argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Serious Criminal Cases Backlog — House of Commons, 2021-01-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the backlog of serious criminal cases in the justice system.
Sarah Elizabeth Dines (Conservative, Centre-right): Around the world, the United Kingdom rightly has a reputation of having a first-class criminal justice system. The present large backlog in criminal trials due to the pandemic is of immense concern to me in terms of the rights of victims, witnesses and defendants and the need for a timely trial. Can my hon. Friend assure me that sufficient resources are going to be forthcoming to resolve the present backlog within a proper timeframe?
Serious Criminal Cases Backlog — House of Commons, 2021-01-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the backlog of serious criminal cases in the justice system.
Chris Ian Brian Mynott Philp (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is right to raise this question. As I said in my opening remarks, the pandemic—the global pandemic—has had a huge impact on public services not just in this country but across the world, and the court system is not immune from that. That is why we have seen the additional cases that we have discussed this afternoon My hon. Friend asked about resources. The Government are categorically committed to putting in the resources necessary to facilitate the recovery of the courts. I mentioned earlier that this year alone we have invested an extra £143 million in court buildings and technology to make our courts covid-safe and an extra £110 million in increasing our courts capacity. That is an investment of an extra quarter of a billion pounds this year alone to make sure that the court recovery not just gets started, but continues in the current vein. So I can give my hon. Friend the assurance that she is quite rightly asking for.
Serious Criminal Cases Backlog — House of Commons, 2021-01-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the backlog of serious criminal cases in the justice system.
Chris Ian Brian Mynott Philp (Conservative, Centre-right): Domestic violence most certainly is a very serious and very important matter. That is why, when the pandemic started, the senior judiciary sent directions to magistrates courts laying out which cases should be dealt with as a matter of priority. One of the items in the top priority—the priority 1 list of cases—was domestic violence protection orders, because the judiciary and the system recognise their importance. In relation to legal aid, it is kept under review of course, but we are always making sure that domestic violence victims receive not just protection, but quick protection. That is vitally important.
Serious Criminal Cases Backlog — House of Commons, 2021-01-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the backlog of serious criminal cases in the justice system.
Robert Butler (Conservative, Centre-right): All criminal cases begin in the magistrates courts and all magistrates are volunteers, so will my hon. Friend join me in thanking and congratulating magistrates on everything they are doing to clear the backlog in their courts? Will he assure me and all users of our magistrates courts that he will do whatever it takes to keep them safe and ensure that justice continues to be done in our local communities?
Serious Criminal Cases Backlog — House of Commons, 2021-01-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the backlog of serious criminal cases in the justice system.
Chris Ian Brian Mynott Philp (Conservative, Centre-right): I know my hon. Friend has a long and distinguished history serving on the bench as a magistrate, so I would like to publicly recognise that and I join him in extending my warm and enthusiastic thanks to magistrates up and down the country, who have been keeping justice going in incredibly difficult circumstances—and not just keeping justice going, but clearing down the backlog, which has been reducing since August, as I said earlier. One of my parliamentary team sits as a magistrate in Croydon Crown court—one of the many thousands of magistrates—and I thank all of them for what they have done to deliver justice in these most trying of times.
Serious Criminal Cases Backlog — House of Commons, 2021-01-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the backlog of serious criminal cases in the justice system.
Chris Ian Brian Mynott Philp (Conservative, Centre-right): I agree with the hon. Gentleman. There is an issue with, for example, the charging and prosecution of rape cases in particular, which predates the pandemic. There is a problem and it needs to be addressed. Some steps have been taken already—for example, changes to the rules around disclosure, which had been a problem in rape cases, and the provision of significant extra money even before the pandemic to support independent sexual violence advisers and rape crisis centres and to support the victims of these awful crimes, but more needs to be done. The Ministry of Justice and the Home Office are conducting a rape review, which is being led by the Minister for Crime and Policing. That is due to report very shortly and will contain further actions in this very important area.
Serious Criminal Cases Backlog — House of Commons, 2021-01-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the backlog of serious criminal cases in the justice system.
Gareth Alan Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): I worked in the Courts Service for 20 years, and there have been case delays under all colours of Government, so the right hon. Member for Tottenham (Mr Lammy) has a very selective memory on this issue. It is not surprising that this pandemic has caused delays in court cases right around the world, but will my hon. Friend the Minister ensure that delays to domestic violence cases are prioritised? As he knows, often pressure grows on victims as a case progresses and too often their resolve diminishes and they feel unable to continue supporting the case.
