theodi/ndl-core-corpus huggingface dataset:
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

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Suella Braverman:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to increase the ability of the Child Maintenance Service to access bank accounts held in joint names for securing outstanding payments. \p Andrew Western: The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) has a range of strong enforcement powers that are designed to get money flowing quickly, prevent the build-up of arrears and ensure children get the financial support they deserve.

When a paying parent does not make maintenance payments on time or in full, the CMS will initially negotiate a payment that is feasible for the parent to pay. If this is unsuccessful, the CMS has powers to deduct maintenance from a wide range of bank accounts.

In 2018, regulations were passed which allow the CMS to make deductions from joint and unlimited partnership business accounts.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

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Rupert Lowe:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what (a) religious and (b) cultural holidays are observed by their Department. \p Andrew Western: The UK Civil Service formally observes only the government-set bank holidays.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

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Suella Braverman:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of the Child Maintenance Service’s ability to secure outstanding loans. \p Andrew Western: The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) does not provide loans.

The CMS encourage paying parents to pay their maintenance on time and in full to avoid accrual of arrears. Where a paying parent fails to pay child maintenance on time or in full, the CMS aims to take immediate action to recover the debt and re-establish compliance, such as contacting the paying payment to agree a repayment plan.

Where parents fail to take responsibility for paying for their children, the CMS is committed to using its wide-ranging enforcement powers proportionally, and in the best interests of children and separated families.

The CMS already has a suite of strong enforcement powers at its disposal. These include, using Enforcement Agents (previously known as bailiffs) to take control of goods, forcing the sale of property, removal of driving licence or UK passport, deductions directly from earnings and bank accounts or even commitment to prison.

Where required, enforcement agents may visit the paying parent at their home, business premises or place of employment. In the year ending December 2024, the CMS collected £2.6m via enforcement agents (formerly known as bailiffs).
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

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Mrs Elsie Blundell:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to support people into work in (a) north Greater Manchester and (b) Heywood and Middleton North constituency. \p Alison McGovern: Those who are economically inactive due to ill health or other disadvantages will be supported into work through the inactivity trailblazer programme. Additionally, Greater Manchester’s Working Well programme offers support to residents at risk of or currently experiencing long-term unemployment, their WorkWell service offers support to residents facing difficulties in remaining in work due to ill-health, and the Adult Skills Fund gives residents access to training courses to enhance their career opportunities. These programmes cover north Greater Manchester, including Rochdale.

The local Jobcentre network offers a suite of skills courses aimed at improving engagement and motivation, supporting the hardest to help, removing barriers to employment, enhancing job search skills, providing skills for work, vocational skills, and in-work support. These courses are designed to address various needs, from overcoming complex barriers to employment to improving job searching techniques and providing ongoing support for those in work. This approach allows us to provide intensive support for those with complex needs, remove final barriers to employment, and help individuals become proficient in job searching techniques. We are confident that these initiatives significantly contribute to improving employment opportunities and supporting residents in North Greater Manchester, Heywood and Middleton North constituency.

Jobcentre teams are working in partnership with Rochdale Local Authority with a specific focus on employer activity to support local residents into employment. In recent months the Jobcentre team have worked jointly with Rochdale AFC to deliver a Jobs Fair for local residents. Some recent Sector Based Work Academies include working jointly with Rochdale Training to move residents into NHS jobs and Realise Training to support residents into the Security sector. Locally, the Get Rochdale Working team at the Local Authority support with local initiatives including Jobs fairs, Apprenticeships, Work experience and volunteering.

Within the Jobcentres there is a Movement to Work Offer providing meaningful placements to young people 16-30 years old not currently in education, employment or training (NEET). These placements are designed to provide skills, experience and support to open lasting opportunities for those involved.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

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Martin Wrigley:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Spring Statement 2025, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of welfare reforms on demand for food banks. \p Alison McGovern: Since 2021, food bank use has been measured in official statistics by the number of individuals living in families that have used foodbanks in the past 30 days and 12 months. These are published on Stat-Xplore ( https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/), including breakdowns by Economic Status of the Adult, in the Households Below Average Income dataset. The latest statistics were published on 21 March 2025 and are for the financial year 2023/24. We monitor this data closely.

