Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders have been released as a result of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (Requisite and Minimum Custodial Periods) Order 2024 on each day since that Order came into effect; and how many and what proportion of those offenders have (a) re-offended and (b) been returned to custody.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
As set out in the Statutory Instrument to Amend the Standard Determinate Sentence Automatic Release Point Impact Assessment published on 17 July 2024, prison population and release figures are monitored and published as part of the Offender Management Statistics: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2024/117/pdfs/ukia_20240117_en.pdf.
Data on SDS40 releases forms a subset of data intended for future publication.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate she has made of the number of offenders released as a result of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (Requisite and Minimum Custodial Periods) Order 2024 that have previous convictions for (a) sexual offences and (b) offences involving violence against women and girls.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Certain offences have been excluded from the change to automatic release points for eligible standard determinate sentences under the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (Requisite and Minimum Custodial Periods) Order 2024. This includes sex offences irrespective of sentence length; serious violent offences with a sentence of four years or more; specified offences linked to domestic abuse irrespective of sentence length (including stalking, coercive or controlling behaviour and non-fatal strangulation); as well as offences concerning national security. Every excluded offence retains the previous release point: this is not changing. No sex offender will serve a single day less for those offences under this scheme.
The law applies to sentences not prisoners. There are some people who have served the entirety of their prison sentence for a previous sexual offence, and are now serving a subsequent sentence for a different crime. They may see the sentence for that other crime reduced to 40%.
As set out in the Statutory Instrument to Amend the Standard Determinate Sentence Automatic Release Point Impact Assessment published on 17 July 2024 (available at the link below), prison population and release figures are monitored and published as part of the Offender Management Statistics.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2024/117/pdfs/ukia_20240117_en.pdf.
Data on SDS40 releases forms a subset of data intended for future publication.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will publish a daily update on the (a) number of offenders released early as a consequence of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (Requisite and Minimum Custodial Periods) Order 2024 and (b) number of those offenders who have subsequently (i) re-offended and (ii) been returned to custody.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
As set out in the Statutory Instrument to Amend the Standard Determinate Sentence Automatic Release Point Impact Assessment published on 17 July 2024 (available at the link below), prison population and release figures are monitored and published as part of the Offender Management Statistics.
Data on SDS40 releases forms a subset of data intended for future publication.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2024/117/pdfs/ukia_20240117_en.pdf.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when she plans to review the impact of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (Requisite and Minimum Custodial Periods) Order 2024.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
As set out in the Statutory Instrument to Amend the Standard Determinate Sentence Automatic Release Point Impact Assessment published on 17 July 2024 (available at the link below), the Government has been clear that this is a temporary change which will be reviewed after 18 months.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukia/2024/117/pdfs/ukia_20240117_en.pdf.
Further statistics will also be published in due course on a quarterly basis.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many complaints he has received about the performance of the probate service in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mike Freer
The attached table shows the number of complaints about the performance of the probate service in each of the last five years.
HMCTS has significantly increased staffing levels in Probate over the past year to help process applications faster. The training and upskilling of those new and existing staff have led to applications taking longer in the short term.
HMCTS have streamlined internal processes to cut down on administrative delay and reduce processing times. We are continuing to invest in improving digital systems and online filing capabilities so users can track progress more easily.
HMCTS does not collate the management information on how many errors by the probate service caused delays to the processing of applications.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many times errors by the probate service caused delays to the processing of applications in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mike Freer
The attached table shows the number of complaints about the performance of the probate service in each of the last five years.
HMCTS has significantly increased staffing levels in Probate over the past year to help process applications faster. The training and upskilling of those new and existing staff have led to applications taking longer in the short term.
HMCTS have streamlined internal processes to cut down on administrative delay and reduce processing times. We are continuing to invest in improving digital systems and online filing capabilities so users can track progress more easily.
HMCTS does not collate the management information on how many errors by the probate service caused delays to the processing of applications.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the time taken by the probate service to process applications; and what the average time is to process an application for the latest period in which data is available.
