Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will take steps to help ensure that transgender people giving evidence in court proceedings can access facilities without being required to disclose their gender identity.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
HM Courts & Tribunals Service is waiting for the Equality and Human Rights Commission to publish their updated statutory Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations to support service providers. This follows the UK Supreme Court Ruling on definition of ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what guidance has been provided to court staff on the treatment of (a) trans and (b) non-binary people, following the update to the Equal Treatment Bench Book.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
No guidance has been provided to court staff on the treatment of (a) trans and (b) non-binary people, following the update to the Equal Treatment Bench Book. HMCTS is waiting for the Equality and Human Rights Commission to publish their updated statutory Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations to support service providers. This follows the UK Supreme Court Ruling on definition of ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to protect the (a) safety, (b) dignity and (c) privacy of transgender people participating in the criminal justice process.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Agencies across the criminal justice system are governed by the provisions of the Equality Act (2010), so must ensure that transgender people’s rights under the Act are protected. The Victims’ Code (2020) sets out the minimum level of service that all victims of crime should receive from criminal justice agencies, including the right to be treated with respect, dignity, sensitivity, compassion and courtesy and to have their privacy respected in accordance with the relevant privacy and data protection laws. This sits alongside a robust risk assessment framework to ensure the safety and security of all remanded defendants and prisoners.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress her Department has made toward publishing the results of the urgent review into the presumption of parental involvement.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The previous Government announced the Review into the Presumption of Parental Involvement in November 2020, following the recommendation of the Harm Panel Report. Research into the courts’ application of the presumption was commissioned and carried out, however the outcome of the Review was not published before the 2024 general election was announced.
The Government is committed to improving outcomes for all children and families involved in the family courts. Ministers are considering the evidence gathered and the Government's response will be published in due course.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to reduce the backlog in the administration of family court orders.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The HMCTS Reform Programme has introduced several new digital services within the Family Courts, enhancing and automating the administration of family court orders. These services encompass Divorce, Financial Remedy, and Public Law Proceedings.
Additionally, HMCTS has transitioned much of the administration of these services to the newly established Courts and Tribunals Service Centres. Centralising work to national centres has allowed for better management of work fluctuations across the various services; improved data collection on HMCTS performance and identification of areas for enhancement; and more effective alignment of working patterns to meet demand.
Currently, HMCTS is piloting a new digital service for private law proceedings, aiming to replicate the administrative improvements seen in other family services. This service is scheduled to be implemented across England and Wales by the end of 2025.
Whilst this new service is being piloted, HMCTS continues to prioritise the orders wating to be administered according to their urgency and are using specialist order production teams to target delay at specific local court courts.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department plans to take steps to help ensure the parents and guardians of disabled children are able to access (a) Child Trust Funds and (b) Junior ISAs.
Answered by Heidi Alexander - Secretary of State for Transport
Where a young adult lacks mental capacity, including due to a disability, the law requires parents or a guardian to have legal authority to make decisions on their behalf about financial assets or property. This includes in relation to accessing funds held in a Child Trust Fund or a Junior ISA.
On 9 June 2023, the Ministry of Justice published the ‘Making Financial Decisions for young people: parent and carer toolkit’, explaining the process by which parents and guardians of disabled children are able to obtain legal authority if no other arrangements are in place. This can be done by making an application to the Court of Protection for an order authorising access to monies held in a Child Trust Fund or Junior ISA. The toolkit is available on GOV.UK.
We understand that concerns remain, and the Ministry of Justice is exploring what further can be done to help improve access to matured Child Trust Funds.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department plans to (a) review and (b) reform civil legal aid.
Answered by Heidi Alexander - Secretary of State for Transport
We are committed to ensuring the long-term sustainability of the civil legal aid sector and are keen to work closely with practitioners and their representative bodies to look at how best we can address this.
We want to understand the different ways in which the justice system can be improved and will be carefully considering our options on the way forward. This includes considering the evidence on civil legal aid gathered over the past year.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he expects the new segregation unit at HMP Bedford to be (a) completed and (b) opened.
Answered by Edward Argar
The design brief for the new care and separation unit at HMP Bedford was to identify a suitable location for a facility which would address HMIP concerns while minimising the impacts on operational capacity, security and regime. The proposal agreed with the Prison was to covert part of B wing into the new unit in place of place the old one.
The care and separation unit is due to be completed in early March 2024, however additional works are required in B wing before the wing can be put back into use. While the programme for this is not yet finalised, the aim is for the new unit to open before the end of the year.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been held on the segregation unit at HMP Bedford since 17 November 2023.
Answered by Edward Argar
As records of prisoners who have left the prison on transfer or on release are no longer accessible to the prison, it is not possible, without incurring disproportionate cost, to say how many individual prisoners were segregated during the period.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of plans to replace the segregation unit at HMP Bedford.
Answered by Edward Argar
The design brief for the new care and separation unit at HMP Bedford was to identify a suitable location for a facility which would address HMIP concerns while minimising the impacts on operational capacity, security and regime. The proposal agreed with the Prison was to covert part of B wing into the new unit in place of place the old one.
The care and separation unit is due to be completed in early March 2024, however additional works are required in B wing before the wing can be put back into use. While the programme for this is not yet finalised, the aim is for the new unit to open before the end of the year.