Asked by: Rachel Blake (Labour (Co-op) - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to resolve ongoing issues with accessing the legal aid portal.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This is an unprecedented event involving sophisticated organised crime. Every effort is being made to restore systems following the criminal attack on our services. The Legal Aid Agency’s (LAA) digital services have been taken offline to negate the threat and prevent further exposure of legal aid providers and users. We will not reopen the system until the appropriate steps have been taken to enable us to do so. We have been able to return some to internal use, enabling an improved ability to support criminal legal aid applications and payments.
The Government are committed to ensuring that operational delivery of legal aid continues. We have put in place contingency plans to ensure that those most in need of legal support can continue to access the help that they need and that those providing vital legal services can be confident they will continue to receive payments whilst systems are offline.
Emergency legislation came into force on 27 June enabling the LAA to implement enhanced business continuity arrangements, including increased delegation of decision making to legal aid providers. These enhanced measures are designed to support legal aid providers and prevent a significant case backlog while contingency measures are in place.
The recent data breach is the result of serious criminal activity, but it was enabled by the fragility of the LAA’s IT systems as a result of the long years of underinvestment under the last Conservative Government. By contrast, since taking power this Government has prioritised work to reverse the damage of over a decade of under-investment. That includes the allocation of over £20 million in extra funding this year to stabilise and transform the Legal Aid Agency digital services. This investment will make the system more robust and resilient in the face of similar cyber-attacks in future.
Asked by: Rachel Blake (Labour (Co-op) - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the First-Tier Tribunal.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
This Government inherited a broken justice system with record and rising court backlogs. The Lord Chancellor recently announced that for 2025-26, the Ministry of Justice will provide a total budget of £2,538 million.
We have continued investment this year in the recruitment of up to 1,000 judges and tribunal members across all jurisdictions. This includes recruitment targeted at First-tier Tribunal chambers with the greatest business need.
HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) continues to invest in improving tribunal productivity through the deployment of Legal Officers to actively manage cases, the development of modern case management systems, and the use of remote hearing technology.
As a result, the Lord Chancellor was able to announce on 5 March the sitting day allocations for the First-tier Tribunal for 2025/26, which will enable all chambers of the First-tier Tribunal to sit at, or near, their maximum capacity for the year.
We recognise that there remain significant challenges for the performance of the First-tier Tribunal. We are therefore continuing to monitor demand on the Tribunal and are working with the Judiciary, HMCTS and relevant Government Departments on the further actions needed to alleviate pressures on the Tribunal system, improve efficiency and reduce waiting times to ensure timely access to justice for all parties.
Asked by: Rachel Blake (Labour (Co-op) - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions her Department has had with stakeholders on insourcing court language interpretation services.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Regarding insourcing, the Ministry of Justice received and considered feedback from various interested parties, including external stakeholders and court users. It was determined that the service that will best suit the wide-ranging needs of users of language services continues to be a national, centralised booking and matching service. I would like to provide assurance the project considered the potential for bringing the service fully or partially in-house when assessing its options. However, these proved to be unaffordable.
The Ministry of Justice established an external stakeholder forum in 2021 with external organisations with an interest in the Department’s work, with the first meeting held on 8 June 2021. The forum comprises members from organisations representing interpreters and visual and tactile communication practitioners, as well as voluntary regulator organisations, including the National Register for Public Sector Interpreters (NRPSI). The purpose is to share information, facilitate communication and understand key issues or concerns of their members. The Department informed forum members in 2023 that it planned to continue with an outsourced model after an assessment indicated it is the best model for our needs.
With all Government contracts, we must consider what is the best value for taxpayers’ money, taking account of quality, deliverability and cost. On balance, we think outsourcing these services provides the best value for money. The decision has been made with input from a number of functional departments within the Ministry of Justice and approved by the Cabinet Office and the Treasury.