Tag: Ministry of Justice

The press release issued by the Ministry of Justice on 20 February 2023.

The Lord Chancellor has approved the appointment of 8 Court Examiners for 5 years from 1 March 2023.

The press release issued by the Ministry of Justice on 16 February 2023.

Nightingale Courts across England and Wales are being kept open for another year to reduce waiting times and deliver swift justice for victims.

A total of 24 temporary courtrooms, which were set up to boost capacity during the pandemic, will remain open in 2023 to allow more cases to be heard.

The government is investing £477 million over next three years to tackle the Crown Court backlog which significantly increased because of the pandemic. This includes allowing courts to run at full capacity, doubling the sentencing powers of Magistrates, and recruiting even more judges.

The number of cases in the backlog fell by almost 800 cases in the last 2 months of 2022, after barristers ended strike action.

Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Dominic Raab, said:

We are determined to provide the swift justice that victims deserve, and Nightingale courts have a vital role to play as our justice system continues to recover from the unprecedented impact of the pandemic and last year’s strike action.

The Crown Court backlog is now falling once again, and the continued use of these courtrooms will help to drive it down even further.

Nightingale courts were introduced in 2020 when buildings such as sports arenas, hotels, and conference centres were rapidly transformed into courtrooms to provide more space for jury trials in line with social distancing restrictions. Following their success, the use of temporary courtrooms has continued to provide additional capacity.

Today’s (17 February 2023) announcement marks the third year of the use of Nightingale courts and comes alongside a raft of measures implemented by the Ministry of Justice to tackle the backlog court cases.

Last year, the government lifted the cap on the number of days courts can sit to help them run at maximum capacity, and doubled Magistrates’ sentencing powers so they can hear more cases, freeing up an estimated 1,700 extra days of Crown Court time each year.

Recruiting even more new judges and raising the statutory retirement age is also helping meet increased demand, estimated to retain hundreds of judges and as many as 2,000 magistrates every year.

As a result, the outstanding caseload in the Crown Court fell from a peak of around 60,900 cases during the pandemic in June 2021, to 58,200 at the end of March 2022, prior to strikes by the Criminal Bar Association when outstanding caseload rose to 62,000 in October 2022.

Outstanding cases in the Magistrates’ Court have fallen by nearly a quarter since July 2020.

Notes to editors

• Cloth Hall court in Leeds will no longer operate as a Nightingale court from April 2023 when HMCTS no longer has use of the building. Cases after this time will be heard in nearby courts in Leeds and Bradford.
• Nightingale courtrooms will remain open at the following 11 sites:
  • Former court, Chichester (two Crown court rooms)
  • Former county court, Telford (three civil and family court rooms)
  • Maple House, Birmingham (two crown Court rooms and two civil family and/or tribunal court rooms)
  • Former Magistrates court, Fleetwood (two civil and family court rooms)
  • Civic Centre, Swansea (one Crown court room)
  • Former Magistrates’ court, Cirencester (one Crown court room, one Magistrates rooms)
  • Barbican, London (two Crown court rooms)
  • Leonardo Hotel Croydon (two Crown court rooms)
  • Grand Connaught Rooms, London (two Crown court rooms)
  • Maidstone – Mercure (two Crown court rooms)
  • Wolverhampton Park Hall Hotel (two Crown court rooms)

The press release issued by the Ministry of Justice on 10 February 2023.

Thousands of prisoners are getting clean thanks to a doubling of drug-free wings in jails as the government’s war on addiction steps up a gear.

New Incentivised Substance Free Living Units are now up and running in 45 prisons across England and Wales – getting addicts off illicit drugs and reducing their reliance on synthetic opiates like methadone.

Figures show around half of prisoners are addicted to drugs, while crack and heroin addicts account for two-thirds of shoplifting offences and half of burglaries, blighting communities up and down the country.

Yet offenders who are supported to get off drugs for good are 19 percentage points less likely to slip back into a life of crime.

