Tag: Andy Slaughter

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-12-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many magistrates’ courts opened in each local justice area in each year since 2010.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The tables below show magistrates’ courts that have opened since 2010. Each of these new courts replaced multiple smaller facilities, providing modern and efficient premises in place of buildings which were unfit for purpose.

2011

Westminster Magistrates Court

2012

Aberystwyth Justice Centre

Chelmsford Magistrates Court

Colchester Magistrates Court

Newport Magistrates Court

It is not possible to present the above sites by their local justice areas as many local justice area boundaries change over time.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether discussions are still taking place between UK and Saudi officials under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding signed in October 2014.

Dominic Raab

No work has been undertaken by the Ministry of Justice as a result of the Memorandum of Understanding. No discussions are taking place between the Ministry of Justice and Saudi officials under the terms of the Memorandum.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he plans to take to ensure new litigants in person as a result of changes to personal injury laws and procedures announced in the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015 are able to meet the requirements of the personal injury portal.

Dominic Raab

The Government will consult on the detail of the new reforms in due course. The consultation will be accompanied by an impact assessment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the feasibility of the recommendation of the Low Commission to establish a national advice and legal support fund funded through annual contributions from his Department, the Cabinet Office, the Big Lottery Fund and the Department for Work and Pensions.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The Ministry of Justice welcomes the work done by the Low Commission in producing its reports and recommendations, and we recognise the importance of advice being available in all contexts.

As the Justice Secretary said in June, we want to create a one nation justice system, and we are considering how this can be taken forward.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the insurance industry provided to his Department an estimate of by how much motor insurance premiums would reduce before they took effect as a consequence of the changes introduced by the Jackson reforms of the civil justice system and the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012; and if he will make a statement.

Dominic Raab

The civil litigation funding and costs reforms, which came into effect in April 2013, were intended to control the costs of civil litigation which had risen unsustainably. The insurance industry confirmed that motor insurance premiums would fall as a consequence but did not provide an estimate of the likely reduction.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 19 January 2016 to Question 22665, which ministers visited Medway Secure Training Centre on which dates.

Andrew Selous

Available records show that Medway Secure Training Centre was visited by the current prisons Minister, Andrew Selous, on 18 September 2014 and by the previous prisons Minister, Jeremy Wright, on 5 November 2012. The former Secretary of State for Justice, Chris Grayling also visited on 20 November 2012.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what support he is providing to the Inside Out programme run by Durham University.

Mr Shailesh Vara

We want prisons to be places of hard work, rigorous education and high ambition, with incentives for prisoners to learn and for prison staff to prioritise education and work.

The Inside Out programme run by Durham University in selected north east prisons during 2014-15 is an excellent example of an innovative local partnership, aimed at higher level prisoner learners.

The National Offender Management Service supported the programme through re-prioritising prison staff resources to make sure the learning could take place.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers have taken up the voluntary early departure scheme in each month since May 2010; how much has been paid in severance in each month to those prison officers; what average amount is paid in severance to those prison officers; and what the average continuous service was of those prison officers.

Andrew Selous

Information on the number of prison officers taking voluntary early departure has been published in PQ 25478. The total and average amount of severance they received and their average length of service in each month since May 2010 is contained in the table below. The severance amounts in the table relate to the payments made to the officers who left during the particular month and may not reflect the actual date that the money was received. For this reason the information will not match with accounting records.

All prison officers who left on voluntary early departure had at least 24 months continuous service.

Voluntary exit was used in the last Parliament as a result of the closure of uneconomic prison places. These prison closures and benchmarking reforms have delivered savings of £300 million a year, with the average cost per prison place falling in real terms by 19% since 2009/10.