Answered by Mike Freer
The probate service received record levels of applications during 2022 and this has continued to grow with higher levels of receipts during January to June 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. Whilst HMCTS has increased resources to meet the higher demand the training and upskilling of those new and existing staff has led to applications taking longer in the short term.
HMCTS are focused on increasing outputs to reduce overall timeliness on all types of applications and the average mean length of time taken for a grant of probate, following receipt of the documents required, is 13 weeks during April to June 2023.
Average waiting times for probate grants are routinely published on gov.uk via Family Court Statistics Quarterly and currently cover the period up to June 2023.
The number of FTEs working in the probate service in each of the last five years is as follows:
March 2019 = 152
March 2020 = 153
March 2021 = 250
March 2022 = 246
March 2023 = 296
We aim to answer telephone enquiries to the probate service within an average of 12 minutes. However, 2022 performance had fallen short of this goal but has since improved in 2023 by 60% to 12 minutes 15 seconds.
To improve telephone response times and the overall experience for applicants, HMCTS have undertaken additional staff training to ensure probate call agents can provide more accurate and helpful information.
To further enhance the information provided during calls, we are expanding our probate contact centre scripts and FAQs to address common queries in a clear and compassionate way.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what service standards guidance the probate service has for answering telephone enquiries; and whether he is taking steps to improve the information provided to applicants who contact the probate service by telephone.
Answered by Mike Freer
The probate service received record levels of applications during 2022 and this has continued to grow with higher levels of receipts during January to June 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. Whilst HMCTS has increased resources to meet the higher demand the training and upskilling of those new and existing staff has led to applications taking longer in the short term.
HMCTS are focused on increasing outputs to reduce overall timeliness on all types of applications and the average mean length of time taken for a grant of probate, following receipt of the documents required, is 13 weeks during April to June 2023.
Average waiting times for probate grants are routinely published on gov.uk via Family Court Statistics Quarterly and currently cover the period up to June 2023.
The number of FTEs working in the probate service in each of the last five years is as follows:
March 2019 = 152
March 2020 = 153
March 2021 = 250
March 2022 = 246
March 2023 = 296
We aim to answer telephone enquiries to the probate service within an average of 12 minutes. However, 2022 performance had fallen short of this goal but has since improved in 2023 by 60% to 12 minutes 15 seconds.
To improve telephone response times and the overall experience for applicants, HMCTS have undertaken additional staff training to ensure probate call agents can provide more accurate and helpful information.
To further enhance the information provided during calls, we are expanding our probate contact centre scripts and FAQs to address common queries in a clear and compassionate way.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many full time equivalent staff worked in the probate service in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mike Freer
The probate service received record levels of applications during 2022 and this has continued to grow with higher levels of receipts during January to June 2023 compared to the same period in 2022. Whilst HMCTS has increased resources to meet the higher demand the training and upskilling of those new and existing staff has led to applications taking longer in the short term.
HMCTS are focused on increasing outputs to reduce overall timeliness on all types of applications and the average mean length of time taken for a grant of probate, following receipt of the documents required, is 13 weeks during April to June 2023.
Average waiting times for probate grants are routinely published on gov.uk via Family Court Statistics Quarterly and currently cover the period up to June 2023.
The number of FTEs working in the probate service in each of the last five years is as follows:
March 2019 = 152
March 2020 = 153
March 2021 = 250
March 2022 = 246
March 2023 = 296
We aim to answer telephone enquiries to the probate service within an average of 12 minutes. However, 2022 performance had fallen short of this goal but has since improved in 2023 by 60% to 12 minutes 15 seconds.
To improve telephone response times and the overall experience for applicants, HMCTS have undertaken additional staff training to ensure probate call agents can provide more accurate and helpful information.
To further enhance the information provided during calls, we are expanding our probate contact centre scripts and FAQs to address common queries in a clear and compassionate way.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what service standards the probate service has for answering telephone enquiries; and whether he is taking steps to improve the information provided to applicants who contact the probate service by telephone.
Answered by Mike Freer
It has not proved possible to respond to the right hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.