Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many criminal barristers there were in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Alex Chalk
The legal services sector in England and Wales is independent of government. The Ministry of Justice does not currently hold this information. As part of the Criminal Legal Aid Review we have been working closely with the Legal Aid Agency, Bar Council and the Crown Prosecution Service to bring together a dataset on publicly funded criminal barristers. We intend to publish the results of this analysis during the next phase of the review.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when the appointment of the Chair of the Criminal Legal Aid Review Part 2 is planned to be announced.
Answered by Alex Chalk
We are working closely with stakeholders including the criminal defence representative bodies to ensure that the Independent Review is set up as quickly as possible and that we appoint the right chair and advisory panel so that the review can deliver a robust, evidence-based assessment of the criminal legal aid market.
This means ensuring that the chair of the review has the right skillset, expertise and experience. At present, we are working to identify and appoint the right candidate for the role and will say more in due course.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when the Criminal Legal Aid Review Part 2 terms of reference are planned to be published.
Answered by Alex Chalk
We are working to ensure that the next phase of the criminal legal aid review, the Independent Review, is set up as quickly as possible. We are currently developing the Terms of Reference in coordination with stakeholders, including criminal defence practitioner representative bodies, and will publish these when the Independent Review is launched.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the timeframe is for the conclusion of the Criminal Legal Aid Review Part 2.
Answered by Alex Chalk
We are working to ensure that the next phase of the Criminal Legal Aid Review is set up as quickly as possible and are planning for the Independent Review to conclude in 2021. However, this timeframe will be subject to the agreement of the Chair, once appointed. We will seek to confirm the timeframe at the launch of the Independent Review.
Asked by: Rehman Chishti (Conservative - Gillingham and Rainham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many animal cruelty (a) offences and (b) convictions there have been in Kent in each year since 2010.
Answered by Phillip Lee
The number of offenders found guilty of offences under Sections 4 to 8 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006, in the Kent Police Force area, from 2010 to 2017, can be viewed in the attached table.