Tag: Christina Rees

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2016-06-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many courts will be involved in the problem-solving courts pilot programme; and how much funding has been allocated to those pilots.

Caroline Dinenage

The Working Group has now submitted its findings, which support the case for problem-solving courts.

Training of the judiciary is a matter for the judiciary and the judicial college. We will be working with both, taking learning from approaches nationally and internationally, as we progress our work on problem-solving courts.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many times he has (a) met and (b) corresponded with a minister of the Welsh Government on the draft Wales Bill in the last 12 months.

Joseph Johnson

The Wales Office is the lead Government department on the draft Wales Bill, and is the primary point of contact with the Welsh Government on matters related to the draft Bill.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2015-12-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, which prisons have libraries; and which organisations (a) run and (b) fund each such library.

Andrew Selous

All prisons in England and Wales have a library. NOMS has been responsible for funding prison library services in England from April 2011.

The total NOMS allocated budget for prison libraries in 2015/16 in England was £7,592,414

The attached table shows both the provider and allocated library budget for each prison in England since 2010. NOMS is not responsible for funding library services in prisons in Wales as this is a devolved function of the Welsh Government so data is not included. Privately managed prison contracts put in place since 2011 have identified levels of funding for libraries and so are included in the table. The table does not include library provision at privately managed prisons whose contracts were awarded before 2011 as this was part of the overall included contract price and so it is not possible to extract a specific cost element to this part of the contract. This equates to 10 prisons.

On 8 September 2015 the Secretary of State announced a review of the quality of education in prisons, chaired by Dame Sally Coates, which will report later in the year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2016-06-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he expects the Problem-Solving Courts Working Group to (a) conclude and (b) report back on its work.

Caroline Dinenage

The Working Group has now submitted its findings, which support the case for problem-solving courts.

Training of the judiciary is a matter for the judiciary and the judicial college. We will be working with both, taking learning from approaches nationally and internationally, as we progress our work on problem-solving courts.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, by what process his Department identified the areas of policy within its responsibility proposed for reservation in Annex B of the publication Powers for a Purpose: Towards a lasting devolution settlement for Wales, published on 27 February 2015.

Joseph Johnson

Annex B to the Powers for a Purpose Command Paper provided an illustrative list of the main areas in which reservations would be needed in a reserved powers model. The list described the Government’s emerging thinking as the new reserved powers model was being developed. The Government published its full proposals in the draft Wales Bill on 20 October 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when the Government plans to publish the results of its consultation on the review of the BBC’s Royal Charter.

Mr Edward Vaizey

I refer the honourable member to my response to PQ 22672, submitted to Parliament on 19 January.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2016-06-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of employment tribunal fees on the gender pay gap.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The review is assessing how successful the reforms had been in meeting their original objectives including, as far as we can, the impact of fees in relation to characteristics protected under the Equality Act 2010.

We are planning to announce the conclusions of the review in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2015-11-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, by what process her Department identified the areas of policy within its responsibility proposed for reservation in Annex B of the publication Powers for a Purpose: Towards a lasting devolution settlement for Wales, published on 27 February 2015.

Karen Bradley

Annex B to the Powers for a Purpose Command Paper provided an illustrative list of the main areas in which reservations would be needed in a reserved powers model. The list described the Government’s emerging thinking as the new reserved powers model was being developed. The Government published its full proposals in the draft Wales Bill on 20 October.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2016-01-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the accuracy of the findings of the report by Professor Walton, published in December 2015, that the current insolvency litigation regime returns £480 million a year to creditors, including £115 million a year to HM Revenue and Customs.

Dominic Raab

Since the passage of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPO) 2012, it has always been the government’s stated intention that the exemption for insolvency cases would be temporary. Commencement of Part 2 of LASPO’s conditional fee (or ‘no win no fee’) arrangement reforms for insolvency, was announced in December and will apply from April this year. The aim of LASPO’s reforms was to control the cost of civil litigation.

Ministry of Justice Officials discussed Professor Walton’s report with him, but the Ministry of Justice did not agree with his conclusions. Officials have also met representatives of insolvency practitioners who use no win no fee arrangements to fund these cases, as well as those who fund them in other ways.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christina Rees on 2016-06-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many employment tribunal claimants withdrew their case due to the requirement to pay fees (a) since 2013, (b) between April 2014 and March 2015 and (c) between April 2015 and March 2016.

Mr Shailesh Vara

HM Courts & Tribunals Service does not record the reasons why claimants withdraw their employment tribunal case.