Prison Officers Taking VEDS, May 2010 to September 2015

Year	Month	VEDS Leavers	Total Severance Received (£)	Average Severance Received (£)	Average Length of Service of VEDS leavers (Years)
2010	May	~	~	~	~
	June	~	~	~	~
	July	~	~	~	~
	August	70	£2,132,290	£29,209	17.6
	September	~	~	~	~
	October	~	~	~	~
	November	~	~	~	~
	December	~	~	~	~
2011	January	~	~	~	~
	February	~	~	~	~
	March	~	~	~	~
	April	30	£1,108,573	£38,227	17.1
	May	~	~	~	~
	June	~	~	~	~
	July	~	~	~	~
	August	~	~	~	~
	September	~	~	~	~
	October	20	£617,345	£38,584	22.7
	November	~	~	~	~
	December	10	£360,949	£36,095	21.8
2012	January	~	~	~	~
	February	~	~	~	~
	March	~	~	~	~
	April	~	~	~	~
	May	~	~	~	~
	June	~	~	~	~
	July	~	~	~	~
	August	30	£1,257,194	£41,906	21.1
	September	~	~	~	~
	October	~	~	~	~
	November	~	~	~	~
	December	40	£1,121,641	£30,315	14.6
2013	January	~	~	~	~
	February	~	~	~	~
	March	180	£6,204,024	£33,718	19.5
	April	~	~	~	~
	May	~	~	~	~
	June	180	£6,353,177	£35,100	20.3
	July	170	£7,010,396	£40,290	19.7
	August	~	~	~	~
	September	720	£25,920,953	£35,802	18.9
	October	130	£4,964,209	£37,608	20.8
	November	~	~	~	~
	December	40	£1,298,680	£29,515	17.2
2014	January	100	£3,152,467	£32,838	20.0
	February	10	£425,167	£38,652	24.5
	March	30	£1,308,937	£39,665	19.8
	April	~	~	~	~
	May	~	~	~	~
	June	~	~	~	~
	July	~	~	~	~
	August	~	~	~	~
	September	~	~	~	~
	October	~	~	~	~
	November	~	~	~	~
	December	~	~	~	~
2015	January	~	~	~	~
	February	~	~	~	~
	March	~	~	~	~
	April	~	~	~	~
	May	~	~	~	~
	June	~	~	~	~
	July	~	~	~	~
	August	~	~	~	~
	September	~	~	~	~

Notes:

All figures are rounded to the nearest 10, with numbers ending in 5 rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias. As with all HR databases, extracts are taken at a fixed point in time, to ensure consistency of reporting. However the database itself is dynamic, and where updates to the database are made late, subsequent to the taking of the extract, these updates will not be reflected in figures produced by the extract. For this reason, HR data are unlikely to be precisely accurate, and to present unrounded figures would be to overstate the accuracy of the figures. Rounding to 10 accurately depicts the level of certainty that is held with these figures.

~ denotes suppressed values of 5 or fewer or calculations based on a population of 5 or fewer. Low numbers are suppressed, in conjunction with the rounding policy to prevent disclosure in accordance with the Data Protection Act, 1998.

Information in the table relates to cases of voluntary exits where payment information is available. In a small number of cases information on severance payments does not reflect the reason for leaving held on the central reporting system and may vary slightly from leavers figures published from that source in the NOMS Workforce Bulletin.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will issue a response to the Dying for Justice report published by the Institute of Race Relations in March 2015.

Dominic Raab

Every death in custody is a tragedy. Each one is investigated independently by the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman or the Independent Police Complaints Commission, and is the subject of a coroner’s inquest. Every effort is made to learn lessons from these investigations, and the prevention of further deaths is a priority for police, prisons and immigration detention services. The very small number of cases in which criminal offences are believed to have been committed are referred for further investigation by the police and/or to the Crown Prosecution Service, and where appropriate charges are brought. The final outcome in such cases is a matter for the courts.

The Dying for Justice report by the Institute of Race Relations, published in March 2015, highlighted the particular issue of deaths of Black and Minority Ethnic people in custody The Government is not intending to issue a response to the report though has considered its findings.

The report acknowledges some of the improvements that have been made during that period. It also reminds us of the enduring nature of many of the issues related to deaths in custody, particularly that the families of the deceased and others in the Black and Minority Ethnic community continue to lack confidence that appropriate action is being taken in response to such deaths. The Government is working to address this, for example through more effective liaison with families, as well as improvements to restraint techniques and training.

The Prime Minister has asked David Lammy MP to lead a review of the Criminal Justice System in England and Wales to investigate evidence of possible bias against black defendants and other ethnic minorities. With significant overrepresentation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) individuals in the criminal justice system, the review will consider their treatment and outcomes to identify and help tackle potential bias or prejudice.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much has been paid in compensation to prison staff in relation to prisoner attacks in each year since 2010.

Andrew Selous

From the data currently held by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) it is not possible to distinguish prison staff compensation claims for prisoner attacks from other similar claims such as other injuries at work.