Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when the Government plans to publish its Green Paper on family justice matters.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Government is developing significant reforms in both private and public family law individually, and consulting on them as appropriate, as an alternative to a Green Paper.
The Government has recently consulted on proposals to reform divorce law to reduce family conflict. The Government will publish its response shortly and plans to introduce legislation as soon as Parliamentary time allows. To help separating couples make arrangements for the future, we are increasing awareness of alternative dispute resolution options outside court, including mediation, through better and improved online information and signposting.
As announced in the Autumn Budget, the Government has asked the Law Commission to propose options for a simple and fair system of weddings to give couples meaningful choice.
The Ministry of Justice and the Department for Education have also developed proposals, in close collaboration with the sector, to address rising volumes of children entering the family justice system and local variation in that system. These proposals focus on better preparation of cases before court and diversion of cases from court where appropriate, making better use of the wider family network and promoting consistent and appropriate decisions in court.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will allocate additional funding for resources to protect young victims of crime.
Answered by Edward Argar
The government is committed to ensuring that young victims of crime get the protection and support they need. As the Prime Minister said in the House on 6 March, we have seen too many young lives lost to terrible crimes. The response must be cross agency, and focused on supporting and protecting victims and their families.
The Government’s Serious Violence Strategy published last year sets out a wide range of actions intended to address serious violence including knife and gun crime, and homicides. We are working with the Home Office following the Home Secretary’s announcement in October 2018 for the £200 million Youth Endowment Fund (YEF). The fund will be delivered over the next 10 years, targeting those children most at risk of becoming involved in serious violence.
In 2017/18 we spent £97m to fund support services for victims of crime, and we forecast to spend broadly the same in 2018-19.
Included in this funding the Ministry of Justice provides approximately £68m to Police and Crime Commissioners to commission victim support services locally, based on the needs identified in their area.
The Ministry of Justice provides approximately £3.4m a year for support to families bereaved by murder and manslaughter. A key priority and focus of resource within the Homicide Service we fund will be ensuring that support for families bereaved by serious violence such as gang crime, includes the right specialist support to support and help protect young family members.
As announced in the government’s Victims Strategy, which was published on 10 September 2018, my officials are considering longer-term and more sustainable funding arrangements as part of our work to develop a new delivery model for supporting victims and witnesses of crime.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce delays in personal independent payment tribunal hearings being held.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
It is important that appeals are heard as quickly as possible. The Ministry of Justice recognises that there are delays in the system and is in the process of recruiting more judicial office holders in order to increase capacity and help to reduce waiting times for appellants. In the Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) jurisdiction, 225 new medical members have already been appointed and 119 disability-qualified members have recently been recruited. The SSCS jurisdiction will also benefit from the fact that 250 fee-paid judges and 100 salaried judges are being recruited across tribunals more widely. In addition, we have recently launched a new digital service with a view to enabling speedier processing of appeals and provide a better service for all parties to the proceedings. Information on the new digital service can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/appeal-benefit-decision/submit-appeal
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress the Government has made on implementing the Children's Funeral Fund.
Answered by Edward Argar
As the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster confirmed during Prime Minister’s Questions on 6 February 2019 (HC Deb (6 February 2019) vol. 654, col. 330. Available at: http://bit.ly/2DlhQXW), the detailed policy on delivery of the Children’s Funeral Fund for England is being developed, and this will determine the implementation timetable. We will provide an update on progress as soon as possible.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many successful prosecutions there were for passengers avoiding taxi fares in each year since 2010.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
It is not possible to identify from centrally held data the number of defendants successfully prosecuted for an offence of avoidance of taxi fares in each year since 2010, as there is no current specific offence for the avoidance of taxi fares. Any successful prosecutions under these circumstances would be dealt with for a broader offence under specific legislation, such as: any dishonest act obtaining services for which payment is required, with intent to avoid payment – Fraud Act 2006 (S.11), and making off without payment (Theft Act 1978 (S.3) but it is not possible to identify which offences involved avoidance of taxi fares from centrally held information.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many unsuccessful applications for legal aid have been made in the last 12 months.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The Legal Aid Agency publishes the information requested on a quarterly basis and it can be found at gov.uk at
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legal-aid-statistics-january-to-march-2018
Please refer to tables 3.1 and 3.2, 6.1, 8.1 for full details.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will assess the merits of having indictable-only offences being heard directly in the Crown Court, without commencing in Magistrates Courts.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Prisons and Courts Bill, which was introduced in the last Parliament but fell when the General Election was called, included a measure removing the need for defendants charged with indictable-only offences to appear before a magistrates’ court simply to be told that they were being sent to the Crown Court to be tried. Instead, the Bill would have allowed such defendants to be notified in writing (including online) of their being sent to the Crown Court for trial. Although all offences would continue to commence in the magistrates’ court there would no longer be the need for a defendant charged with an indictable-only offence to first appear before that court, unless it was necessary for another reason, such as (for example) determining the defendant’s remand status. The Government introduced the Courts and Tribunals (Judiciary and Functions of Staff) Bill in the House of Lords on 23 May 2018 and, as the Justice Secretary announced at the time, the Government will be bringing forward other courts measures from the Prisons and Courts Bill as soon as parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made on the potential effect of his Department's proposed personal injury reforms on people who are not driving a car who are involved in traffic accidents.
Answered by Rory Stewart
A legislative stage Impact Assessment detailing the Government’s estimates of the impacts on a number of affected groups was published alongside the Civil Liability Bill on 20 March 2018. The Impact Assessment does not break down affected groups by sub-sets, and claimants are defined as a single group.
This Impact Assessment covers both the measures being taken forward in the Civil Liability Bill, and the supplementary measures to increase the small claims limit for personal injury claims, and is available at https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/lbill/2017-2019/0090/whiplash-IA.pdf.
The measures taken forward in the Civil Liability Bill will only cover those claimants and defendants who are using or being carried in a motor vehicle. Cyclists, pedestrians, motorcyclists and horse riders are excluded. The proposal to increase the small claims track to £5,000 for RTA related PI claims will however, apply to all road traffic accident claimants.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent steps his Department has taken to reduce the level of fraudulent injury claims.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Government remains concerned about the high number and cost of whiplash claims and their impact on motor insurance premiums. The Civil Liability Bill introduced on 20 March will introduce a ban on making offers to settle whiplash claims without medical evidence, which will ensure that insurers can no longer choose to settle claims without verification that they are genuine. The supplementary non-Bill measures to increase the small claims limit for personal injury claims will reduce the costs of civil litigation, encouraging greater challenge to potentially fraudulent claims.
These measures will act to deter fraud and to counter the wider compensation culture, as well as building on previous measures taken forward by the Ministry of Justice to control costs, strengthen the medical evidence process and reduce incentives to pursue unmeritorious whiplash claims.
Asked by: Laura Smith (Labour - Crewe and Nantwich)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the timetable is for the Part 2 response to the consultation on Reforming the Soft Tissue Injury Claims Process to be published.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Part 2 of the Government’s consultation response will be published in due course.