Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what preparations his Department is making for the UK leaving the EU without an agreement; and how much funding has been allocated to those preparations.
Answered by Paul Maynard
As a responsible Government, we’ve been preparing to minimise any disruption in the event of no deal for nearly three years. We are putting in place a range of mitigations to effectively prepare for the potential impact of EU exit across the full portfolio of the Ministry of Justice, including prisons, courts and tribunals. Our justice system is respected across the world. This was the case before we joined the EU, and it will continue to be the case after we leave.
The Treasury has allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and Devolved Administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This breaks down as £412m over the spending review period for the Department for Exiting the European Union, Department for International Trade and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (Autumn Statement 2016); £286m of additional funding for 2017/18 (a full breakdown of which can be found in Supplementary Estimates 2017/18); over £1.5 billion for 2018/19 (Supplementary Estimates 2018/19); and over £2 billion for 2019/20 (Main Estimates 2019/20).
This funding is to cover all exit scenarios and is in addition to departmental efforts to reprioritise from business as usual toward preparations for the UK’s departure from the EU. Work on no-deal exit preparations cannot be readily separated from other EU exit work, given the significant overlap in plans in many cases.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of officials in his Department took sick leave for reasons relating to stress in the last 12 months; what proportion that leave was of total sick leave taken in his Department; and what the cost was to his Department of officials taking sick leave over that period.
Answered by Edward Argar
The total number of staff1 working days lost due to sickness2, and more specifically stress, between April 2018 and March 2019 is as follows
| Total Number of staff | Working Days Lost3 |
Total Staff (FTE) - average over 12 months | 69,783 | N/A. |
All Sickness (Headcount) | 38,989 | 600,051 |
Of which Stress (Headcount) | 2,764 | 83,918 |
Stress as % of total staff | 4% | N/A. |
Stress as % of all sickness | 7% | 14% |
Notes
1 This analysis covers MoJ and the Executive Agencies (including HMPPS and HMCTS).
2 Absences are categorised according to International Classification of Diseases, which is an approach used across the civil service.
3The cost to the Department is reflected in the total number of working days lost.
The MoJ is committed to supporting the health and wellbeing of all its employees, and to reducing sickness absence levels including those which are stress-related. Staff can seek advice and support from our comprehensive occupational health service and employee assistance programme which offers 24/7 help.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many staff in his Department who were transferred or seconded to work (a) in other departments or (b) on other departmental briefs on preparations for the UK to leave the EU, have since returned to his Department.
Answered by Paul Maynard
39 Ministry of Justice staff were seconded to work in other departments since December 2018 as part of the no-deal preparations co-ordinated by Cabinet Office. At the current time, 34 staff have returned, with extensions agreed for the remaining 5 staff.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate he has made of the cost to his Department of preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by Edward Argar
HM Treasury has allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and the Devolved Administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This breaks down as:
This funding is to cover all exit scenarios, and is in addition to departmental efforts to reprioritise from business as usual toward preparations for the UK’s departure from the EU.
Work on no-deal exit preparations cannot be readily separated from other EU exit work. The Department is preparing for all eventualities and the resources available to support preparations are kept under constant review.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what representations he has made to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on funding of the criminal justice system in the forthcoming Government spending review.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
As we move towards the forthcoming Spending Review, the Secretary of State is considering closely the most important areas to focus on over the next 5 years to provide an effective and fair justice system, safe and decent prisons, and stable, effective probation services that protect the public and reduce reoffending.
My officials and the Ministerial team are continuing to work closely with HM Treasury, the Cabinet Office and partners in other government departments to ensure we have an appropriate and sustainable funding strategy for the MoJ that enables us to deliver our desired outcomes.
We are committed to delivering an efficient and effective criminal justice system while playing our part in contributing to the government’s wider fiscal objectives. We will continue to work with my colleagues, including the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to deliver this.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effect on the criminal justice system of reductions to his Departmental's budget.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
We are focused on ensuring that we continue to deliver justice in a modernised criminal justice system, and are delivering this through investment and effective management of the system.
We are investing £1billion to provide a court system that is accessible to all, works better for everyone, and will ensure our courts are fit for the future. We also spent £1.6bn on legal aid last year alone, more than half of which was on criminal legal aid, and are now making changes to ensure it is available into the future and continues to play an important role in supporting access to justice. We are also working closely with the Attorney General’s Office and Home Office to ensure that all the agencies involved in the criminal justice system have a shared overview of the challenges, opportunities and reforms facing it and an effective forum for tackling these through the Criminal Justice Board.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the long-term viability of the criminal duty solicitor scheme in England and Wales.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Government is clear that there are sufficient solicitors to undertake criminal legal aid-funded cases and will make sure this continues to be the case. The Legal Aid Agency monitors duty solicitor coverage on an ongoing basis and where issues are identified, takes action to ensure there is ongoing availability of criminal legal advice for the public.
The Government has also commenced a review of all criminal legal aid fee schemes, including the criminal duty solicitor fee scheme, which will report back by the end of Summer 2020.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the long-term viability of the criminal duty solicitor scheme in Carshalton and Wallington constituency.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Government is clear that there are sufficient solicitors to undertake criminal legal aid-funded cases and will make sure this continues to be the case. The Legal Aid Agency monitors duty solicitor coverage on an ongoing basis and where issues are identified, takes action to ensure there is ongoing availability of criminal legal advice for the public.
The LAA recently ran a consultation with criminal legal aid firms in the Borough of Sutton that includes the Carshalton and Wallington constituency. The consultation was run to ensure on-going duty solicitor provision in the Borough of Sutton in response to the decision by the Metropolitan Police that detainees that would have been taken to Sutton police station will now be taken to Bromley and Croydon police stations. As a result of the consultation, these detainees will continue to be served by duty solicitors on the Sutton Duty Scheme when they are taken to either Bromley or Croydon Police Station.
The Government has also commenced a review of all criminal legal aid fee schemes, including the criminal duty solicitor fee scheme, which will report back by the end of Summer 2020.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the UK Government is including Jersey into its no-deal contingency planning.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
Yes. Technical discussions to support the Crown Dependencies’ own contingency planning are taking place on a regular basis. Jersey’s Minister for External Relations, and the Chief Ministers of Guernsey and the Isle of Man, last month met with the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State with responsibility for Contingency Planning at the Department for Exiting the European Union to discuss this work.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many citizens of non-UK EU countries work in (a) his Department, (b) its agencies and (c) its non-departmental public bodies.
Answered by Edward Argar
The MoJ does not collect data on the citizenship of MoJ employees. There is no requirement to record the nationality of staff employed by the department.
While staff are not required to declare, self-declared national identity (British, English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh or Other) is recorded as part of the diversity questionnaire. All staff are encouraged to complete on our HR management system.
All Government Departments are bound by EU and UK requirements concerning right to work in the UK and, in addition, the Civil Service Nationality Rules. Documentary evidence of nationality is checked at the point of recruitment into the Civil Service as part of wider pre-employment checks. The recruitment processes of Civil Service organisations are subject to audit by the Civil Service Commissioner. Management of such information is delegated to departments. There is no requirement on departments to retain this information beyond the point at which it has served its purpose.