The new wings will make sure prisons are places where criminals get – and stay – clean while they pay their debt to society, instead of languishing on drug substitutes like methadone which can hinder their rehabilitation.

Today’s news, alongside tough new security including X-ray body scanners, forms a cornerstone of the government’s strategy to break the cycle of addiction and re-offending which costs the tax-payer £19 billion a year.

Deputy Prime Minister, Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor, Dominic Raab, said:

We are clamping down on drugs behind bars with tough new security, but we know reducing supply is not enough to break the cycle of addiction and offending.

Our new drug-free units and drug recovery wings will help prisoners tackle their addictions, including to opiate substitutes like methadone, in turn cutting their risk of reoffending and creating safer streets.

The government is also investing in up to 18 drug recovery wings where prisoners can go through 6 months of intensive abstinence-based treatment to break their reliance on methadone as well as dangerous substances.

On the new incentivised units, offenders will tackle their addictions through substance misuse courses and regular drug testing

In exchange, prisoners who are making progress towards getting clean receive extra time out of cell for education and work opportunities and, once they’ve turned their back on drugs for good, including substitutes like methadone, the prospect of being transferred to a drug recovery wing for 6 months of intensive, fully abstinence-based treatment.

The press release issued by the Ministry of Justice on 7 February 2023.

Fraudsters are offering false ‘common law’ car insurance and claiming that the insurance is backed by the holder’s ‘cestui que vie trust’.

We’re aware of fraudsters claiming to sell car insurance and advising users to claim the funds from a personal trust held by the government. They have called it a ‘cestui que vie trust’. Others are selling instructions on how to claim the funds.

Cestui que vie trusts

A cestui que vie trust does not exist and there’s no such trust held by the government. The phrase appears to be a combination of 2 genuine legal terms:

• ‘cestui que trust’, which means someone entitled to money in a trust which has been set up for their benefit
• ‘cestui qui vie’, which means a holder of a life interest in land which was settled on them before life interests were abolished in 1997, or the holder of a lifetime lease

The term has been used from time to time by people claiming that it means they do not have to pay debts or comply with court orders, but there’s no reported example of this being successful in the UK.

What this means

A cestui que vie trust is a made-up term and does not exist.  There’s no fund held by the government which you can claim against. This means that the car insurance is not backed by any funds and holders are driving without insurance.

It’s illegal to drive a vehicle on a road or public place without valid insurance. If you’re not correctly insured, you can be penalised. You could receive a fixed penalty, or be prosecuted in court, and the police might seize your car.

Protecting yourself from scams

We advise you to:

• recognise the signs – always take a moment to stop and think before parting with money or your personal information
• check GOV.UK for information on how to avoid and report scams

The press release issued by the Ministry of Justice on 7 February 2023.

The Secretary of State for Justice has announced the appointments of Duwayne Brooks OBE and Phillip Bowen as members of the Youth Justice Board.

The press release issued by the Ministry of Justice on 6 February 2023.

The Lord Chancellor, after consulting the Lord Chief Justice, has approved the appointment of Alan Kershaw as Chair of the Legal Services Board (LSB) for 4 years from 1 April 2023.

LSB is the independent body overseeing the regulation of lawyers in England and Wales. Its goal is to reform and modernise the legal services marketplace by putting the interests of consumers at the heart of the system. It is independent of government and the legal profession and oversees approved regulators which – themselves – regulate lawyers.

LSB also oversees the Office for Legal Complaints and its administration of the Legal Ombudsman scheme that resolves complaints about lawyers.

Appointments and re-appointments are made by the Lord Chancellor and are regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments. This appointment has been made in line with the Governance Code on Public Appointments.

Biography

Alan Kershaw, since 2020, has been Chair of the Architects’ Registration Board. He holds a number of part-time appointments in professional standards settings and regulation, including Chair of the National Register of Public Service Interpreters.

