Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many appeals of SEND decisions made by people from Gloucestershire were heard at tribunals in each of the last five years; and how many and what proportion of those cases were won by parents.
Answered by Mike Freer
Information about appeals to the First-tier Tribunal for Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) is published at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.
The table below sets out the number of appeals to SEND against decisions made by the Local Authority in Gloucestershire for the period 2018 to 2023; and the percentage of appeals which were found in favour of the appellant (which includes parents and young people), for the years 2020 – 2022.
Academic year | Total appeals registered | Total appeals heard | Total of successful appeals | Percentage of successful appeals |
2018 | 40 | - | - | - |
2019 | 55 | - | - | - |
2020 | 27 | 12 | 11 | 92% |
2021 | 34 | 28 | 23 | 82% |
2022 | 131 | 84 | 83 | 99% |
Outcome data on appeals before 2020 are not available due to the Records Retention and Disposal Schedule (RRDS) of the Health, Education and Social Care Chamber of HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) (of which SEND is part) requiring that data are deleted three years after the conclusion of the appeal. The full RRDS can be found at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/62b47cfcd3bf7f0af821efef/health-education-social-care-chamber-rrds.pdf.
Decisions made by Local Authorities about the special educational needs of young people can be overturned on appeal for a variety of reasons. For instance, further evidence, including evidence in the form of oral testimony, may be provided at the hearing. HMCTS cannot comment on decisions made by independent tribunal judiciary.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
What plans his Department has to increase access to justice.
Answered by Alex Chalk
Access to justice is a fundamental right and this government is committed to ensuring that everyone can get the timely support they need to access the justice system.
We announced our vision for resolving legal problems earlier and increasing access to justice through the Legal Support Action Plan, including the role technology can play in identifying legal problems.
Despite various real demands of Covid-19 on the MoJ, we have continued to prioritise a new £3.1m grant that will further enhance legal support for litigants in person over the next two years.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the female offender strategy.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Female Offender Strategy set out our vision to see fewer women coming into the criminal justice system and in custody, and better conditions for those women who need to be in custody. The strategy launched an ambitious programme of work which will take will take several years to deliver. We are committed to monitoring progress over time and taking action to deliver the outcomes we set out to achieve.
We have taken stock of progress in the first year and published an update on our progress in a Written Ministerial Statement on 27 June 2019: https://www.parliament.uk/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2019-06-27/HCWS1662 . A number of key achievements are set out below:
• In December 2018, we published a new Women’s Policy Framework to replace Prison Order 4800. It sets out the duties, rules and general guidance for prison and probation staff who work with women
We continue to monitor the impact of the strategy and be scrutinised on progress in its delivery through the Advisory Board on Female Offenders, a minister-led board of external stakeholders.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of reforms to the probation system.
Answered by Rory Stewart
We have a diverse range of providers delivering probation services, and an additional 40,000 offenders each year receiving supervision and support after release from custody.
While Community Rehabilitation Companies have reduced reoffending by two percentage points since 2015, we have been clear that probation needs to improve.
We set out in our consultation in July our intention to end the current CRC contracts in 2020 and put in place new structures which will enable private, public and third-sector providers to help further reduce reoffending.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the agreed service waiting time for HM Courts and Tribunals Service cases are in England; and what proportion of cases met that target in (a) England and (c) Gloucestershire in 2017.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
Her Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) measures performance across all jurisdictions against its operational Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Pages 34-40 of the agency’s Annual Report and Accounts 2017-18, at the link below, sets out those KPIs.
Page 40 of the Annual Report also provides discrete links to published, official statistics for the criminal, civil and family courts in England and Wales, and tribunals in England, Wales and retained tribunals in Scotland. In some jurisdictions sub-national data are published. Further detail and the links are provided below.
Criminal Court Statistics (annual): January to March 2018
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-annual-january-to-march-2018
Within the main tables figures are published for ‘Summary statistics on hearing times, waiting times, plea rates and juror utilisation in the Crown Court, by region’ (Table AC9).
