Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if his Department will bring forward changes to allow independent celebrants to conduct legally binding weddings.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government recognises the contribution that independent celebrants make to the wedding industry and will be seeking their views amongst a range of others to inform the consultation paper.
In the upcoming consultation, we will invite views on the possible introduction of independent officiants and the potential consequences of this. We will encourage everyone to engage with the consultation when published to help to inform our next steps on weddings reform.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of (a) staffing levels and (b) staff training on the time taken to process probate applications in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Mike Freer
HM Courts & Tribunals Service recruited 100 full time equivalent (FTE) staff between June 2022 and June 2023 for the probate service. HMCTS are now holding staffing levels at around 280 FTE compared to 153 FTE in March 2020. This is to maintain the increased volume of grants being issued and providing capacity for a rolling training programme to build the capability of the workforce.
More recent Management Information published by HMCTS shows the average mean length of time taken for a grant of probate (following receipt of the documents required) reduced by 3 weeks in March 2024 compared to February 2024. The average timeliness for cases completing in March was 9 weeks.
Official statistics show that the average time (median) from application submission to grant issue for all grant types was 11.0 weeks in 2023 (mean average time was 13.9 weeks). From the document receipt to grant issue the median average time was 8.7 weeks (mean average time 12.0).
Despite the probate service receiving record levels of applications during 2023 the open workable caseload (cases not waiting for more information from the applicant) has reduced by 30,500 cases since August 2023 and currently stands at 37,406 in March 2024.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of legal aid provision in (a) Stockport and (b) Greater Manchester.
Answered by Mike Freer
The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) is responsible for commissioning legal aid services in England and Wales. At a national level, the LAA monitors capacity across its legal aid contracts on an ongoing basis and, where demand is greater than the available supply, takes action to secure additional provision to ensure the continuity of legal aid-funded services.
The commissioning and monitoring of civil legal aid services are done by Procurement Area or Access Point, with Procurement Areas differing for different categories of law. The commissioning standard is to have at least one provider in each civil category per Procurement Area, outside Family Law where the minimum is five. Additionally, legal advice on a range of civil matters including housing, debt, discrimination and education is available, wherever people are, through the Civil Legal Advice telephone service.
The commissioning and monitoring of criminal legal aid services are undertaken at a national level. However, the LAA takes steps to ensure there is adequate coverage on each of its duty solicitor schemes. Provision under the duty solicitor scheme is demand led and so there may be variations in numbers across each local rota.
Information about the number of legal aid providers contracted to provide services are published as part of the LAA’s statistics [see tables 9.1-9.8]. These statistics are used by the LAA as management information to monitor the capacity of legal aid services over time, in different areas of law and different regions of England Wales.
The LAA is satisfied that there is adequate provision of services in Stockport and Greater Manchester across all categories of legal aid, including under the relevant duty solicitor schemes operating in the area.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to support domestic abuse victims when the person who abused them has been released from prison.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Probation Service Victim Contact Scheme provides valuable support to victims of offenders who receive a sentence of imprisonment of 12 months or more, or a hospital order, for a violent or sexual offence. The Scheme enables victims to be informed of key stages of an offender’s sentence, such as if they are transferred to open prison conditions, as well as when the offender is to be released.
The Probation Service is currently rolling out an additional scheme, the Victim Notification Scheme, for victims of Stalking and Harassment offences, including Breach of Restraining Order and Breach of Non-molestation order, where any custodial sentence is imposed. This is currently running in four Probation Regions, with further Regions scheduled for rollout this year. The scheme aims to put victims in touch with support services local to them and ensure they are made aware of when the offender is being released from custody.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many non-molestation orders were breached in (a) Stockport constituency and (b) Greater Manchester in the last three years.
Answered by Edward Argar
Information on the number of defendants prosecuted, convicted and sentenced at criminal courts for the offence ‘66.4 Breach of a non-molestation order’, on a principal offence basis, from 2010 to 2022 can be found in the Outcomes by Offence tool: 2022.
Geographical area presented in this data tool is by police force area, whereby ‘Greater Manchester’ can be filtered to. This data is not held or published by constituency specifically.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many evictions have taken place under Section 21 of the Housing Act 1988 in the last (a) 12, (b) six and (c) three months in Stockport constituency.
Answered by Mike Freer
The Ministry of Justice publishes statistics on the volume of Section 21 evictions. These figures are published up to March 2023 here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/mortgage-and-landlord-possession-statistics.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what measures his Department has put in place to monitor perpetrators of domestic abuse when they are released on licence.
Answered by Edward Argar
HMPPS have taken significant steps to strengthen practice in managing domestic abuse offenders– introducing a new Policy Framework to make expectations clear, updating training and strengthening operational guidance: Domestic abuse policy framework - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The Probation Service works with other agencies to manage the risks perpetrators pose on release from prison and to ensure the safety and wellbeing of victims, potential victims, and children. For domestic abuse offenders convicted of relevant sexual or violent offences and others referred based on their risk, this will be under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA). The statutory MAPPA Guidance now includes a specific chapter on domestic abuse: Multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA): Guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
We are investing an extra £5.5 million a year to recruit probation staff who are specifically responsible for obtaining domestic abuse information held by the police, as well as children’s safeguarding information held by councils.
We are making better use of technology to enhance monitoring of domestic abuse offenders:
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate he has made of the size of the backlog of criminal court cases in Stockport constituency.
Answered by Mike Freer
The number of outstanding cases at the magistrates’ courts and the Crown Court are routinely published as part of the National Statistics release Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly.
The latest published data is available to December 2022 and can be found at the following link: Criminal court statistics quarterly: October to December 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
For the Crown Court, figures are published specifically for the North West of England. For magistrates’ courts, the Greater Manchester Local Justice Area is the closest match available.
The published data for the Crown Court are found here: Crown Court cases received, disposed and outstanding tool, and the published data for the magistrates’ court are found here: Magistrates' courts cases received, disposed and outstanding tool.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on the number of prosecutions for theft of catalytic converters in Greater Manchester in each of the last three years.
Answered by Edward Argar
This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he will respond to the correspondence of 6 September 2022 from the hon. Member for Stockport, reference NM16669.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The Ministry of Justice responded to the letter on 23 February 2023. We take the handling of correspondence seriously and in this instance, due to an administrative error, there was an unacceptable delay in responding. As outlined in our response, we apologise for the delay in responding.