He is currently an Independent Member of the Intellectual Property Regulation Board (IPReg) and of the Admissions and Licensing Committee of CILEX Regulation. He will resign from his roles at IPReg and CILEX on 31 March 2023.

 

The press release issued by the Ministry of Justice on 4 February 2023.

Construction firms have pitched up in prisons across England and Wales for the latest major drive to match offenders with jobs in sectors facing skill shortages and cut crime.

More than 80 ‘Unlocking Construction’ events have been held in over 60 prisons as part of a two-week campaign – with scaffolders, crane operatives and building site managers among those showing offenders the ropes in their industry.

Firms have laid the crucial groundwork for prisoner job hunts, with guidance on CV building, interview training and hands-on workshops giving them the chance to secure work ahead of release.

At HMP Wormwood Scrubs, prisoners have also been given an insight into the scaffolding sector using special virtual reality technology that simulates working at height on a building site – helping prisoners to determine if the job is right for them and increasing the chance that successful applicants stick with it.

Evidence shows that ex-prisoners who have a job to go to are nine percentage points less likely to go on to re-offend while 90% of businesses that employ them found reliable, motivated and trustworthy staff.

Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, Dominic Raab, said:

Campaigns like Unlocking Construction are steering offenders into work and away from crime, leaving our streets safer.

At the same time, businesses can plug skills gaps with reliable and motivated staff – so it is good for our economy.

As well as helping cut reoffending, the drive is specifically geared towards plugging gaps in essential workforces too, getting prison leavers to contribute to their local economies and boost growth.

This is the second of four campaigns to run over the year led by the Prison Service’s New Futures Network. Manufacturing and retail and logistics drives are earmarked for the coming months.

The construction push builds on the success of Unlocking Hospitality in October which saw almost 50 prisoners land jobs and 150 interviews conducted in the campaign fortnight alone.

One ex-offender who landed a job as a chef as a result of the scheme has since taken on leadership responsibilities in the kitchen and is working to get more prisoners to follow his path.

National Access & Scaffolding Confederation training manager, Henry Annafi, said:

If you get a successful candidate, what I can absolutely guarantee is loyalty – because you’re giving them an opportunity that very few if any people have given them and they will pay you back tenfold in that respect.

Plus there are so many diverse experiences and skillsets that many of these men and women have that it is actually a no-brainer to give people that chance.

A participating prisoner at Wormwood Scrubs said the day’s event, and others like it, would help prisoners to “engage their mind” and offer them “something positive to do on release”.

A lot of prisoners have got skills, but they’re not being utilised, because we’ve committed a crime, so people don’t want to give us a second chance,” he added.

But stuff like this enables prisoners to bring out their skillset and be the best they can be.

Getting prisoners into work is a tried-and-tested way of cutting crime. The government’s Prisons White Paper sets out a strategy to reduce reoffending and keep the public safe, with a laser-focus on helping prisoners develop the skills they need to find work on release and turn their backs on crime.

The government is also investing to reduce reoffending, which includes helping prisoners develop the skills they need to find work on release and turn their backs on crime.

The press release issued by the Ministry of Justice on 31 January 2023.

Vulnerable victims in up to 4,600 cases involving crimes including sexual abuse and rape will be able to avoid giving their evidence in a full courtroom every year according to new estimates from the Ministry of Justice.

The estimates are published alongside new legislation which will for the first-time mean barristers are paid specifically for this work as part of the Government’s £138m extra annual investment in criminal legal aid.

Since September, victims of crimes including rape and sexual assault have been able to pre-record their cross-examination ahead of trial in every Crown Court in England and Wales following a Government-funded rollout of new technology.

This helps victims avoid the stress of giving evidence under full glare of a live trial setting, which many find traumatic.

This latest forecast shows that up to three times as many victims and witnesses could now be supported in this way compared to in the last two years, helping more of them achieve justice and boosting rape convictions.

