Asked by: Helen Morgan (Liberal Democrat - North Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to help support victims of historic miscarriages of justice to appeal their convictions.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
Where the normal time limit for appeals through the courts has passed and where an individual believes they have been wrongly convicted of a crime in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, including in historic cases, they can apply to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) which is an independent public body funded by the Ministry of Justice. The CCRC can investigate and where it considers that there is a real possibility that the conviction would not be upheld were the reference to be made, can refer cases back to the courts.
There is no time limit on any application and the service is free.
To ensure that the appeals system is working effectively, the Government has asked the Law Commission to conduct an independent and wide-ranging Review of the appeals system. The Review will consider the issues raised by the Westminster Commission (2021) on miscarriages of justice, which includes the tests used by the CCRC and the Court of Appeal, and the government will then consider the review’s findings, and any recommendations for change in the law, very carefully.
Asked by: Lord Marlesford (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people employed by the Home Office have been convicted of abuse of public office and given custodial sentences in each of the past 20 years; and how many of those individuals have subsequently been re-employed in the Home Office or other departments or agencies in central government.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
In the last twenty years there have been 24 Home Office officials who have been convicted of Misconduct in Public Office. All received a custodial sentence, and all were convicted before 2015. Since then, the Crown Prosecution Service have moved towards using more specific charges such as theft, assisting unlawful immigration and bribery.
A breakdown for each year is provided below:
Year | Convicted of abuse of position | Custodial sentence received |
2006 | 1 | 1 |
2007 | 1 | 1 |
2008 | 3 | 3 |
2009 | 2 | 2 |
2010 | 5 | 5 |
2011 | 5 | 5 |
2012 | 3 | 3 |
2013 | 1 | 1 |
2014 | 1 | 1 |
2015 | 2 | 2 |
The Home Office conducts robust pre-appointment checks in accordance with the HMG Baseline Personnel Security Standards prior to employment being offered. The Home Office also carries out National Security Vetting on all its employees, which considers both spent and unspent convictions for this and all other offences.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many convictions for paedophilia were referred to her Department under the unduly lenient sentence scheme in 2023.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) receives requests to refer sentences under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme to the Court of Appeal and publishes annual reports on the outcomes of the requests which it refers.
The annual report for 2023 has not yet been published. The latest annual report, for the year 2022, was published on 17 October 2023 (see Unduly lenient sentence annual case outcomes data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)).
The AGO also releases weekly statistics of requests to refer sentences. Weekly statistics for 2023, including requests to refer sentences for offences involving paedophilia (such as indecent images of a child, rape of a child under 13, and sexual assault of a child under 13) can be found at Outcome of unduly lenient sentence referrals - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Jul. 05 2023
Source Page: Relevant convictions for waste and installations environmental permitsFound: Relevant convictions for waste and installations environmental permits
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to increase conviction rates for rape.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The Government does not seek to influence the outcome of trial processes, which are underpinned by judicial independence and the right to a fair trial. Instead, through our Rape Review Action Plan, we are delivering a programme of work to significantly increase the number of adult rape cases reaching court.
We have already exceeded each of our ambitions to return the number of adult rape cases referred by the police, charged by the CPS and reaching court to 2016 levels ahead of schedule, with the number of adult rape cases reaching court now 13% higher than in 2016. In addition, the latest data shows that prosecutions and convictions for adult rape have increased on the previous year, with prosecutions volumes now higher than they were in 2010, when we came into Government.
But we are determined to go further. We continue to deliver a range of actions that will allow us to go further in increasing the number of adult rape cases reaching court. This includes:
Feb. 15 2024
Source Page: Knife and Offensive Weapon Sentencing Statistics: July to September 2023Found: /cautions1713111481081010133111121211113 or more previous convictions/cautions10974364743222) Community
Feb. 15 2024
Source Page: Knife and Offensive Weapon Sentencing Statistics: July to September 2023Found: Officer_identified_ethnicity Table Count 2014 Essex 2) Community Sentence Aged 18 and over 0 Previous convictions
Found: To date 102 convictions have been overturned through the courts . 2.
Jun. 28 2023
Source Page: Court prosecutions, convictions and out of court disposals in Northern Ireland 2022Found: Court prosecutions, convictions and out of court disposals in Northern Ireland 2022
Feb. 07 2012
Source Page: Table showing how many civil servants employed by HM Revenue and Customs and each of its agencies were (i) prosecuted, and (ii) convicted of a criminal offence, and how many were as a result (a) suspended, and (b) dismissed, from their post in the years 2006/07 to 2011/12, broken down by age, sex and directorate. 6 p.Found: Compliance x4 Personal Tax x821x 1 24x1 28x1 30x1 31x1 41x1 42x1 44x1 50x1 51x1 unknown x2Total 2006-07 convictions