Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals similar to the provisions of the Child Cruelty (Sentences) Bill introduced in the 2017-19 Parliament.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
The Government has no current plans to bring forward legislative proposals that seek to increase the penalties for the offences of causing or allowing death or serious injury to a child or child cruelty at this stage.
The Government will, however, continue to keep the maximum penalties for these specific offences closely under review.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many times (a) he, (b) Ministers of his Department and (c) officials of his Department have met with representatives of the Sentencing Council to discuss sentencing for child cruelty offences in the last 18 months.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Ministers meet the Chairman of the Sentencing Council regularly to discuss a range of issues related to sentencing. The Sentencing Council meets on a monthly basis to discuss matters relating to sentencing and guidelines and a representative of the Lord Chancellor attends those meetings. Officials in the MoJ also meet regularly with members of the Office of the Sentencing Council and discuss a wide range of issues.
The Sentencing Council has published a definitive guideline for child cruelty offences, which came into force on 1 January 2019.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what guidance his Department has issued to HMRC on the treatment of probate applications that are unable to be submitted within the statutory six month period as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
There are no statutory deadlines for making probate applications, therefore the Department has issued no guidance to HMRC as it would not be appropriate.
Completing inheritance tax assessment and payment is a necessary part of the process for applying for probate. While HMRC determine the policy on deadlines for inheritance tax calculation and payment in line with that legal framework, they will consider it to be within the scope of a reasonable excuse and grounds for appeal against any late filing penalties should a customer be unable to file their Inheritance tax return on time because of impacts from COVID-19.