The increase in fees will see lawyers paid £804, including VAT, for carrying out this work and ensure they are further incentivised to undertake the pre-recorded parts of these trials, potentially boosting capacity further.

Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said:

We have overhauled the support victims of rape receive and this latest investment will mean more have their voices heard in court without retraumatising them.

Paying barristers specifically for this work will help make sure more victims have this option and is another part of our work to boost rape convictions.

Pre-recorded cross-examination technology is available to certain victims of sexual and modern slavery offences in all Crown Courts in England and Wales. It is also available to vulnerable victims, such as children and those whose quality of evidence is likely to be diminished because of a mental or physical condition.

Measures allow for evidence to be given as close to the time of the offence as possible while memories remain fresh, increasing the likelihood of vulnerable witnesses achieving justice.

It is designed to maintain a defendant’s right to a fair trial and any decision to pre-record evidence is made by a judge on a case-by-case basis.

This new fee for lawyers taking evidence in this way will apply to all new cases from tomorrow (1 February 2023). It will come on top of existing fees for attending court and ground rules hearings where a judge can consider any special measures for vulnerable victims and witnesses.

This £4 million investment is part of the Government’s £138m annual increase in criminal legal aid spending.

The press release issued by the Ministry of Justice on 25 January 2023.

On October 4 2022 the Justice Secretary announced plans to reform our policy on the allocation of transgender prisoners. Under the reforms, transgender women with male genitalia, or those who have been convicted of a sexual offence, should no longer be held in the general women’s estate.

This will create a strong presumption, but allow for exemptions to be considered by Ministers on a case-by-case basis – though only the most truly exceptional cases will be considered.

We will be publishing an updated policy framework shortly, which will set out the new guidance in detail and how it will be implemented by the Prison Service. The implementation of this new policy will take effect soon after we have published the revised framework.

The safety of all prisoners is paramount. These changes will ensure a sensitive and common-sense approach to meeting the needs of women in custody, while we continue to ensure that transgender prisoners are appropriately supported in whichever estate they are located in.

Question: Where are transgender prisoners currently placed?

The placement of transgender prisoners is subject to a thorough risk-assessment in every case. More than 90% of transgender women in prison are housed in men’s prisons, and most do not request a move to a women’s prison. There is no obligation to move transgender prisoners according to their wishes.

Transgender women without a Gender Recognition Certificate – i.e. who are not legally female – are initially sent to a male prison as a matter of course.

Question: What will happen as a result of these new changes?

As a result of the new policy, transgender women who are in future sentenced to custody and

• have male genitalia

OR

• who have been convicted of sexual offences

will not serve their sentences in the general women’s estate unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Question: Does that mean transgender women currently in the women’s estate will be moved into male prisons?

In relation to transgender women currently in the women’s estate, there will be a thorough assessment of individuals – both the risks to them and any risks they pose to others – before any move is considered. Transgender women who cannot be held safely in either the male or female estate can be held in a specialist unit.

The press release issued by the Ministry of Justice on 21 January 2023.

Thousands of at-risk teens are set to pick up their racquets and lace up their football boots as part of a bid to keep them on the straight and narrow, the Deputy Prime Minister has announced today (21 January 2023).

More than 200 grassroots organisations across England and Wales have been awarded cash from the government’s £5 million Youth Justice Sports Fund to run local sports schemes – from climbing to kayaking – that will help keep vulnerable young people away from crime and antisocial behaviour.

The number of children caught up in crime is at a historical low – falling by 81 percent since 2010 but youth crime still costs the taxpayer £1.5 billion a year. Research shows 80 per cent of prolific adult offenders started on their path of crime when children, making the need to steer more young people away from lawbreaking all the more critical.

Announcing the news, the Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab visited ThruLife – one of the projects which have been awarded funding – at a local school in Tottenham, north London.