We are committed to tackling food poverty and ending mass dependence of emergency food parcels. To inform this work, DWP officials have engaged with a range of organisations to better understand the complex food poverty landscape. We also continue to provide substantial funding to Local Authorities to support those most in need and are extending the Household Support Fund (HSF) by a further year until March 2026, providing funding of £742 million in England. This will ensure low-income households can continue to access support towards the cost of essentials, such as food.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

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Neil O'Brien:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people work in her Department's (a) Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing team and (b) specialist equalities unit. \p Andrew Western: DWP currently employs 28.74 full time equivalent employees in its Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing teams. The department does not have a specialist equalities unit.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

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Sarah Gibson:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department will commit to a review of the frequency of State Pension payments to better support pensioners in managing their budgets. \p Torsten Bell: The current State Pension payment regime has been in place since 6 April 2010 for those people who reached pensionable age on or after that date.

However, to make the opportunity of being paid calendar monthly available, there would need to be significant and very costly system changes and not just to systems used by this Department – HMRC would also be affected. It is not something the Department is considering at this time, but it remains an option should there be a review of the method of payments in the future.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

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Suella Braverman:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has plans for the compensation of children in Child Maintenance Service cases where the debt is cancelled. \p Andrew Western: In 2012, powers were introduced which allowed the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) to write off historic Child Support Agency (CSA) and CMS debt in specific scenarios where it would be unfair or inappropriate to enforce liability. Examples of these scenarios include if the receiving parent tells us they no longer want us to collect the arrears, or the paying parent is deceased, and no further action can be taken to recover the arrears from the paying parent’s estate.

Further powers were then introduced in 2018, which allowed remaining CSA cases to be closed following the collection or write-off of historic arrears, as part of the closure of the scheme. This was a one-off exercise, applying only to CSA debt.

Writing off is not a quick or easy decision and involves exhausting other approaches to deal with the debt. Where receiving parents wanted the CMS to attempt to collect the CSA debt, the CMS made one last attempt to collect CSA arrears where this was cost effective and had a possibility of success. Both parents were able to make representations during the process and paying parents were given an opportunity to provide evidence to dispute the value of the outstanding debt. No payments of compensation are issued by the CMS where write off decisions are made.   The CMS’ priority is to collect money owed to children who will benefit today, thereby preventing the build-up of arrears on the CMS.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

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Saqib Bhatti:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason the Child Maintenance Service deems receipt of Child Benefit to be sufficient evidence that a child is still in full-time education. \p Andrew Western: To qualify for maintenance payments, a child must meet the Child Maintenance Service's criteria. They must be under 20 years of age and in full time, non-advanced education, or approved training, and eligible for Child Benefit. They must also be habitually resident in the UK and usually living in the same household as the receiving parent. Child maintenance defines a child the same way as Child Benefit does, to offer consistency across rules.

Child maintenance payments usually stop when the child reaches 16, or 20 if they are in full-time education up to A-level or equivalent. Child maintenance will also stop when the child stops being eligible for Child Benefit. Child Benefit may stay in payment for a period after a child under 20 ceases education or training until a terminal date is reached. Child Benefit will remain payable from the date education or training ceased, up to and including the week that includes the first terminal date, as will child maintenance payments.

Child Maintenance Service make automated monthly requests to His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) asking for all children aged 16 to 19 who are included in its caseload, to establish whether Child Benefit is still in payment.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

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Anna Gelderd:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of welfare changes on the mental health of claimants in (a) South East Cornwall constituency, (b) rural areas and (c) coastal areas. \p Sir Stephen Timms: No assessment has been made.

A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

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Sarah Green:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the light-touch review process for PIP claimants with ongoing awards will be included in future reviews of PIP reassessment. \p Sir Stephen Timms: In the Pathways to Work Green Paper we announced plans to launch a review of the PIP assessment, which I shall lead. To make sure we get this right, we will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this and to start the process as part of preparing for a review. We will provide further details about the scope of the review as plans progress.

