Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what is the longest wait for a case to be heard at tribunal once referred.
Answered by Mike Freer
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps the Government is taking to support the prosecution of a non-UK citizen or resident in the UK for indirect involvement in human rights abuses.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
The Ministry of Justice is responsible for criminal law policy in England and Wales and the UK’s human rights framework. Any human right abuse which is a criminal offence committed in the UK could be prosecuted the same way as any criminal offence and the nationality or residence status of the defendant is irrelevant. Support for such prosecutions is of course a matter primarily for the Crown Prosecution Service in England and Wales and the Ministry of Justice does not hold that information. If the abuses are criminal offences committed abroad the jurisdiction of our courts will depend on the nature of the offence and whether the relevant statute provides for it to have extraterritorial effect. Again, support for such prosecutions would be a matter for the Crown Prosecution service in England and Wales and its equivalent bodies elsewhere in the UK. Assistance via international police cooperation or Mutual Legal Assistance in such cases is a matter for the Home Office. International matters generally and the International Criminal Court are the responsibility of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department takes to ensure that at least one official from his Department is present during all (a) meetings and (b) phone calls relating to Government business between Ministers and third parties.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
Ministers holding meetings or phone calls on government business are routinely accompanied by a private secretary or other official, in line with the expectations of paragraph 8.14 of the Ministerial Code.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what his Department’s process is for (a) recording and (b) keeping minutes of all meetings relating to Government business.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
Formal, structured meetings are usually minuted, however, not all meetings need to be minuted. It is expected that the general guidance that departments give to their staff will help officials make judgements as to what meetings need to be minuted, noting their Civil Service Code obligation to ‘keep accurate official records.’
Specific procedures are in place for external meetings involving ministers. These are publicly available and can be found in the Guidance on the management of Private Office Papers.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much his Department spent on (a) communications, (b) advertising and (c) marketing in (i) the UK, (ii) England, (iii) Northern Ireland, (iv) Scotland and (v) Wales in each month from August 2020 to December 2020.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Ministry of Justice publishes campaign expenditure (including advertising and marketing spend on campaigns such as HMPPS recruitment) on a quarterly basis, details of which can be found on GOV.UK – as part of routine government transparency arrangements. All substantive campaign spend is subject to Cabinet Office professional assurance.
The criminal justice system and legal jurisdiction of England and Wales are under the control of the UK parliament and government at Westminster. The criminal justice systems of Scotland and Northern Ireland are devolved to the Scottish parliament and Northern Ireland assembly respectively. The majority of MOJ campaign spend therefore relates to England and Wales.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish an update on the progress of the review of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given on 9th October 2020 to PQ 97451 asked by the Rt. Hon. member for Tottenham.