Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has made an assessment of trends in the level of (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions in (i) rape and (ii) sexual assault cases.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The Ministry of Justice publishes regular statistics on defendants proceeded against and offenders convicted for rape and sexual offences. More information is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-justice-statistics
We keep this under review.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has made an assessment of trends in the level of (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions in (i) rape and (ii) sexual assault cases.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The Ministry of Justice publishes regular statistics on defendants proceeded against and offenders convicted for rape and sexual offences. More information is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-justice-statistics
We keep this under review.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the waiting period for personal independence payments tribunals in Birmingham; and what assessment has been made of the effect of the current waiting time on claimants.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
In order to respond to a general increase in appeal receipts, HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has been working with the Tribunal’s judiciary both to appoint additional judges and panel members, and to take forward initiatives with the potential to increase the capacity and performance of the Tribunal. The Tribunal panel hearing Personal Independence Payment (PIP) appeals is constituted of a judge, a medical member, and a disability qualified tribunal member. HMCTS has recently recruited 250 judges across the First-tier Tribunal; up to 125 disability-qualified members; and 226 medical members.
Of these, to date, five judges; 19 medical members; and seven disability-qualified members, have been assigned to sit in the Birmingham Social Security and Child Support Tribunal.
We are also reviewing - with the Tribunal’s judiciary - current listing practices to increase the number of cases listed on a Tribunal session.
Waiting times are calculated from receipt of the appeal to its final disposal. An appeal is not necessarily disposed of at its first hearing. The final disposal decision on the appeal may be reached after an earlier hearing had been adjourned (which may be directed by the judge for a variety of reasons, such as to seek further evidence), or after an earlier hearing date had been postponed (again, for a variety of reasons, often at the request of the appellant). An appeal may also have been decided at an earlier date by the First-tier Tribunal, only for the case to have gone on to the Upper Tribunal, to be returned once again to the First-tier, for its final disposal.
We are very sensitive to the needs of people waiting for Tribunal hearings with a wide range of physical and mental challenges. Tribunal staff, and judicial office holders, are trained accordingly, with HMCTS providing reasonable adjustments to give customers with disabilities equal access to information and services. Information on the HMCTS equality and diversity policy and handling of requests for reasonable adjustments is published on Gov.uk.
If an expedited hearing is sought, or if the Tribunal identifies a case which may benefit from an expedited hearing, a judge (or caseworker acting under delegated powers and then within 14 days subject to an automatic right to be placed before a judge) will make a case management decision on the issue taking into account all the circumstances known about the case. Such decisions may be revised on application and are subject to appeal if an error of law is made.
Latest figures indicate that since PIP was introduced, more than 3.1 million decisions have been made, and of these under 9% have been appealed and 4% have been overturned.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will take (a) steps to recruit additional (i) judges and (ii) panel members and (b) other such steps to reduce the waiting time for personal independence payment appeal hearings at the Birmingham social security and child support tribunal.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
In order to respond to a general increase in appeal receipts, HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has been working with the Tribunal’s judiciary both to appoint additional judges and panel members, and to take forward initiatives with the potential to increase the capacity and performance of the Tribunal. The Tribunal panel hearing Personal Independence Payment (PIP) appeals is constituted of a judge, a medical member, and a disability qualified tribunal member. HMCTS has recently recruited 250 judges across the First-tier Tribunal; up to 125 disability-qualified members; and 226 medical members.
Of these, to date, five judges; 19 medical members; and seven disability-qualified members, have been assigned to sit in the Birmingham Social Security and Child Support Tribunal.
We are also reviewing - with the Tribunal’s judiciary - current listing practices to increase the number of cases listed on a Tribunal session.
Waiting times are calculated from receipt of the appeal to its final disposal. An appeal is not necessarily disposed of at its first hearing. The final disposal decision on the appeal may be reached after an earlier hearing had been adjourned (which may be directed by the judge for a variety of reasons, such as to seek further evidence), or after an earlier hearing date had been postponed (again, for a variety of reasons, often at the request of the appellant). An appeal may also have been decided at an earlier date by the First-tier Tribunal, only for the case to have gone on to the Upper Tribunal, to be returned once again to the First-tier, for its final disposal.
We are very sensitive to the needs of people waiting for Tribunal hearings with a wide range of physical and mental challenges. Tribunal staff, and judicial office holders, are trained accordingly, with HMCTS providing reasonable adjustments to give customers with disabilities equal access to information and services. Information on the HMCTS equality and diversity policy and handling of requests for reasonable adjustments is published on Gov.uk.
If an expedited hearing is sought, or if the Tribunal identifies a case which may benefit from an expedited hearing, a judge (or caseworker acting under delegated powers and then within 14 days subject to an automatic right to be placed before a judge) will make a case management decision on the issue taking into account all the circumstances known about the case. Such decisions may be revised on application and are subject to appeal if an error of law is made.
Latest figures indicate that since PIP was introduced, more than 3.1 million decisions have been made, and of these under 9% have been appealed and 4% have been overturned.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what statistics his Department collects on the time taken for a tribunal judge to produce a statement of reasons following a benefits tribunal decision; and what representations his Department has received from (a) organisations and (b) individuals on the length of time taken to produce those statements.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) collects data on the number of statement requests recorded as having been with a Judge for over 28 days; the average age of those statements; the age of the oldest one; and the percentage of statements requested in relation to the number of cases cleared.
HMCTS has received correspondence from the Department for Work and Pensions, and from Members of Parliament relating to statement of reasons requests. The production of statements is a judicial function. The Tribunal’s Procedure Rules require the statement of reasons to be provided within one month of the request or as soon as practicable thereafter.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has received representations from tribunals on the caseload increase from benefits appeals.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) regularly discusses measures to increase the capacity and performance of the Tribunal with the Judiciary and other interested parties. In order to respond to a general increase in appeal receipts, HMCTS has been working with the Tribunal’s judiciary both to appoint additional judges and panel members, and to take forward initiatives with the potential to increase the capacity and performance of the Tribunal.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many benefits claimants have taken their case to tribunal in each of the last 10 years; and what the cost has been of such tribunals in each of those years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
Details on the number of benefit claimants are contained in the published statistics in the link below: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-and-gender-recognitions-certificates-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2018. The total cost of the Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) Tribunal (including overheads) for the last 10 years are detailed in the table below:
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Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much money was spent on digital court services in each of the last three years; and what that funding was used for.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
In the last 3 complete financial years the amounts spent on Information Technology and Telecommunications were:
| Total 16/17 £000 | Total 15/16 £000 | Total 14/15 £000 |
IT services | 136,248 | 111,426 | 106,842 |
These figures cover spend across the whole of the HMCTS organisation, including courts, tribunals, contact centres and headquarters. The figures also include a recharge from the Ministry of Justice for corporate IT and Telecommunications services consumed by HMCTS.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress the Government has made on plans to strengthen sentencing powers for acid attacks.
Answered by Dominic Raab
The government published an action plan in July to tackle the use of acid and other corrosives in violent attacks. The action plan will ensure legislation covering the use of acid and other corrosives in attacks is fit for purpose, that it is understood and consistently applied.
Asked by: Roger Godsiff (Labour - Birmingham, Hall Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to change regulations covering insurance claims for whiplash.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
As announced in the Queens Speech on 21 June, the Government will bring forward legislation to tackle the continuing high number and cost of whiplash claims by:
These measures will be supported by further secondary legislative changes to the Civil Procedure Rules to increase the small claims track limit for road traffic accident related personal injury claims to £5,000, and for all other personal injury claims to £2,000.