In the meantime, we also set out in the Green Paper that we are exploring ways to improve our communication with people receiving ongoing awards in PIP who are expected to remain on disability benefits for life. We are considering improvements to the information we provide when we write to people about an ongoing award decision, what support is offered to people receiving ongoing awards between ‘light touch’ reviews​ and looking at the length of time between ‘light touch’ reviews.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

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Mary Glindon:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of using the Universal Credit system to automatically register eligible households for (a) free school meals and (b) the NHS Healthy Start scheme. \p Sir Stephen Timms: No such assessment has been made. The Universal Credit system permits Department of Health and Social Care to check a citizen’s entitlement to Healthy Start vouchers, and Department for Education to check eligibility for Free School Meals.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

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Kate Osborne:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 24 March 2025 to Question 38671 on Means-tested Benefits: Veterans, whether her Department has considered requiring local authorities to disregard payments from the (a) Armed Forces Compensation Scheme, (b) Service Invalidity Pension, (c) Service Attributable Pension and (d) War Pension when assessing entitlement to (i) Housing Benefit, (ii) Council Tax Support, (iii) Discretionary Housing Payments and (iv) Disabled Facilities Grants. \p Sir Stephen Timms: Housing Benefit regulations permit local authorities to disregard beyond the standard disregard of £10 a week the whole or part of any war disablement pensions, war widow’s pensions, war widower’s pensions and guaranteed income payments under the Armed Forces and Reserve Forces Compensation Scheme.

(a) Armed Forces Compensation Scheme £10 disregard with local discretion

(b) Service Invalidity Pension no disregard is applied and it is treated as income

(c) Service Attributable Pension is treated the same as a War Pension so subject to the £10 disregard and local discretion.

(d) War Pension - £10 disregard with local discretion

There are no plans to make changes to the discretionary scheme.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the devolved administrations are responsible for Council Tax Support and Disabled Facilities Grants policy.

Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) can be paid to veterans entitled to Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit who face a shortfall in meeting their housing costs. Local authorities administer the Discretionary Housing Payments scheme as they are best placed to make informed judgements about relative priorities and needs in their area to ensure that the most vulnerable are supported and the funds are targeted effectively. There are no prescribed resources tests; local authorities simply have to be satisfied that the person concerned needs further financial assistance towards housing costs. The payments are entirely at local authority discretion, including the amount and duration of any award.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

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Steve Witherden:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to support employers to employ more (a) people with sight loss and (b) disabled people. \p Alison McGovern: The Department for Work and Pensions and Department for Health and Social Care are committed to supporting disabled people and people with health conditions, including people with sight loss, with their employment journey.

The Disability Confident Scheme encourages employers to create disability inclusive workplaces and to support disabled people to get work and get on in work. A digital information service for employers, (Support with Employee Health and Disability), has been developed to offer guidance on making reasonable adjustments, supporting employees to remain in work, and understanding legal requirements.

Earlier this year, we formed an independent academic panel, building on the Buckland Review, to enhance neurodiversity awareness and inclusion at work. The panel's recommendations are expected to include actions for employers to support neurodivergent individuals in recruitment and daily workplace practices.

In addition to this work, the Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions and Business and Trade have launched the Keep Britain Working Review. This review will consider how to support and enable employers to recruit and retain more disabled people and people with health conditions; promote healthy workplaces and support more people to stay in or return to work from periods of sickness absence.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

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Steve Witherden:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how her Department will determine which claimants will be exempt from the new baseline expectation of engagement or work-related requirements once the Work Capability Assessment is scrapped. \p Sir Stephen Timms: We recognise that some people may not be able to engage with new baseline expectations. We are consulting on how we should determine who should be subject to attend meetings only rather than also have wider conditionality requirements, and how we should determine which individuals or groups of individuals should be exempt from requirements completely.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

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Mary Glindon:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her planned timeline is for the implementation of recorded assessments as standard for Personal Independence Payments. \p Sir Stephen Timms: We announced our intention to record assessments as standard in the Pathways to Work Green Paper as a valuable tool to improve people’s trust in the health assessment process. We are developing our plans to implement this measure and will set out further details in a White Paper later this year.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

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Victoria Collins:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure access to legal aid in Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency. \p Sarah Sackman: The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) is responsible for commissioning legal aid services in England and Wales. The LAA monitors the numbers of providers in each procurement area and across all categories of law. It takes operational action where it can, to respond to market pressures that may arise and works closely with the Ministry of Justice on policy solutions concerning the supply of legal aid.

The LAA is satisfied that there is adequate access to legal aid services in Harpenden and Berkhamsted across all categories of legal aid. Provision includes local services such as duty solicitor schemes and national services such as early legal advice under the Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service and advice relating to housing, debt, education and discrimination via the Civil Legal Advice telephone service.

Information about the number of legal aid providers contracted to provide services are published as part of the LAA’s statistics [see tables 9.1-9.9]. These statistics are used by the LAA as management information to monitor the supply of legal aid services over time, in different areas of law and different regions of England and Wales.

