Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what guidance his Department has provided on whether driving licences need to be surrendered by people who receive single justice procedure notices for speeding fines.
Answered by Mike Freer
The Ministry of Justice has not issued guidance on the surrender of driving licences. The Police are responsible for issuing the single justice procedure notice for traffic offences and they removed references to surrendering the licence from their notices when the legislation was commenced.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle delays in processing lasting power of attorney applications by the Office of the Public Guardian.
Answered by Mike Freer
OPG are working hard to reduce the length of time that customers are currently waiting for their LPAs to be registered. To tackle the backlog of applications that arose during the pandemic and meet the increased demand for services, OPG have hired extra staff and teams are working overtime and across multiple shift patterns to ensure customers receive their LPAs as quickly as possible. OPG have introduced process efficiencies and continue to make sure they are doing all they can to improve the application journey for customers. These measures are starting to take effect and customers should see waiting times begin to reduce.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to tackle low prosecution rates for cases of rape and sexual assault.
Answered by Edward Argar
The government remains committed to improving the Criminal Justice System response to rape and increase the number of adult rape cases reaching court. In June 2021, we published the End-to-End Rape Review Action Plan which set out a programme of work to address problems across the system and set out a public ambition to more than double the number of adult rape cases reaching court by the end of this Parliament. We continue to deliver on the cross-system Action Plan by:
More than quadrupling funding for victim support from £41m in 2009/10 to £192m by 2024/25 and increasing the number of Independent Sexual and Domestic Abuse Advisors to over 1,000 by 2024/25;
Introducing a single source of 24/7 support for victims of rape and sexual abuse later this year;
The police and Crown Prosecution Service are continuing to roll out a new investigatory model for rape – known as Operation Soteria – which focuses on the suspect’s, rather than the victim’s, behaviour. This has now begun operating across 19 police forces;
This September we also completed the rollout of pre-recorded cross-examination for victims of sexual and modern slavery offences in all Crown Courts in England and Wales. This will spare victims the glare of a live courtroom;
In June, we announced enhanced specialist sexual violence support in selected Crown Courts which includes improving facilities & technology at court, ensuring strong on-site support, improving communication with victims and better training;
To help improve waiting times for victims of crime and reduce the Crown Court backlog, over the next three financial years, we are also investing an extra £477 million for the Criminal Justice System.
These measures are starting to have an impact. According to latest data, we are currently on-track to reach our ambitions set out in the Rape Review.
Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield and Rothwell)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of X-ray scanners deployed to prevent illegal items entering prisons; and whether he plans to roll these out to all prisons.
Answered by Rob Butler
We have invested £100m to combat crime in prisons, including reducing the conveyance of illicit items such as drugs and mobile phones.
Since 2020, we have installed an additional 75 x-ray body scanners, bringing the total to 97 and providing coverage to the entire closed male estate. As of April 2022, there have been approximately 20,000 positive indications recorded.
A full evaluation of our security investments is underway and will be published in 2023. Further deployment of x-ray body scanners across the prison estate will be informed by the results of this evaluation.