Serious Criminal Cases Backlog — House of Commons, 2021-01-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the backlog of serious criminal cases in the justice system.
Chris Ian Brian Mynott Philp (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend makes an extremely good point. We are very concerned about these cases and that is why we are spending a great deal of extra money—as I say, next year, an additional £32 million—to help protect victims and witnesses of awful cases such as those of domestic violence and rape. As I have mentioned, the judiciary have already prioritised domestic violence protection orders in the magistrates courts and, although listing is a judicial function, I know that judges are prioritising very serious cases of rape and domestic violence to make sure those cases get heard quickly, for the reason that he has mentioned. In addition, we rolled out section 28, the video evidence provisions, in, I think, November last year—just a couple of months ago—to make sure vulnerable witnesses can give evidence by video quickly, well in advance of the substantive hearing, to make sure some of the issues to do with victim attrition that he mentioned are addressed quickly and as far as they possibly can be.
Serious Criminal Cases Backlog — House of Commons, 2021-01-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the backlog of serious criminal cases in the justice system.
Chris Ian Brian Mynott Philp (Conservative, Centre-right): I do not accept the hon. Lady’s criticism. Travel times to courts before and after the programme that she mentions were very little different. As I said, due to the actions that we have taken during this pandemic, there are significantly more covid-safe Crown court jury trial rooms today than there were before the pandemic In relation to online justice, the cloud video platform was developed prior to coronavirus. Its roll-out has been expedited. In the weeks running up to Christmas we saw 20,000 remote hearings per week across all jurisdictions, and in fact last week was a record week. There are 150 magistrates courts and 70 Crown courts now connected. The use of remote video and audio hearing technology has been extremely widespread. It is very impressive, and it is doing its job extremely well in these difficult circumstances.
Serious Criminal Cases Backlog — House of Commons, 2021-01-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the backlog of serious criminal cases in the justice system.
Imran Nasir Ahmad Khan (Conservative, Centre-right): I congratulate my hon. Friend on all the hard work that his Department has done during this incredibly difficult time, particularly with regard to the implementation of video hearings. Twenty thousand hearings have now been undertaken through the cloud video platform every month. Will he outline whether the use of remote technology will be expanded to help reduce court backlogs?
Serious Criminal Cases Backlog — House of Commons, 2021-01-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the backlog of serious criminal cases in the justice system.
Chris Ian Brian Mynott Philp (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend, who of course has a distinguished background in this field himself, for his question. We do intend to continue rolling out the use of video and remote technology in the way that he describes. We see huge opportunities there. The Lord Chief Justice, in response to the most recent lockdown, urged trial judges and other judges to use remote hearing technology as widely as they possibly can, so this work is continuing. As I said in response to the last question, last week was a record week for remote hearings, and we expect the roll-out and the adoption of this technology to continue apace.
Serious Criminal Cases Backlog — House of Commons, 2021-01-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the backlog of serious criminal cases in the justice system.
Chris Ian Brian Mynott Philp (Conservative, Centre-right): I would point out that 230 is the number happening as we speak; in the weeks leading up to Christmas, the average was more like 275. In relation to the number of trials over the last few years, as I said in answer to the shadow Justice Secretary, the right hon. Member for Tottenham, crime, as measured by the British crime survey, has fallen by 41% since Labour left office, so it is not entirely surprising that the number of trials has reduced commensurately However, we are now increasing the number of sitting days and the number of jury trials. As I said, the last full week before Christmas saw the number of Crown court disposals exceed the number of receipts for the first time in the pandemic. As the Justice Committee Chairman rightly said in his question, we now need to sustain that over a period of time to ensure that the outstanding case load gets back down to where it was before, which I remind the hon. Member for Hammersmith (Andy Slaughter) was a great deal lower than when Labour left office.
Serious Criminal Cases Backlog — House of Commons, 2021-01-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the backlog of serious criminal cases in the justice system.