For civil contracts, the LAA secures supply across designated larger geographic areas known as procurement areas, as opposed to local authority or constituency areas. The Midlands and East of England, Eastern, and South Herefordshire procurement areas encompass Harpenden and Berkhamsted. All exceed the minimum number of providers with legal aid contracts.

The commissioning of criminal legal aid contracts is undertaken at a national level. However, the LAA takes steps to ensure there is adequate coverage on each of its local duty solicitor schemes. Provision under the local duty solicitor schemes is demand-led and so there may be variations in numbers across each local rota.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

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Munira Wilson:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Answer of 10 May 2024 to Question 24357 on Prisons: Fires, how many ignition-free safer vape pens have been introduced in each prison. \p Sir Nicholas Dakin: The Safer Vape Pen Initiative is designed to prevent use of these pens as an ignition source. In addition, the safer pen incorporates features that limit its scope to be used as a delivery mechanism for illicit substances. Pathfinder trials, involving 1,138 prisoners, have commenced at HMP Swaleside and HMP The Mount. Five additional prisons – HMP Belmarsh, HMP East Sutton Park, HMP Five Wells, HMP Swansea, and HMP Wormwood Scrubs – are scheduled to join the trials in June 2025.
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Ben Obese-Jecty:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison places are required to end early prisoner release schemes. \p Sir Nicholas Dakin: In July 2024, the Lord Chancellor announced a change to the automatic release point for those serving eligible Standard Determinate Sentences (SDS) from 50% to 40%. SDS40 is a necessary measure to avoid prison capacity pressures causing gridlock in the Criminal Justice System.

Whilst the SDS change provided the intended medium-term relief to the system, this is not intended to be a long-term solution. To ensure we are never in a position where we run out of prison places again, the Lord Chancellor announced the Independent Review into Sentencing, alongside a series of prison capacity measures. This included reforming our recall practices to target the unsustainable growth in the recall population since the pandemic and an extension of the maximum period offenders can spend on Home Detention Curfew from 6 to12 months.

We also recently published our 10-year capacity strategy which sets out our ambition to build 14,000 prison places by 2031. This includes our new prison of nearly 1,500 prison places at HMP Millsike, which received its first prisoners this week.

The Independent Sentencing Review published its Part 1 report on 18 February. The Review’s final report is expected to be published in the spring of this year and will set out the immediate and longer-term recommendations for reform.

As the Lord Chancellor has previously announced, the SDS40 policy will be reviewed after 18 months.
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Lee Anderson:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much her Department has spent on keeping foreign nationals imprisoned in prisons in each of the last five years. \p Sir Nicholas Dakin: We do not disaggregate prison run costs by nationality and the cost to hold individuals depends on category of prisons. Our unit costs for holding prisoners are published on GOV.UK alongside the HM Prison and Probation Service Annual Reports and Accounts. Data on the number of Foreign National Offenders in custody is published in Offender Management Statistics quarterly on GOV.UK.

Foreign nationals who commit crime should be in no doubt that the law will be enforced. The Ministry of Justice will work with the Home Office to pursue their deportation. Between 5 July 2024 and 22 March 2025, 3,594 FNOs have been returned – 16% more than the 3,101 in the same period 12 months prior, under the previous government.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

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Dr Caroline Johnson:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many biological men are in female prisons. \p Sir Nicholas Dakin: As per the latest published data on the placement of transgender prisoners (which covers transgender prisoners without gender recognition certificates, and is taken from a snapshot of the prison population on 31 March 2024), there were 2 or fewer transgender women housed within the women’s estate.

This government inherited the policy regarding allocation of transgender prisoners from the previous government, and have not moved any transgender women into the women’s estate since taking office.

Following the Supreme Court ruling in the For Women Scotland case, the Lord Chancellor has commissioned a review of transgender prisoner allocation policy.
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Dr Caroline Johnson:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the rights of biological women are protected in female prisons. \p Sir Nicholas Dakin: We have a range of policies in place to ensure that the rights of female prisoners are protected.

With regard to transgender prisoners, the Supreme Court ruling brings clarity and confidence for women and service providers.

We inherited the current policy regarding allocation of transgender prisoners from the previous Government, and have not moved any transgender women into the women’s estate since taking office.

Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, we will be reviewing the transgender prisoner allocation policy we inherited, as well as staff searching policy.
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Damian Hinds:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 9 April 2025 to Question 43038 on Prisons: Overcrowding, how many and what proportion of the Operation Safeguard police cells made available overnight were used. \p Sir Nicholas Dakin: Operation Safeguard is an important contingency measure used to ensure that the current demand on prison places does not cause undue disruption to Criminal Justice System partners. The first places were activated by the previous Government in February 2023.

Between 20 February 2023 – 4 July 2024, 86,561 Operation Safeguard police cells were made available overnight. Over the same period, there were 2,564 overnight uses of Safeguard.
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Seamus Logan:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she plans to implement the recommendations of the report by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights entitled Concluding observations on the seventh periodic report of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, published on 3 March 2025. \p Alex Davies-Jones: The Government is fully committed to human rights and to upholding the rule of law. We take our international obligations seriously and valued the opportunity for a dialogue with UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Relevant departments are currently considering the Committee’s concluding observations in detail. The Government will give written responses to three priority areas that the Committee has identified for specific follow-up by 2027.

The Government will respond to the rest of the recommendations before the UK’s next reporting cycle starts in 2030.
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Ben Obese-Jecty:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) phones, (b) laptops and (c) other electronic devices have been lost by their Department since 5 July 2024. \p Alex Davies-Jones: The figures for the number of phones, laptops and other electronic devices lost by the Department since 5 July 2024 are as follows:

Laptops

Phones

Other Hardware

515

322

153

Lost devices constitute to devices that are misplaced and cannot be found by the user.
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Neil O'Brien:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 7 March 2024 to Question 17002, how many staff in her Department, excluding its public bodies, have job titles that include the words (a) equality, (b) diversity, (c) inclusion, (d) gender, (e) LGBT and (f) race. \p Alex Davies-Jones: This information is not held centrally.
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John Milne:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of amending the filtering criteria for DBS checks to automatically exclude sentences of 12 months or under on levels of employment of people with criminal records. \p Sir Nicholas Dakin: The criminal records regime seeks to strike a balance between providing employers with the information they need to make safer recruitment decisions and enabling ex-offenders to rebuild their lives.

We are carefully reviewing the evidence in this area before we consider whether adjustments to the regime are necessary or desirable.

In the meantime, we are working hard to support employment of prison leavers. In January, we launched regional Employment Councils, which for the first time bring businesses together with prisons, probation and the Department for Work and Pensions to support offenders into jobs.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

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Gareth Snell:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Nightingale Courts were (a) partially and (b) fully closed between 1 May 2020 and 1 July 2024, by region. \p Sarah Sackman: The table below shows the number of Nightingale Courts that were permanently closed between 1 May 2020 and 1 July 2024, broken down by region. The data is limited to Nightingale Courts that have closed and does not include instances of jury trial rooms enabled by small venue hire or rooms enabled via Portacabins.

Region

Nightingale Courts closed

London

3

Midlands

5

North East

5

North West

9

South East

4

South West

3

Wales

0

There are multiple situations that can require a court to be closed to the public for a temporary period of time. Reasons include, but are not limited to, severe weather disruption, building issues and disrepair, loss of utilities, and in response to security concerns.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service does not hold central data covering all temporary closures.
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Gareth Snell:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Tribunals were (a) partially and (b) fully closed between 1 May 2010 and 1 July 2024, by region. \p Sarah Sackman: The table below shows the number of Tribunals that were permanently closed between 1 May 2010 and 1 July 2024, broken down by region. The figures do not include integrations, where workload remained in the local area by transferring to a building in close proximity, or courts that are temporarily closed. Some buildings are also multi-jurisdictional, so may also be included in data provided for different jurisdictions in answer to other parliamentary questions.

Region

Tribunals closed

London

3

Midlands

0

North East

5

North West

0

South East

0

South West

0

Wales

0

There are multiple situations that can require a court to be closed to the public for a temporary period of time. Reasons include, but are not limited to, severe weather disruption, building issues and disrepair, loss of utilities, and in response to security concerns.

In order to help reduce the risk of building failures, we have announced a boost in court maintenance and capital project funding from £120 million last year, to up to £148.5m for 2025/26.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service does not hold central data covering all temporary closures.
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Gareth Snell:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Youth Courts were (a) partially and (b) fully closed between 1 May 2010 and 1 July 2024, by region. \p Sarah Sackman: The table below shows the number of dedicated Youth Courts that were permanently closed between 1 May 2010 and 1 July 2024, broken down by region. Youth Courts are normally sat by magistrates and are routinely located in magistrates’ courts. The figures do not include integrations, where workload remained in the local area by transferring to a building in close proximity, or courts that are temporarily closed. Some buildings are also multi-jurisdictional, so may also be included in data provided for different jurisdictions in answer to other parliamentary questions.

