Tag: Andrew Stephenson

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Stephenson on 2015-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to improve the recovery of court fines; and if he will make a statement.

Mike Penning

This Government takes recovery and enforcement of financial impositions very seriously and remains committed to finding new ways to ensure impositions are paid and to trace those who do not pay. This is why there has been a year on year increase in the total amount of financial penalties collected over the last three years. The amount of money collected reached an all time high of £290 million at the end of 2013/14 and collections continue to rise. In 2013/14 the total outstanding balance of financial impositions reduced by £26.7m (5%) in the year.

To build on improvements made in recent years in fine collection HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is embarking on an ambitious programme of reform. When developing and implementing the Criminal Compliance and Enforcement Services Blueprint we identified a number of areas where fundamental change was necessary in order to increase fine collection and better serve the public by delivering value for tax payers’ money.

To meet these challenges HMCTS is looking to work with an external provider for future provision of the service. This will bring the necessary investment and technology HMCTS needs to achieve its aspirations for compliance and enforcement services in the future. It will enable the automation of many of the manual administrative processes and in turn decrease the cost of providing fine enforcement and increase the amount of fines that are paid. The innovation this will bring and the use of automated administrative processes will free up staff time to be more pro-active in pursuing offenders to ensure they comply with their court order.

The competition to identify an external provider commenced in July 2013; the contract is expected to be awarded in early 2015.

HMCTS has also started to pilot the use of data from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in fine collection in July 2014, albeit for a number of specifically targeted cases. Early indications are that data from HMRC has enabled HM Courts & Tribunals Service to increase the number of attachment of earnings orders it can make. At present, it is not possible to provide a meaningful estimate of the impact on collection rates; however HMCTS is exploring ways to assess the impact of receiving the data over coming months.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Stephenson on 2015-02-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assistance her Department is providing for security in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan.

Mr Desmond Swayne

DFID’s Peacebuilding Support Programme supports the provincial Government to deliver improved security and justice to 250,000 citizens in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). It focuses on strengthening civilian security (police, prosecutions, prisons) and the formal and informal justice sectors. DFID also contributes to a Multi Donor Trust Fund supporting areas of KP affected by militancy and conflict. It helps improve state-citizen trust and reduce the root causes of insecurity through improved infrastructure, economic development and service delivery.

UK aid to Pakistan also addresses the conditions that might breed violent extremism by reducing poverty, meeting basic needs, increasing economic opportunities and promoting inclusion. It supports the government to build an effective state that is more able to respond to violent extremism through strengthening democratic processes and institutions, delivering better services and improving access to justice.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Stephenson on 2015-09-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to offer support to the World Health Organisation to ensure that it is transparent, accountable and better able to respond to emergencies such as the ebola crisis.

Jane Ellison

We are working with other relevant Departments across Government, and as members of the World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board to drive the reform process. We want to ensure that WHO focuses on what it can do best and is better equipped to address the increasingly complex challenges of the 21^st Century.

In response to the Ebola crisis, we have committed up to $10million to the WHO Contingency Fund, to help finance the rapid scaling up of the WHO’s initial response to outbreaks and emergencies with health consequences. We are supporting the establishment of the Global Health Emergency Workforce and are developing plans to establish a United Kingdom rapid response team that would complement this mechanism. Linked to this we are working with WHO to ensure the establishment of a new emergency response platform which will unite and direct all WHO outbreak and emergency response operations within its mandate.

We are also contributing to the member state driven governance reform process, to support ambitious reform of these aspects; including the establishment of a clear and accountable leadership across all levels of the organisation. As members of the Programme Budget and Administration Committee, we are pressing WHO to improve aspects of compliance controls, transparency and delivery of results.