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 on the legal recognition of humanist marriages in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
In December, the Deputy Prime Minister announced that the Government is consulting on proposals to overhaul and replace the Human Rights Act (HRA) with a Bill of Rights. The consultation process is ongoing and we are carefully considering the impact of proposed policies on the legislative framework and legal systems of each devolved nation within the UK. Engagement with stakeholders, including in the devolved administrations, is underway and roundtable events with religious, humanist and secularist groups are planned. In line with our manifesto commitment, we want to ensure there is a proper balance between the rights of individuals, our national security and effective government.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he had made of the potential impact of his proposed reforms to sections 3 and 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 on the legal recognition of humanist marriages in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
In December, the Deputy Prime Minister announced that the Government is consulting on proposals to overhaul and replace the Human Rights Act (HRA) with a Bill of Rights. The consultation process is ongoing and we are carefully considering the impact of proposed policies on the legislative framework and legal systems of each devolved nation within the UK. Engagement with stakeholders, including in the devolved administrations, is underway and roundtable events with religious, humanist and secularist groups are planned. In line with our manifesto commitment, we want to ensure there is a proper balance between the rights of individuals, our national security and effective government.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the potential effect of his planned reforms to sections 3 and 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 on delivering equality under the law to humanists, atheists, and other non-religious people.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
In December, the Deputy Prime Minister announced that the Government is consulting on proposals to overhaul and replace the Human Rights Act (HRA) with a Bill of Rights. The consultation process is ongoing and we are carefully considering the impact of proposed policies on the legislative framework and legal systems of each devolved nation within the UK. Engagement with stakeholders, including in the devolved administrations, is underway and roundtable events with religious, humanist and secularist groups are planned. In line with our manifesto commitment, we want to ensure there is a proper balance between the rights of individuals, our national security and effective government.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his planned reforms to sections 3 and 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 will ensure that references to religion in legislation and guidance will be interpreted as religion or belief.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
In December, the Deputy Prime Minister announced that the Government is consulting on proposals to overhaul and replace the Human Rights Act (HRA) with a Bill of Rights. The consultation process is ongoing and we are carefully considering the impact of proposed policies on the legislative framework and legal systems of each devolved nation within the UK. Engagement with stakeholders, including in the devolved administrations, is underway and roundtable events with religious, humanist and secularist groups are planned. In line with our manifesto commitment, we want to ensure there is a proper balance between the rights of individuals, our national security and effective government.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the potential effect, including any retrospective effect, of proposed reforms to sections 3 and 6 of the Human Rights Act on the existing legal framework regarding human rights law; and whether he has conducted an impact assessment on that matter.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
In December, the Deputy Prime Minister announced that the Government is consulting on proposals to overhaul and replace the Human Rights Act (HRA) with a Bill of Rights. The consultation process is ongoing and we are carefully considering the impact of proposed policies on the legislative framework and legal systems of each devolved nation within the UK. Engagement with stakeholders, including in the devolved administrations, is underway and roundtable events with religious, humanist and secularist groups are planned. In line with our manifesto commitment, we want to ensure there is a proper balance between the rights of individuals, our national security and effective government.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of people prosecuted for TV licence evasion in each year since 2015 were women.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Ministry of Justice has published information on prosecutions for TV licence evasion in England and Wales, up to December 2020, available in the ‘Outcomes by Offence’ data tool, which can be found here:
For prosecutions of women for this offence, follow the steps below.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on the (a) average, (b) shortest and (c) longest time taken to grant probate in the last 12 months.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The average wait for people telephoning the national Courts and Tribunal Service centre with queries relating to Probate between April 2019 to March 2020 is 2 minutes 21 seconds.
The most recently published waiting times for a grant of probate covers July 2019 to March 2020 as March to June 2019 data is subject to data quality issues following the move to a new computer system. All calculations have therefore been calculated based on a 9-month period from July 2019 rather than a 12-month period as requested.
The information requested as to the shortest and longest time taken to grant probate in the last 12 months could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The information requested as to the average time taken to grant probate in the last 12 months can be found in the table below:
Average time to grant issue for grants of representation, by grant type, England and Wales 1,2, 3, 4 |
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Probate |
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Application submission to grant issue | Document receipt to grant issue3 |
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| Mean weeks | Median weeks |
| Mean weeks | Median weeks |
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July 2019 to March 2020 |
| 8.1 | 6.6 | 7.9 | 6.4 |
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Source HMCTS Core Case Data |
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1) HMCTS Core Case Data (CCD) 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) Document receipt occurs after payment has been made and all accompanying paperwork has been received by HMCTS 4) Due to quality issues in the transition between data systems, the breakdown by type of grant has not been published for Q2 2019 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average wait is for people telephoning the national Courts and Tribunal Service centres with queries relating to probate applications in the last 12 months.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The average wait for people telephoning the national Courts and Tribunal Service centre with queries relating to Probate between April 2019 to March 2020 is 2 minutes 21 seconds.
The most recently published waiting times for a grant of probate covers July 2019 to March 2020 as March to June 2019 data is subject to data quality issues following the move to a new computer system. All calculations have therefore been calculated based on a 9-month period from July 2019 rather than a 12-month period as requested.
The information requested as to the shortest and longest time taken to grant probate in the last 12 months could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The information requested as to the average time taken to grant probate in the last 12 months can be found in the table below:
Average time to grant issue for grants of representation, by grant type, England and Wales 1,2, 3, 4 |
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Probate |
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Application submission to grant issue | Document receipt to grant issue3 |
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| Mean weeks | Median weeks |
| Mean weeks | Median weeks |
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July 2019 to March 2020 |
| 8.1 | 6.6 | 7.9 | 6.4 |
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Source HMCTS Core Case Data |
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1) HMCTS Core Case Data (CCD) 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) Document receipt occurs after payment has been made and all accompanying paperwork has been received by HMCTS 4) Due to quality issues in the transition between data systems, the breakdown by type of grant has not been published for Q2 2019 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||