Ben Everitt (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful for the answers that my hon. Friend gave to the hon. Member for Slough (Mr Dhesi) and my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford (Gareth Johnson) in relation to support for victims of domestic violence and other vulnerable witnesses. It is a tremendously tough time for everyone involved in the judicial system and on its periphery. I am thinking particularly of MK Act, the domestic violence charity in my constituency, and all the wonderful homelessness charities that we have to support vulnerable people. Sadly, however, those people do end up in the courts system, so what support do we have during the pandemic specifically for vulnerable people going through the courts system?
Serious Criminal Cases Backlog — House of Commons, 2021-01-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the backlog of serious criminal cases in the justice system.
Chris Ian Brian Mynott Philp (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend raises an important point. Witnesses and victims, particularly in connection with offences such as domestic violence, sexual assault and rape, are very vulnerable and the experience is very traumatising. Often, going through a court process re-traumatises victims, who have often suffered terrible crimes. It is our duty as a justice system to support, protect and look after those victims as they go through the process We recognise that that needs investment, which is why we are spending an extra £25 million this year over and above previous plans, and an additional £32 million next year, specifically to support, protect and look after witnesses and victims. We are investing in things such as additional ISVAs, who can help support victims as they go through reliving awful crimes. I entirely concur with my hon. Friend’s sentiment, and we are doing everything possible, including putting in lots of extra money, to achieve the objectives that he points to.
Serious Criminal Cases Backlog — House of Commons, 2021-01-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the backlog of serious criminal cases in the justice system.
Chris Ian Brian Mynott Philp (Conservative, Centre-right): In relation to investment, I have already said two or three times that in this current financial year, because of the massive challenge posed by coronavirus, we have invested an extra £143 million and the extra £110 million—an extra quarter of a billion pounds—in delivering court recovery. A quarter of a billion pounds is an enormous investment. It is designed to help with cases like those of the hon. Gentleman’s constituent, which we want to be heard quickly. Of course, every individual case has its own circumstances and sometimes there are procedural, evidential or other reasons why individual cases get listed some way into the future, but we do want all those cases to be heard as quickly as they can be. As I said, for remand cases where the defendant is in custody that had their first hearing—their first mention—in November 2020, the clear majority will have their trials heard by July this year. However, we do want to move faster. That is why, as the Chairman of the Select Committee said, we need to make sure that the happy circumstance of disposals exceeding receipts, which we achieved just before Christmas, is continued and sustained into the new year to help people like the hon. Gentleman’s constituents, who quite rightly and reasonably, want their cases heard.
Serious Criminal Cases Backlog — House of Commons, 2021-01-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the backlog of serious criminal cases in the justice system.
Daniel Rayne Kruger (Conservative, Centre-right): I pay tribute to the work done by the Ministry of Justice in getting the courts open again quickly last year and actually increasing throughput so that we now have more sitting hours and more Crown court trials than we had before covid. Does my hon. Friend agree that we have the opportunity for a real transformation in criminal justice, making more use of technology in trials and in disposals? Can he update the House on plans for more smart tagging, as proposed in a recent Centre for Social Justice report by my hon. Friend the Member for Aylesbury (Rob Butler)?
Serious Criminal Cases Backlog — House of Commons, 2021-01-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the backlog of serious criminal cases in the justice system.
Chris Ian Brian Mynott Philp (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend raises a very good point. As we face the future, the use of technology will be critical in making our justice system faster, more efficient and more accessible. I have already laid out how we have expedited the roll-out of a cloud video platform which facilitates remote hearings. We have been doing quite a lot of work with the police on video remand hearings, where a prisoner who has been arrested and is in a police custody suite has their remand hearing with the magistrates done by video link, rather than being taken to the magistrates court. Quite a lot of that has been going on. We are also just beginning to roll out the common platform, which is an IT system that integrates many parts of the criminal justice system, the Crown Prosecution Service, defence, prosecution and the courts themselves. That work is being trialled pending a full roll-out. My hon. Friend also mentioned a smart tagging, a point, as he said, raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Aylesbury. We have this year procured a large number of additional GPS tags, which we are now using. We are moving in that direction. The measures he referred to in the sentencing White Paper, which we published, I think, back in September, will, I can tell him, form part of legislation arising in the relatively near future.
Serious Criminal Cases Backlog — House of Commons, 2021-01-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the backlog of serious criminal cases in the justice system.
