Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make it his policy to facilitate the eventual termination of all imprisonment for public protection sentences in response to the recommendation of the Prison Reform Trust.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government has no plans to legislate to terminate existing IPP sentences.
The focus is on ensuring, via a joint HMPPS/Parole Board action plan, that IPP prisoners have every opportunity to progress towards safe release. This approach is working, with high numbers of unreleased IPP prisoners achieving a release decision each year. Indeed, as of 30 June this year there were 1,722 offenders serving the IPP sentence in prison who have never been released, down from over 6,000 when the sentence was abolished for new offences in December 2012. All IPP prisoners are by law entitled to have their continued detention reviewed by the independent Parole Board at least once every two years.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the equity of law firms being able to recover different rates of legal costs against the other side based on their location rather than the complexity of the case.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
I refer the Rt Hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne East to the previously answered PQs 8554 and 10168 in June this year on legal costs recovery: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2021-05-27/8554; https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2021-06-04/10168.
On 30 July 2021, the Civil Justice Council (CJC) published its final report proposing revisions to the Guideline Hourly Rates (GHR): https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Civil-Justice-Council-final-report-on-guideline-hourly-rates.pdf. These revisions have been accepted by the Master of the Rolls: https://www.judiciary.uk/publications/master-of-the-rolls-accepts-recommended-changes-to-guideline-hourly-rates/. The process for recovering costs is the same throughout England and Wales.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the equity of the ability of law firms based in London to recover from the losing side higher rates of legal costs than firms based in the North East of England.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
I refer the Rt Hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne East to the previously answered PQs 8554 and 10168 in June this year on legal costs recovery: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2021-05-27/8554; https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2021-06-04/10168.
On 30 July 2021, the Civil Justice Council (CJC) published its final report proposing revisions to the Guideline Hourly Rates (GHR): https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Civil-Justice-Council-final-report-on-guideline-hourly-rates.pdf. These revisions have been accepted by the Master of the Rolls: https://www.judiciary.uk/publications/master-of-the-rolls-accepts-recommended-changes-to-guideline-hourly-rates/. The process for recovering costs is the same throughout England and Wales.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to encourage solicitors to practice in the North East of England.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Under the framework established by the Legal Services Act 2007, the legal profession in England and Wales, and the bodies that regulate it, are independent from government. We continue to ensure that legal aid advice remains accessible to those who need it, and the Legal Aid Agency keeps market capacity under continual review to ensure adequate provision across England and Wales.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure the regional equity of legal hourly rates recovery.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
In England and Wales, the general position as to recovery of legal costs in civil litigation is that the losing party pays the costs of the winning party. If these costs are not agreed, then they are assessed on principles and bases set out in the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR), which apply equally across England and Wales.
Under CPR 44.4, the place where the work was done is one of the factors to be taken into account by the court in deciding the amount of costs.
Guideline Hourly Rates (GHR), published by the Master of the Rolls, provide a starting point for the summary assessment of costs, based on the experience and the location of the lawyer undertaking the work.
In January 2021, the Civil Justice Council (CJC), chaired by the Master of the Rolls, issued a draft report for consultation on proposed revisions to the GHR: https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/20210108-GHR-Report-for-consultation-FINAL.pdf. The consultation closed on 31 March 2021.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the financial effect on law firms based in the North East of the disparity in arrangements for recovering legal costs compared with law firms headquartered in London.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
In England and Wales, the general position as to recovery of legal costs in civil litigation is that the losing party pays the costs of the winning party. If these costs are not agreed, then they are assessed on principles and bases set out in the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR), which apply equally across England and Wales.
Under CPR 44.4, the place where the work was done is one of the factors to be taken into account by the court in deciding the amount of costs.
Guideline Hourly Rates (GHR), published by the Master of the Rolls, provide a starting point for the summary assessment of costs, based on the experience and the location of the lawyer undertaking the work.
In January 2021, the Civil Justice Council (CJC), chaired by the Master of the Rolls, issued a draft report for consultation on proposed revisions to the GHR: https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/20210108-GHR-Report-for-consultation-FINAL.pdf. The consultation closed on 31 March 2021.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when her Department plans to publish the Government's review of Section 44 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
Answered by Phillip Lee
The Ministry of Justice plan to publish a report on the use of section 44 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 in due course.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders on probation have been (a) classified in each risk category, (b) moved up a risk category and (c) moved down a risk category in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The information requested could be only obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what response he has made to HM Inspectorate of Probation's Transforming Rehabilitation, Early Implementation 5 report, published in May 2016.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
We are confident our reforms to probation services are being successfully implemented but are not complacent and are working to improve the issues identified in this report. The National Offender Management Service have developed an action plan and we are addressing the Chief Inspector's recommendations.
We continue to closely monitor and robustly manage providers to make sure they fulfil their contractual commitments to maintain service delivery, reduce reoffending, protect the public and provide value for money to the taxpayer and will continue to support probation staff to deliver these important changes.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effect of his policies on transforming rehabilitation on the performance of the Probation Service.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
We assess the performance of the National Probation Service and 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) through a range of service levels and, for CRCs, through a robust contract management and assurance process. Performance information against these service levels is published quarterly. The most recent statistics were published on 28 April and can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-performance-quarterly-management-information-update-to-december-2015. Cohorts were established from 1 October 2015 and there will be a 26 month delay to allow for robust measurement over a sustained period, cases to clear courts, and analysis of the data. We will, therefore, be unable to assess whether the reforms are reducing reoffending until December 2017.