Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: The Government remains committed to the provision of good quality, victim-focused restorative justice to help victims cope and recover from the effects of crime. From April 2019 to March 2020, the Ministry of Justice provided about £76m to Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), with about £3.9m spent on restorative justice services. PCCs also spent another £1.8m from other sources on...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: This information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: My Lords, this statutory instrument amends the Judicial Pensions (Fee-Paid Judges) Regulations 2017, which I will refer to as the FPJPS regulations, which established the fee-paid judicial pension scheme 2017, which I will refer to as the FPJPS. This statutory instrument broadly has three purposes: the first is to add eligible fee-paid judicial offices to the FPJPS regulations; the second is...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: I am grateful to all noble Lords who have contributed to this debate. I hear the words of the noble Lord, Lord Ponsonby, ringing in my ears. He said that he had enjoyed this debate more than he thought he would; the problem is that he did not tell us how much he thought he would enjoy it, so I do not know whether he set a very low bar. But I will take it, as I enjoyed the debate very much,...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: In response to COVID-19, the MoJ/HMPPS took decisive action to protect staff and prisoners. These changes are set out in ‘COVID-19: National Framework for Prison Regimes and Services’, available attached and here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-national -framework-for-prison-regimes-and-services. In line with this framework and public health advice, at different times...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: HM Courts and Tribunals Service has received an additional £150m funding in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic recovery funding covers the provision of additional PPE equipment and cleaning across the HMCTS estate; the provision of additional staffing and judicial resources; the provision of safety and security works; the provision of technology to enable remote...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: My Lords, I understand that the intent of this amendment, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Carlile of Berriew, is to do two things: first, to introduce a role for the Parole Board where, otherwise, the changes in the Bill would make its role superfluous; and, secondly and at the same time, not to reintroduce eligibility for early discretionary release for this cohort. I will begin by outlining...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: My Lords, I apologise for the short break in proceedings while I came back to my place. I am afraid that the convention of not moving while the Chair is standing, and social distancing, do not go too well together. This rather technical amendment to Clause 48 clarifies that the provisions of the Bill have UK-wide extent in so far as they are applied by the Armed Forces Act 2006. That is the...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, and the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, for their contributions and questions. The position, so far as I can assist the House now, is that the amendment ensures that the provisions of the Bill which amend, modify or are applied by the Armed Forces Act 2006 have the same extent as that Act. That Act extends to the...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: Our prison population projections published in November 2020 show that the female prison population is projected to rise by around two-fifths by 2026 (1,300 women) with most of that rise coming in the next two years. Our projections took in to consideration the impact of the planned recruitment of a further 23,400 police officers – the impact of which cannot be ignored. Doing nothing is not...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: I recognise that there are concerns about those who might abuse their position of power over a 16 or 17-year-old to pressure them into engaging in a sexual relationship. Such behaviour is likely to be caught by the robust laws we already have in place. We remain committed to protecting children and young people from sexual abuse and we want to ensure that existing offences are being used...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: We take every death in custody very seriously, and we are focussing our efforts to address the levels of self-harm and support those at risk of suicide. This includes tailored action for the women’s prison estate, where a rise has been seen in self-harm incidents since Covid-19 measures were introduced. We are under no illusions about the impact of the measures which were put in place to...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: HM Courts and Tribunals Service has well entrenched safeguards to ensure safety of all people in its buildings and we have a transparent framework in place to ensure these safeguards are adhered to. We have worked closely with public health organisations Public Health England, Public Health Wales and Public Health Scotland, and with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to develop this...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: Recruitment commenced from June 2020, to bring in an additional 1600 people to support the work of the courts in tackling backlogs and to increase capacity in our courts including Crown Courts. Recruitment for these posts have been undertaken through various sources, to increase the number of candidates. These have included running national recruitment campaigns, accepting staff referrals,...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: To ensure the safety of the physical estate and continue our efforts to tackle demand on the system we are investing £142m in court buildings and facilities, and a further £113m on a range of emergency measures – including the recruitment of 1,600 additional staff and creating more Nightingale courts. This funding – the largest investment in justice for decades – helped the system...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend Lady Altmann for tabling these amendments. As a number of speakers have said, it is particularly apt that we are debating this on International Women’s Day. The quality of speeches in this debate is a testament to the strength of feeling across the House. Indeed, the standard of speeches has set a very high bar for the rest of Report. I hope the...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: The national policy on the searching of prisoners (PSI 07/2016 – Searching of the Person) is currently under review and a revised version is intended to be published later this year. The updated policy will include direction on transgender staff conducting searches. This will consider the position of staff with or without a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). In reviewing the policy,...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: NHS England & Improvement and NHS Wales are responsible for the assessment and treatment of the mental health needs of those in prison. When regime restrictions were introduced in prisons to control the spread of COVID-19 and save lives, we recognised that these measures could increase the mental health needs of those in our care. Maintaining prisoners’ mental health and wellbeing has...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: To preserve the independence of the judiciary, the Lord Chief Justice (LCJ), the Senior President of the Tribunals, and the Chief Coroner have statutory responsibility for judicial training, under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, and Coroners and Justice Act 2009 respectively. These responsibilities are exercised through the Judicial College. The judiciary...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: The Ministry of Justice has not undertaken any assessment of the impact of Judicial College training on practice and outcomes in the family courts. To preserve the independence of the judiciary, the Lord Chief Justice (LCJ), the Senior President of the Tribunals, and the Chief Coroner have statutory responsibility for judicial training, under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, Courts and...