Chris Ian Brian Mynott Philp (Conservative, Centre-right): We are not planning to close down the court system, and the Lord Chief Justice made that very clear when the current lockdown was announced. As I have said, we have invested a quarter of a billion pounds in making our courts system covid-safe so that it can keep operating. The hon. Lady cited some remarks by the CPS inspector at the Committee yesterday and I have to tell her, in all candour, that those comments are inaccurate and inappropriate. The proper authorities for determining the safety of our courts system are Public Health England and Public Health Wales, not the inspector of the CPS, and they, having looked at the measures we are taking, have found them to be appropriate and found that our courts are covid-safe. The proof of that pudding is in the eating. As I said earlier, the number of Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service staff who have tested positive for covid is in line with the number in the wider population; courts are not especially unsafe, because of the measures we have been taking and will continue to take. I hope that reassures witnesses, defendants, jurors, lawyers—anyone using the courts—that our courts are safe. Justice should, will and must continue to be delivered.
Serious Criminal Cases Backlog — House of Commons, 2021-01-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the backlog of serious criminal cases in the justice system.
Philip Thomas Hollobone (Conservative, Centre-right): Northamptonshire police have made really good progress during the pandemic in targeting serious and hardened criminals and, in particular, in busting up local drugs gangs. Having arrested these people, the police need them prosecuted, so will the Minister tell me what the courts situation is in Northamptonshire and what progress is being made on reducing the backlog?
Serious Criminal Cases Backlog — House of Commons, 2021-01-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the backlog of serious criminal cases in the justice system.
Chris Ian Brian Mynott Philp (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend for his question. As I have said, we are opening up as many covid-safe jury courtrooms as we can, to hear the cases such as the ones he is describing. I would be happy to speak to him about opportunities to find additional court space in his fine county, perhaps by looking for some new Nightingale courts that we can use. There are particular challenges associated with so-called "multi-handers", where there are a large number of defendants, because getting them into a single dock in a covid-safe way is challenging, particularly when there are more than seven defendants. We are looking at that carefully to see what more can be done. We recognise it is an area of particular challenge, but where there are fewer than seven defendants we are able relatively easily to hear those cases and we are doing so.
Serious Criminal Cases Backlog — House of Commons, 2021-01-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the backlog of serious criminal cases in the justice system.
Chris Ian Brian Mynott Philp (Conservative, Centre-right): The measures taken to make sure our courts are covid-safe have been assessed and signed off by Public Health England and Public Health Wales, which are the appropriate authorities. We are very concerned to make sure that courts remain covid-safe, which is why as many hearings as possible are being done remotely, following a direction from the Lord Chief Justice a short while ago. It is also why we have social distancing in courts, why they are cleaned very frequently, and why we have plexiglass screens installed in courtrooms and in jury retiring and deliberation rooms. If any court user, be they barrister, solicitor, witness or anyone else, is concerned about any particular circumstances that they observe, there is a reporting process—an escalation process. I strongly urge anyone who sees anything amiss to use that reporting service. On the situation generally, I point to the figures I mentioned before, which show that the number of HMCTS staff testing covid positive is in line with what we would expect in the general community. But we are not complacent about this and we are going to work hard to continue to make sure that courts are safe.
Serious Criminal Cases Backlog — House of Commons, 2021-01-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the backlog of serious criminal cases in the justice system.
Angela Joy Richardson (Conservative, Centre-right): Will my hon. Friend join me in thanking all the court staff, legal professionals and the judiciary, who have kept our justice system running throughout lockdown? Does he agree that the recruitment of an extra 1,600 court staff will help speed up our justice system’s recovery?
Serious Criminal Cases Backlog — House of Commons, 2021-01-20
Topic: Law and Crime
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the backlog of serious criminal cases in the justice system.
Chris Ian Brian Mynott Philp (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, I certainly will join my hon. Friend in thanking the judiciary, magistrates and everybody involved in delivering justice for their heroic, herculean efforts during this pandemic. In many countries around the world, justice has slowed or even stopped. Although we have many challenges, as we have discussed, we are doing a great deal better in this jurisdiction than many other countries around the world, thanks to the work of judges, magistrates, court staff, lawyers and everybody who makes the system operate. I extend my warm thanks to them. She is quite right that the 1,600 extra staff—getting on for a 10% increase—will make a big difference in delivering the court recovery we need and, importantly, in sustaining that into the months ahead.