Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on the number of employment tribunals in relation to fire and rehire practices that have found in favour of employees in (a) 2021, (b) 2022, (c) 2023 and (d) 2024.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Fire and rehire claims are usually recorded under an unfair dismissal coding. From 01 January 2021 to date, there are more than 17,000 unfair dismissal judgments on the Employment Tribunal decisions register. To provide the information requested it would be at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on the number of employment tribunal cases concerning fire and rehire practices in (a) 2021, (b) 2022, (c) 2023 and (d) 2024.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
It is not possible to provide the information requested without checking each claim at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what data his Department holds on the average driving ban given to someone convicted of (a) causing death by dangerous driving, (b) causing death by carless driving and (c) failing to stop at the scene of an accident.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice holds data on driving bans issued for individuals sentenced for specific driving offences, on a principal disposal basis. This is publicly available and can be viewed in the Outcomes by Offence tool: 2022.
In the data tool, navigate to the ‘Sentence outcomes’ tab. Inside the PivotTable Fields box, remove ‘Average Custodial Sentence Length’ and ‘Average Fine’ out of the values box, and leave ‘Sentenced’ remaining. To view the length of driving bans issued, drag ‘Period of disqualification (MOT)’ into the ‘rows’ box. For outcomes relating to the specific offences requested, in the ‘HO offence code’ filter, select the below codes:
(a) 00404 – Causing death by dangerous driving (MOT)
(b) 00408 – Causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving (MOT)
(c) 80501 – Failing to stop after an accident (MOT)
The pivot table will now present the total sentenced and length of driving ban issued, at all courts from 2010 to 2022.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to announce the funding arrangements for this year's grants for child contact centres.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government values the work of child contact centres and acknowledges the important role they play in providing neutral places for contact between children and their family members.
The arrangements for this small value grant funding are changing this year. The Ministry of Justice is appointing the National Association of Child Contact Centres (NACCC) as the administrators of the grant for this financial year. We are working with NACCC to formalise this arrangement and information will be communicated to contact centres soon.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what reason some child contact centres have had their grants reduced by ten per cent.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government values the work of child contact centres and acknowledges the important role they play in providing neutral places for contact between children and their family members.
Until April this year, the Ministry of Justice provided small value grants, via Cafcass, to support the running of child contact centres. The Ministry of Justice is in the final stages of agreeing the funding arrangements for this year’s grants and information will be made publicly available once this process is complete. Decisions on allocations of grant funding to induvial centres will be determined once the new administration arrangements are in place.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress he has made on setting the levels of funding for children's contact centres; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government values the work of child contact centres and acknowledges the important role they play in providing neutral places for contact between children and their family members.
Until April this year, the Ministry of Justice provided small value grants, via Cafcass, to support the running of child contact centres. The Ministry of Justice is in the final stages of agreeing the funding arrangements for this year’s grants and information will be made publicly available once this process is complete. Decisions on allocations of grant funding to induvial centres will be determined once the new administration arrangements are in place.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people affected by Libyan-sponsored IRA terrorism who have received compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation scheme.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
I would like to express my profound sympathy for UK victims of Libyan-sponsored IRA terrorism, and indeed for all victims of the Troubles.
It is the case that state-funded compensation for victims of violent crime has been in place in Great Britain since 1964, with the first statutory scheme coming into force in 1996. In terms of entitlement, victims can claim compensation for physical and mental injuries they have directly suffered from a violent crime, and for other payments such as for loss of earnings where they cannot work as a result of the injuries sustained. In fatal cases, qualifying relatives (as defined in the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme) may be eligible to apply for bereavement payments and continuing care payments for dependants. The rules on entitlement and eligibility apply equally to all violent crime, regardless of the nature of the incident that gave rise to the injury or caused the death of a loved one.
As to the number of people affected by Libyan-sponsored IRA terrorism who have received compensation, given the time that has passed since the attacks, limited information is available. This is because, in order to ensure compliance with data protection legislation, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) which administers the Scheme, retains minimal information on historical applications to it or its predecessor, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board. Further, when making an application to the GB-wide Scheme, victims are compensated for the injuries they have sustained rather than the nature of the incident (with the exception of sexual assault or abuse). To support consistent decision-making, the CICA may record the nature of the incident where it has identified the potential for multiple applications in relation to the same circumstances. However, unless an applicant clearly states that they obtained their injuries from a terrorist attack, or this is mentioned in the police report, the CICA will not have this information.
Publicly funded support has also been made available to victims of the Troubles who are eligible for the Troubles Permanent Disablement Scheme. We recognise that there is a wider issue around the suitability of arrangements to make payments to the bereaved in Northern Ireland, and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has encouraged the Northern Ireland Executive to consider what more could be done to help.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, prior to Written Ministerial Statement HCWS874 of the 23 March 2021, whether his Department had assessed whether family members of the bereaved or injured would be entitled to the (a) Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme or (b) The Troubles Permanent Disablement Scheme.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
I would like to express my profound sympathy for UK victims of Libyan-sponsored IRA terrorism, and indeed for all victims of the Troubles.
It is the case that state-funded compensation for victims of violent crime has been in place in Great Britain since 1964, with the first statutory scheme coming into force in 1996. In terms of entitlement, victims can claim compensation for physical and mental injuries they have directly suffered from a violent crime, and for other payments such as for loss of earnings where they cannot work as a result of the injuries sustained. In fatal cases, qualifying relatives (as defined in the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme) may be eligible to apply for bereavement payments and continuing care payments for dependants. The rules on entitlement and eligibility apply equally to all violent crime, regardless of the nature of the incident that gave rise to the injury or caused the death of a loved one.
As to the number of people affected by Libyan-sponsored IRA terrorism who have received compensation, given the time that has passed since the attacks, limited information is available. This is because, in order to ensure compliance with data protection legislation, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) which administers the Scheme, retains minimal information on historical applications to it or its predecessor, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board. Further, when making an application to the GB-wide Scheme, victims are compensated for the injuries they have sustained rather than the nature of the incident (with the exception of sexual assault or abuse). To support consistent decision-making, the CICA may record the nature of the incident where it has identified the potential for multiple applications in relation to the same circumstances. However, unless an applicant clearly states that they obtained their injuries from a terrorist attack, or this is mentioned in the police report, the CICA will not have this information.
Publicly funded support has also been made available to victims of the Troubles who are eligible for the Troubles Permanent Disablement Scheme. We recognise that there is a wider issue around the suitability of arrangements to make payments to the bereaved in Northern Ireland, and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has encouraged the Northern Ireland Executive to consider what more could be done to help.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many complaints the Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman has received in relation to the conduct of Judge Robin Tolson QC.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman (JACO) does not consider complaints about Judicial Office Holders. The JACO cannot comment on whether a Judicial Office Holder’s actions amount to misconduct or comment on matters before the courts or tribunals.
The JACO’s judicial conduct remit is to investigate the handling of complaints by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) (and bodies with a similar remit in respect of concerns about the actions of Tribunal members and Magistrates) under the Judicial Conduct arrangements. The JCIO’s statutory remit is to deal with complaints of misconduct.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when the Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman plans to respond to complaints in relation to Judge Robin Tolson QC.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman (JACO) does not consider complaints about Judicial Office Holders. The JACO cannot comment on whether a Judicial Office Holder’s actions amount to misconduct or comment on matters before the courts or tribunals.
The JACO’s judicial conduct remit is to investigate the handling of complaints by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) (and bodies with a similar remit in respect of concerns about the actions of Tribunal members and Magistrates) under the Judicial Conduct arrangements. The JCIO’s statutory remit is to deal with complaints of misconduct.