Timeliness data for Crown and magistrates’ courts (broken down nationally, regionally, and locally) also appear in the ‘Criminal courts timeliness’ document – the sixth document on the GOV.UK link. These data include Gloucestershire.
Civil Justice statistics quarterly: January to March 2018
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/civil-justice-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2018
Table 1.5 of the second document provides the average time to reach trial/hearing in England and Wales. These figures are not broken down by region although data for Gloucester and Cheltenham County Court are available within the timeliness csv file available here:
Family Court Statistics Quarterly: January to March 2018
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/family-court-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2018
In the second document in the link, the following information is published:-
Underlying data for tables 8 and 10 broken down by region are available within the published csv files:
Tribunals and gender recognitions certificates statistics quarterly: January to March 2018
Figures for timeliness in the three largest tribunals appear in the third document in the link:-
The CSV files within the seventh document include the timeliness figures for Social Security & Child Support cases for the period January-March 2018, broken down by venue and benefit type. These data include Gloucester.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how long the waiting list is for all tribunals in Gloucester by tribunal; and what steps his Department is taking to reduce that waiting time.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
Average time for disposals in the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal in Gloucester, for the period July – September 2017 was 24.6 weeks. The Social Security and Child Support Tribunal is the only Tribunal sitting in Gloucester.
HMCTS have identified a number of initiatives including new approaches to listing, targeted case management and Judicial/Panel recruitment which should assist in reducing the average time for disposals.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on the number of domestic homicides that are linked to people who have been convicted of (a) breaching restraining orders, (b) breaching non-molestation orders and (c) stalking offences in each of the last five years.
Answered by Dominic Raab
The number of offenders sentenced at all courts, with sentencing outcomes and custody rate, for stalking offences, in England and Wales, from 2012 to 2014, can be viewed at
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2014
The published information includes small numbers of prosecutions and convictions for this offence before the offence was introduced. This is due to an error in data collection and should be ignored. Also, please note that every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.
The number of offenders sentenced at all courts in England and Wales for stalking offences specifically under Section 2A and Section 4A of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, with the number of offenders sentenced to the maximum custodial sentences permissible, from 2012 to 2014, can be viewed in Table 1.
Specific details of individual prison sentences, such as whether they included a therapeutic component, and information regarding the location in which an offence occurs in (i.e. in a domestic setting or otherwise) are not held centrally and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people convicted of stalking offences have received therapeutic custodial sentences or hospitalisation orders in each year since 2012.
Answered by Dominic Raab
The number of offenders sentenced at all courts, with sentencing outcomes and custody rate, for stalking offences, in England and Wales, from 2012 to 2014, can be viewed at
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2014
The published information includes small numbers of prosecutions and convictions for this offence before the offence was introduced. This is due to an error in data collection and should be ignored. Also, please note that every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.
The number of offenders sentenced at all courts in England and Wales for stalking offences specifically under Section 2A and Section 4A of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, with the number of offenders sentenced to the maximum custodial sentences permissible, from 2012 to 2014, can be viewed in Table 1.
Specific details of individual prison sentences, such as whether they included a therapeutic component, and information regarding the location in which an offence occurs in (i.e. in a domestic setting or otherwise) are not held centrally and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has undertaken or commissioned research into the relationship between people who are convicted of multiple breaches of restraining orders and commission of stalking offences.
Answered by Dominic Raab
The Government recognises that stalking is an insidious crime that can have a devastating impact on the lives of victims and their families. That is why the coalition Government created specific stalking offences in 2012 and why we continue to look at ways to protect victims of stalking, ensure stalking is recognised early and dealt with effectively and, where an offender is convicted, provide the courts with appropriate sentencing powers.
Asked by: Richard Graham (Conservative - Gloucester)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of psychological assessment and rehabilitation of people convicted of stalking offences under Sections 2A and 4A.
Answered by Dominic Raab
The Government recognises that stalking is an insidious crime that can have a devastating impact on the lives of victims and their families. That is why the coalition Government created specific stalking offences in 2012 and why we continue to look at ways to protect victims of stalking, ensure stalking is recognised early and dealt with effectively and, where an offender is convicted, provide the courts with appropriate sentencing powers.