Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: In 2014, the Government published a consultation paper and response assessing the potential merits of provision for non-religious belief marriages. This concluded that the matter was complex, and that by allowing Humanists to solemnise marriages in unrestricted locations, the Government would create a provision for Humanists that would not be available to all groups. To ensure we are...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: In 2014, the Government published a consultation paper and response assessing the potential merits of provision for non-religious belief marriages. This concluded that the matter was complex, and that by allowing Humanists to solemnise marriages in unrestricted locations, the Government would create a provision for Humanists that would not be available to all groups. To ensure we are...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: The administration of probate applications is dealt with as a national service, covering England and Wales. Average waiting times for probate grants, from July 2019 to September 2021, are published on gov.uk via Family Court Statistics Quarterly (Table 25): https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-court-stati stics-quarterly Information for the period up to December 2021 will be...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: My Lords, I too have no wish to delay the House but, like the noble Lord, Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede, I also thank the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of St Albans for highlighting this important issue and enabling us to have the time in the House today. I thank him for giving me his time earlier in the week. With all respect to other meetings which I had during the week, that was one which...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lady Sater for introducing this important Bill today, and I thank the noble Lord, Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede, for his contribution to this short debate. As the only non-magistrate speaking in this debate, I will say that it has been a pleasure working with my noble friend on this issue. I am grateful for the broad support from the Labour Benches. The...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: The number of UPW hours delivered in the last five years are:April 2016 to March 2017: 5,582,445April 2017 to March 2018: 5,382,173April 2018 to March 2019: 5,310,526April 2019 to March 2020: 4,868,990April 2020 to March 2021: 1,356,061 The figures for April 2020 – March 2021 evidence a decline in unpaid work delivery resulting from the pandemic and the need to comply with public health...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: The requested data on use of force incidents is available for the 12 month periods ending March 2019 to March 2021. This is detailed in the attached Excel spreadsheet. Every use of physical force is reviewed, and prison officers receive appropriate training to ensure that it is only used when necessary, reasonable and proportionate. HL6864_table (xlsx, 18.0KB)
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: I refer the right reverend Prelate to the answer given to PQ HL5474 on 1 February 2022 and HL5473 on 1 February 2022.
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: These figures are routinely published as part of the OMSQ Prison Population Data Tool (published as part of Offender Management Statistics Quarterly): https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-managemen t-statistics-quarterly. As of 31 December 2021 (latest available published data), the population of each female prison, split by requested age categories, was as follows: Prison...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: The reason for the difference between figures provided in the response to HL5530 and table 5.1a of the Female Offender Strategy supporting data tables is a change in methodology. The figures provided in table 5.1a were calculated using travelling distance (i.e. the distance of a road journey between 2 destinations). From 2019, the methodology used to extract information on prisoners’...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: Whilst the Government has no overall responsibility for funding child contact centre provision, we are supportive of the work of the National Association of Child Contact Centres (NACCC) and have provided grant funding since 2013. The formal process of awarding any grant to NACCC from April 2022 has not yet been completed, so we are unable to confirm the amount and period for any future grant.
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: This information is not readily available. To answer the question, a manual check would be needed of each instance of an offender serving an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence on licence being recalled to custody, where the reason given includes further charges (approximately 1,900). This could be completed only at disproportionate cost. An offender on an IPP licence is...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: The Government is on track to publish a report about the extent to which individuals, when they are using contact centres in England, are protected from the risk of domestic abuse or, in the case of children, other harm. This will be delivered by April 2023 as set out in section 83 of the Domestic Abuse Act.
Constitution Committee report: COVID-19 and the Courts – Baroness Taylor of Bolton – Lord Wolfson of Tredegar.
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lords who took part in this debate. I will take matters fairly briefly, given the amount of other business before the House. On the duty of candour, I emphasise the essential point that the disciplinary system provides clear sanctions that can lead to dismissal. We should not introduce criminal sanctions for the police alone. Ultimately, the inspectorate...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: My Lords, I will also speak to Motionexpand-col4 K on secure schools, which is in this group. The House will recall that Amendment 71 would introduce a duty of candour for the police workforce. The other place has now considered this amendment and rejected the proposed duty, without, I might add, putting the amendment to a vote. The Government take police integrity and accountability...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: I announce today the publication of Part 2 of the Government’s response to the ‘Reforming the soft tissue injury (‘whiplash’) claims process’ consultation paper on Gov.UK. In November 2016, the Government published a consultation that set out proposed measures to tackle the number and cost of Road Traffic Accident related personal injury claims. This consultation covered both...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: My Lords, our vision is that no female offender who is subject to probation supervision will be released from prison homeless. Building on the success of our Covid emergency scheme, last July we introduced a transitional accommodation service for prison leavers in five regions, and we are expanding it further. We hold the system to account through ambitious accommodation targets set out in...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: There was quite a lot in that question. I acknowledge that it is a very important topic. I will pick up on a couple of the points made. The 77% figure comes from the recent IMB report for HMP Bronzefield, and it refers to safe and secure accommodation. That is a different approach to what we use, which is to determine whether people are actually homeless. Do they have somewhere—a roof over...
Lord Wolfson of Tredegar: I think that robust categories are in place. We define homelessness, in accordance with the legal definition, as being where the individual does not have any accommodation available and reasonable for them to occupy, including where they may be rough sleeping, squatting or in a night shelter, emergency hostel or campsite. It is very important to ensure that we are all looking at the same...