Joined by ThruLife founder Richard Allicock and Sky Sports pundit Jobi McAnuff, the Deputy Prime Minister swapped into his trainers as he joined penalty practice with youngsters at their after-school football club.

Deputy Prime Minister, Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor, Dominic Raab, said:

I know first-hand how powerful sport and mentoring can be in turning young lives around.

Sport has the power to boost confidence, build resilience and teach discipline, and evidence suggests sports can be effective in reducing offending among young people. That’s why we’re supporting over 200 organisations across England and Wales to encourage more young people to engage with sport and stay away from crime.

One of the surest ways to keep young people on the right path is to give them the skills to succeed in life – something sports schemes can provide, building young people’s resilience, self-confidence and discipline while engaging in a fun activity.

Emerging evidence suggests that sports-based intervention programmes – such as the Youth Sports Fund – can lead to improvements in offending. We know that early intervention done well reduces offending, for example, the

Supporting Families programme showed a 35 per cent reduction in youth prison sentences and a 15 per cent reduction in youth convictions.

Former Crystal Palace midfielder, Sky Sports commentator, and ThruLife ambassador Jobi McAnuff said:

Organisations like ThruLife do amazing work. I know how important activities and places like this are, and to have positive role models, particularly in areas like this where I grew up.

You can’t take shortcuts in life, whether that’s to be a professional footballer or whatever you want to achieve. There will be tough times in life, so if you have a passion for something like sport, it can help you to stay positive and committed.

Tom* who regularly attends ThruLife said:

ThruLife has helped me to grow in confidence through the sports sessions I attend teaching me and others different skills that would better place us on our journey through life, and to help us make positive choices.

Richard Allicock, the founder of Thru Life, said:

We are delighted to have been awarded this funding, which will help us to continue the positive work that we are doing in the community but also extend our offer to engage with more young people across the borough of Haringey utilising the powers of sport through our mentoring offer.

In November last year, the Deputy Prime Minister invited sports charities and organisations from across the country to bid for the £5 million fund, which saw hundreds of sports schemes apply.

Today, over 200 organisations across England and Wales have been awarded cash to run projects from climbing to boxing with vulnerable teens. Bidders were marked on whether they could show a track-record of helping young people at risk of falling into crime and antisocial behaviour to keep their noses clean.

The £5 million pot of money builds on the government’s existing support for local authorities’ Youth Offending Teams nationwide – which has seen over £730 million worth of funding provided in the last 5 years.

Minister for Sport, Civil Society & Youth Stuart Andrew said:

We believe every young person should get the best start in life. Doing sport is a brilliant way of building focus and discipline while also improving physical health and stopping people becoming involved in crime.

This funding will help make sure people are set on the right path from the outset.

The Sports Fund has been co-ordinated by StreetGames and the Alliance of Sport for Criminal Justice, with the support of the Sport for Development Coalition – an umbrella of more than 250 charities in the sports sector.

Stuart Felce, StreetGames Director of Sport and Community Safety, said:

At StreetGames we believe that community sport, delivered in the right way, can have a transformational impact on children’s lives and the communities they live in. We’re really excited to be partnering with the Sport for Development Coalition and the Alliance of Sport in Criminal Justice to deliver this ambitious new programme from the Ministry of Justice. This investment in sport will support voluntary and community sports organisations to carry out targeted work to enhance positive outcomes for vulnerable children, providing the practical and emotional support they need to grow and helping to keep them and their communities safe.

Hitesh Patel, Executive Director of the Coalition, added:

Reducing crime and anti-social behaviour is a core element of the Coalition’s #OpenGoal framework, which shows how the multiple returns on investment created by sport for development can help to generate significant public cost savings. We are delighted to be working alongside StreetGames and the Alliance of Sport in Criminal Justice to ensure this new funding supports and strengthens those organisations that can already demonstrate the positive social impact they are having on their local communities.

The funding also delivers on the commitment made in the Prisons Strategy White Paper – published in December 2022 – to cut youth crime and create safer streets.