Region

Youth Courts closed

London

1

Midlands

1

North East

0

North West

0

South East

0

South West

0

Wales

0

There are multiple situations that can require a court to be closed to the public for a temporary period of time. Reasons include, but are not limited to, severe weather disruption, building issues and disrepair, loss of utilities, and in response to security concerns.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service does not hold central data covering all temporary closures.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-04-29 conversation_548

Gareth Snell:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many County Courts were (a) partially and (b) fully closed between 1 May 2010 and 1 July 2024, by region. \p Sarah Sackman: The table below shows the number of County Courts that were permanently closed between 1 May 2010 and 1 July 2024, broken down by region. The figures do not include integrations, where workload remained in the local area by transferring to a building in close proximity, or courts that are temporarily closed. Some buildings are also multi-jurisdictional, so may also be included in data provided for other jurisdictions in answer to other parliamentary questions.

Region

County Courts closed

London

5

Midlands

20

North East

12

North West

15

South East

16

South West

4

Wales

4

There are multiple situations that can require a court to be closed to the public for a temporary period of time. Reasons include, but are not limited to, severe weather disruption, building issues and disrepair, loss of utilities, and in response to security concerns.

In order to help reduce the risk of building failures, we have announced a boost in court maintenance and capital project funding from £120 million last year, to up to £148.5m for 2025/26.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service does not hold central data covering all temporary closures.
wrans/answers2025-04-29 conversation_549
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-04-29 conversation_549

Sarah Champion:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what training is available for family court judges on child sexual abuse. \p Sarah Sackman: The Lady Chief Justice has statutory responsibility for the training of the courts judiciary in England and Wales, which is exercised through the Judicial College. The judiciary and professional staff in the College are responsible for the design, content and delivery of judicial training.

All judicial office holders receive induction training on appointment and before sitting in a new jurisdiction and complete regular continuation training thereafter. Training on child sexual abuse is integral to judicial training in public and private family law, including dealing with allegations of child sexual abuse and how best to receive evidence from children and young people in a way which seeks to minimise distress whilst protecting the integrity of the court process.

Family magistrates and their legal advisers also complete training in child sexual abuse and other forms of domestic abuse.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-04-29 conversation_550

Andrew Rosindell:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will consider a mutual recognition of judgements agreement with San Marino. \p Alex Davies-Jones: Foreign judgments (including those from San Marino) can be enforced in the courts of England and Wales at common law by bringing a fresh action, subject to certain limited grounds of refusal.

The Government has no current plans to pursue a bilateral agreement with San Marino to further facilitate the recognition of judgments. However, the Government welcomes international cooperation in this area of law, for the benefit of UK businesses and citizens who live, work and trade across borders.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-04-29 conversation_551

Ms Stella Creasy:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 23 July 2024 to Question 612 on Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, and the Answer of 4th November 2024 to Question 11600 on Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, when section 31 of the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 will come into force. \p Alex Davies-Jones: As part of implementation considerations, we have included a provision in the Data (Use and Access) Bill to ensure that section 31 extends UK-wide, given the nature of the UK’s data protection framework. This Bill has finished Commons committee stage and will be entering report stage. Subject to passage of the Bill, we will update on implementation in due course.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-04-29 conversation_552

Ayoub Khan:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion staff in (a) prisons and (b) probation services have undertaken suicide prevention training. \p Sir Nicholas Dakin: I refer the honourable Member to the answer I gave on 10 April 2025 to Question 44186.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-04-29 conversation_553

Claire Young:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to support (a) prison officers and (b) probation service staff. \p Sir Nicholas Dakin: The Government is committed to making sure that all prison and probation staff have a safe place in which to work, the time and capacity to do their job well, and the right support, training and equipment to help them.

It is important that we have enough people to enable this vital work to be undertaken effectively. We are committed to recruiting and training the prison and probation staff we need, particularly in areas with the most significant staffing challenges, and we are constantly monitoring staffing levels and retention. We have implemented measures to attract and retain staff, including pay increases, extra funding for probation staff, and mentorship programmes. We are also working to improve staff safety and to address wellbeing concerns arising from the pressurised nature of the work. In addition, we are actively seeking ways in which technological innovation can ease the burden on our hard-working staff.

