Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish data on the gender of people ordered to wear an alcohol monitoring device in each year since 2020.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Alcohol monitored, electronic monitoring subjects by gender, England and Wales, at month's end, from March 2021. Source: AMS Contractor data. | ||||
|
| Mar-21 | Mar-22 | Mar-23 |
| Males and Females |
|
|
|
Number | Females | 7 | 116 | 248 |
Number | Males | 28 | 778 | 1,991 |
Number | Other | .. | 4 | 9 |
Total number | Total | 35 | 898 | 2,248 |
| Males and Females |
|
|
|
Proportion of total | Females | 20% | 13% | 11% |
Proportion of total | Males | 80% | 87% | 89% |
Proportion of total | Other | .. | 0% | 0% |
These figures are drawn from administrative data systems provided by contractors. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent.
‘Other’ refers to instances in which data on gender has not been received, or the individual has not disclosed their gender or identifies as non-binary.
The table includes individuals wearing an alcohol monitoring device and subject to an Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement (AAMR) as a requirement of a community order or suspended sentence order, and individuals subject to an Alcohol Monitoring on Licence (AML) condition following custody.
AAMR is a community-based sentence requirement for alcohol related offending which imposes an alcohol ban for up to 120 days, compliance is electronically monitored using an alcohol tag. AAMR was introduced in Wales in October 2020 and was expanded to all England and Wales in March 2021.
AML allows probation to impose an additional licence condition that either bans drinking alcohol or limits use, monitored by an alcohol tag. Rollout in England and Wales was completed in June 2022.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department conducted a women-specific impact and health needs assessment prior to the roll out of the use of alcohol monitoring tags.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
There have been two equalities impact assessments, both of which considered offenders’ sex, prior to the Department’s introduction of alcohol monitoring.
An Equalities Impact Assessment was carried out on the alcohol monitoring measures introduced by the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, it is published and available using this link: Alcohol abstinence and monitoring requirement (justice.gov.uk).
A further Equalities Impact Assessment was carried out and published alongside the Statutory Instrument to commence the Alcohol Abstinence and Monitoring Requirement, The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Commencement No. 14) Order 2020, and is available using this link: The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Commencement No. 14) Order 2020 (legislation.gov.uk).
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he is taking steps to reduce the cost of crown court transcripts for victims of serious crime.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice and HM Courts and Tribunals Service continue to seek ways to reduce the fees that victims are required to pay to obtain transcripts in criminal proceedings. In particular, we will explore how technology can be used to reduce the costs of transcription, with a view to passing on the savings to parties.
Victims can apply to the court for permission to listen to the audio recording of the hearing at a suitable court location, free of charge and at judicial discretion. In certain serious criminal cases, a copy of the Sentencing Remarks may be made available to the public free of charge at the judge’s discretion
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the length of waiting lists for counselling for victims of sexual violence.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The NHS Long Term Plan commits this Government to investing at least £2.3 billion of extra funding a year to expanding and transforming mental health services by March 2024. This will enable an extra two million people, including victims of sexual violence, to be treated by NHS mental health services. In February 2022, NHS England also published the outcomes of its consultation on the potential to introduce five new access and waiting time standards for mental health services. Which will enable victims of sexual violence to be referred sooner. These give new access and waiting time standards are:
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been convicted of the offence of illegal working since that offence was introduced under the 2016 Immigration Act.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of convictions between 2017 and 2021 in the Outcomes by Offence data tool: December 2021.
Information on the number of people convicted prior to 2017 can be found in the Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code data tool, however, there are no convictions for illegal working in this period.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what support his Department is providing to LGBTQ+ young people aged 16-25 who have been victims of (a) hate crime, (b) serious violence or (c) malicious communications in the last 12 months.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government funds services for all victims of crime, regardless of the crime type, when it happened, or whether it has been reported to the police. The Ministry of Justice provides funding for victim support services both at a national and local level. Local funding is routed through Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) who commission services in their local area based on an assessment of need. This includes providing tailored services for victims with protected characteristics. Whilst we collect voluntary demographic data on the victims these services support, such as age, ethnicity, and sexuality, we do not hold data to the level of granularity requested.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many child victims of sexual abuse reached the age of 18 before there case was heard; and how many of those people were then cross examined in each year from 2016.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The age of victims throughout the progression of a case through the Criminal Justice System and the number that were cross examined is not held centrally.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the court backlog is for child sexual abuse cases.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
At the end of June 2021 (latest available data) there were 4,614 outstanding child sexual abuse cases in the Crown Court and 572 in the Magistrates’ Court in England and Wales.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to increase the availability of legal aid assistance in mediation cases.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Whilst the Government has no current plans to extend legal aid for mediation cases, The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has launched a voucher scheme which will provide a contribution of up to £500 towards the mediation costs for eligible cases, supporting people in resolving their family law disputes outside of court, where appropriate.
The early data we have on outcomes shows the scheme has been positively received and is achieving its purpose of assisting families to mediate their issues. We will continue to monitor the take up of the scheme and look closely at the data we collect. This will help shape future initiatives in this space.
As a result of the success of the scheme so far, we will be extending the scheme until the end of the year.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans his Department has for the future of legal aid funding for housing cases.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
MoJ continues to consider the long-term sustainability of civil legal aid, recognising that we need to take a whole system approach. The department has also been engaging with representative bodies and providers within the sector to increase our understanding of the challenges providers currently face. Housing is a key focus of this work and we will shortly be publishing a consultation on proposals for the future of the Housing Possession Court Duty Scheme (HPCDS).