Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: My Lords, I am grateful for the comments of the noble Lords, Lord Thomas of Gresford and Lord Paddick. In response to the specific point put to me by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, in one sentence, the change is needed to ensure that there was clarity over the authority for setting licence conditions for terrorist offenders, whether serving standard, determinate,...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: My Lords, the Government have committed to making the process of obtaining legal authority to access a child trust fund more straightforward. A working group comprising the Ministry of Justice, the Treasury, HMRC and the Department for Work and Pensions has met several times to consider what more can be done, and it has also met the Investing and Saving Alliance, the Financial Conduct...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: My noble friend is absolutely right that, because these funds are generally of relatively small amounts of money, it is all the more important that court procedures, which are designed to comply with the Mental Capacity Act 2005, are both accessible and proportionate. Rules and procedures are a matter for the courts, not Ministers, but I will do all I properly can to ensure that children and...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: My Lords, it is not for the Government to comment on the development of private sector proposals and the extent to which—and whether—they comply with the relevant legislation. We are working with all the financial trade bodies to ensure that parents and guardians of young people who do not have the required mental capacity to make the decision to access a child trust fund at age 18 are...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: My Lords, I can certainly commit to that: I have arranged meetings later this afternoon to that end, and I will take a personal involvement to ensure that all that can be done is done. I will also liaise with the President of the Family Division but I emphasise that, ultimately, court rules are a matter for the court, and there is a constitutional propriety that I have to maintain.
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: My Lords, there are a number of ways in which the requisite capacity, or lack thereof, can be established and assessed by the court, and those issues probably take me outside the bounds of an answer here. I will write to the noble Baroness to give more detail.
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: My Lords, the present situation is absolutely unfortunate. One of the problems is that this does not seem to have been anticipated by the Government which put child trust funds into existence. We are doing all we can, and I will certainly report back to your Lordships’ House on the progress we make. As I have already said, I am personally committed to ensuring that this problem is solved.
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: My Lords, at the moment I do not see any conceptual distinction between child trust funds and junior ISAs. What we put in place to solve this problem ought, in principle, to be applicable to junior ISAs as well.
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: The noble Baroness is certainly right. Virtually everybody does have the best of motives, but there have been cases where the protections afforded by the Mental Capacity Act 2005 have, unfortunately, been needed. One has to remember that, ultimately, one is dealing with the funds of somebody who lacks the capacity to deal with them themselves. That is why the Mental Capacity Act puts in...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: My Lords, I do not want anybody to give up accessing money which is rightfully theirs. There are a number of provisions in place for fees but, to sum this up, the Government’s intention is that no one who needs to apply to the Court of Protection solely to access a child trust fund will pay fees.
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: My Lords, the reason is that it is not for the Ministry of Justice to give its blessing to private sector schemes and to say whether they do or do not comply with the relevant legislation. That legislation is important: it is there to protect people. If the private sector wants to put in a scheme, that is a matter for the private sector. So far as my department is concerned, we need to make...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: My Lords, the noble Baroness will be aware that two weeks of the waiting time is mandatory under the Act. For the rest of that period, if applications are marked as urgent then they are dealt with on an expedited basis. On the second point, court staff are putting in place new digital ways of working the procedure to try and speed things up.
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: My Lords, I regret that my noble friend is already talking about my legacy when I have only been in this House about six weeks—in future, I will make longer answers. My noble friend raises an important point. I emphasise that the constitutional position is that court procedures and rules are a matter for the courts. So far as I am concerned, we need to make sure that the response of the...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: To reduce reoffending and provide health and wellbeing support, we are launching a new accommodation service, providing up to 12 weeks of basic temporary accommodation for prison leavers who would otherwise be homeless. This will complement the service being delivered through the new unified probation model. Women-only accommodation provision will be made available, as required. More...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: No sanctions or warnings have been issued at HMP Berwyn for use of the Welsh Language since the prison opened in 2017. There has been one instance where a prisoner was improperly challenged for speaking Welsh in 2019; the matter was investigated, and the member of staff corrected before they issued a behaviour warning to the prisoner. No further complaints of this nature have been reported. ...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: We recognise that the level of self-harm in the women’s estate is too high and are determined to reduce this. A Women’s Self-Harm Task Force was set up in April 2020 in response to our increasing concerns about the level of self-harm in the Women’s estate. We know that many of the drivers (risks and triggers) and protective factors linked to women’s risk of self-harm in prisons have...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: Relevant data on housing outcomes and homelessness figures for female prison leavers are published annually at the below link, and can be found attached. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/ system/uploads/attachment_data/file/904935/accommodation-201 920.ods. We will refer to these published figures when measuring and reporting on the success of the Concordat on...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: The Ministry of Justice oversees the legal framework that governs the coronial system but does not have operational responsibility for coroner services. Ministers and officials meet with the Chief Coroner, individual coroners and local authorities from time to time to discuss a range of issues including suicide. We have not had recent discussions on the issue or the number of people with...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) ensures that assessment of the equalities impacts of its policy proposals is integrated in the development, implementation and review of its policies. Where potential negative impacts are identified, including the potential for indirect discrimination, we take the necessary mitigating actions or adopt alternative approaches. We do not keep central records of all...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: The Ministry of Justice has published information on convictions for offences relating to human trafficking, up to December 2019, available in the ‘Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code’ data tool, attached and here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/ system/uploads/attachment_data/file/938554/HO-code-tool-prin...