Prison and probation staff play a vital role in protecting the public and reducing re-offending. To help them to cope with the challenges this work involves, we provide extensive mental health support, including a 24-hour helpline, confidential counselling, and online wellbeing services. A new wellbeing support model has been established across HM Prison & Probation Service, with staff support and wellbeing champions for both prison and probation.
wrans/answers2025-04-29 conversation_554
Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-04-29 conversation_554

Ben Obese-Jecty:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many religious conversions of prisoners have taken place in 2024-25; and to which religions. \p Sir Nicholas Dakin: While we collate details of religious affiliation recorded when prisoners enter custody, in order to establish the number of conversions, we would need to undertake a search of individual records, and this could not be done without incurring disproportionate cost.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-04-29 conversation_555

Rupert Lowe:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of immigration-related litigation on the capacity of the (a) family and (b) criminal courts. \p Sarah Sackman: The Lord Chancellor regularly reviews the discharge of her statutory obligations to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of the system to support the carrying on of business in both the criminal courts and the family courts. This includes ongoing assessments on the sufficiency of court capacity, including funded sitting days, to meet incoming demand.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-04-29 conversation_556

Sarah Edwards:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing guidance on the sentencing of freight crime. \p Sir Nicholas Dakin: This Government is highly aware of the rising frequency of freight crime and the significant and damaging impact it can have on businesses and drivers. We are determined to crack down on it.

We are committed to tackling crime and restoring public confidence in policing through our Safer Streets Mission and Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, which will deliver thousands of officers across England and Wales. We are continuing to work closely with the police, wider automative industry and the National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS) to strengthen our response to vehicle crime. We are also continuing to work closely with Opal, the police’s national intelligence unit focused on serious organised acquisitive crime, including freight crime. The Department for Transport (DfT) hosts the Freight Council, which discusses crime against freight companies, and the Home Office works closely with DfT to engage with the sector on this issue through the Freight Council.

With regards to guidelines, guidelines for sentencing are developed and reviewed by the Sentencing Council for England and Wales, in fulfilment of its statutory duty to do so. The guidelines produced provide the Court with guidance on factors that should be considered, which may affect the sentence given. They set out different levels of sentence based on the harm caused and how culpable the offender is.

It is open to individuals to approach the Council to ask that they review their guidelines. As an independent body, it is at the Council’s discretion whether to review particular guidelines, in line with its published criteria for developing or revising guidelines. This is available on its website at: https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/sentencing-and-the-council/about-the-sentencing-council/our-criteria-for-developing-or-revising-guidelines/.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-04-29 conversation_557

Mr Richard Holden:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the cost to the public purse was of the reception held for trade unions and other stakeholders in her Department on 11 July 2024; what (a) food and (b) alcohol was provided; and who attended. \p Janet Daby: This event was held to enable my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education to outline the new government’s priorities for education and social care to a wide range of delivery partners and stakeholders. This acknowledges the key role played by stakeholders across education, business and civil society in working with government to break the link between a child’s background and their future success.

269 stakeholders were invited to this event representing all areas of the department’s work, including businesses, school staff, charities and education experts.

The event was modest in style and format for an event of this size. Delivered in the department using existing suppliers, the total cost of the event was £7,625. This included event production costs and catering. A standard low-cost catering option was provided, including light refreshments, wine, orange juice and water.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-29)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-04-29 conversation_558

Martin Wrigley:To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to introduce a £30 cap on school uniform items. \p Catherine McKinnell: Too many families still tell us that the cost of school uniform remains a financial burden. ​This is why the department has introduced legislation to limit the number of branded items of uniform and PE kit that schools can require to bring down costs for parents and remove barriers from children accessing sport and other school activities.

The department has no plans to introduce a £30 cap on school uniform items. For schools this would mean having to review uniform policies regularly to ensure the uniform items were still within the cost cap and so lead to more frequent uniform changes. For parents this could increase the overall number of items they have to buy whilst their child is at school, limit the ability to pass items down to siblings or to buy second hand uniform, and reduce choice by increasing reliance on specific suppliers.

The department wants to ensure that any action we take to reduce the cost of uniform provides schools and parents with clarity and offers parents choice in how to manage the cost of school uniform. Ensuring parents can buy more items from a range of retailers gives them that flexibility.