theodi/ndl-core-corpus huggingface dataset:
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Chris Bloore:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what support is being provided by (a) the Legal Aid Agency and (b) her Department to people whose data was compromised in the April 2025 cyber-attack; and whether those affected have been offered access to (i) credit monitoring, (ii) identity protection services and (iii) any other assistance. \p Sarah Sackman: To ensure we reached as many potentially impacted individuals as possible, the Ministry of Justice published a notice as swiftly as possible at 08:15 on 19 May on GOV.UK.

The statement provides information about the cyber-attack and directs concerned members of the public to the National Cyber Security Centre’s webpage, which contains information on how to protect against the impacts of a data breach. If it is identified that a specific individual is at risk, action will be taken to try to contact them.

The published statement referred to above sets out information about who may have been impacted and the categories of data exfiltrated. It remains the case that there is no evidence to suggest that any of the data accessed has been published.

The recent data breach is the result of serious criminal activity, but it was enabled by the fragility of the LAA’s IT systems as a result of long term underinvestment under the last Conservative Government. By contrast, since taking power this Government has prioritised work to reverse the damage of over a decade of under-investment. That includes the allocation of over £20 million in extra funding this year to stabilise and transform the Legal Aid Agency digital services. This investment will make the system more robust and resilient in the face of similar cyber-attacks in future.

The Legal Aid Agency is complying with all legal and regulatory requirements arising from the cyber-attack. The current priority is the restoration of services and the prevention of future attacks. Once we can be assured that our legal aid services are operating properly and handling people’s data in a safe way, there will need to be a stocktake and an effort to learn lessons.

It is too early to comment on what remedial actions, if any, may be appropriate for impacted individuals, whether clients or providers.
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Sarah Coombes:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of drivers who have repeatedly committed driving offences have received a lifetime driving ban. \p Sarah Sackman: Data on convictions and lifetime bans for driving offences is published as part of Ministry of Justice data obtained in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, which can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics. The data can be filtered on the offence and the period of driving disqualification using the sentencing outcomes tab.

The Ministry of Justice does not centrally hold information on numbers of offenders who have repeatedly committed driving offences and received a lifetime ban.
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Alex Mayer:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prosecutions for assault on public-facing workers under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 have involved roadworkers; and what assessment she has made of the impact of that provision on sentencing and deterrence. \p Sarah Sackman: The Ministry of Justice does not hold data on the number of prosecutions under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 (“the Act”) that specifically involve roadworkers. This is because offence data collected centrally does not routinely record the victim’s occupation in sufficient detail to identify roadworkers as a distinct category.

The law provides protections for public-facing workers through this legislation, by creating a statutory aggravating factor, which courts have a duty to consider. This requires courts to treat assaults against such workers as aggravated in sentencing decisions, ensuring that the seriousness of these offences is adequately reflected in sentencing outcomes.
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Ben Obese-Jecty:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent progress she has made on the electronic monitoring expansion programme. \p Alex Davies-Jones: The Electronic Monitoring Expansion programme was set up to expand the impact, use and efficiency of electronic monitoring (EM) as a tool for managing offenders in the community. All expansion initiatives to deliver new EM-related services have been delivered. The remaining project, to successfully transition delivery of the service to new suppliers (Serco and Allied Universal), is nearing completion with the majority of cases now transitioned to the new systems. Migration of the remaining cohort is underway and expected to complete in Autumn 2025.

The EM expansion programme has funded evaluations into electronic monitoring and its pilots and has since published 6 research reports. An impact evaluation of the acquisitive crime pilot was published on 28 August 2025, and demonstrated offenders electronically monitored as part of the pilot were 20% less likely to reoffend within 12 months of release from prison. An impact evaluation of Radio Frequency EM as part of a community order found that adult offenders were significantly less likely to be reconvicted of another offence whilst being electronically monitored.
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Bobby Dean:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to help reduce (a) delays and (b) service disruptions for Probation Workers caused by (i) staffing levels and (ii) office closures. \p Alex Davies-Jones: Staffing levels are regularly monitored and analysed, and we remain committed to providing manageable workloads for staff, as well as ensuring continuity of service. Recruitment and retention, along with our long-term plans for a sustainable Probation Service through targeting the most vital work are priorities.

There is a comprehensive approach by HMPPS to improve retention across the Probation Service and since unification in June 2021 there has been an overall increase to probation staffing by 20%. In the last 12 months, from 30 June 2024 to 30 June 2025 we have increased our number of Probation Officers by 7% (359 FTE) from 5,160 to 5,519 FTE.

We are investing in probation - onboarding 1,300 trainee probation officers by March 2026 in addition to the 1,057 already on-boarded last year. We have extended centralised recruitment campaigns for key grades to reduce the time it takes to fill operational roles.

This Government is investing up to £300 million in prison & probation maintenance for 2025-26, to keep the estate safe and secure. This is an increase in spending on 2024-25, which will support essential repairs, ongoing maintenance, and efforts to minimise future closures.
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Bobby Dean:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to (a) prevent experienced probation officers leaving the service and (b) ensure the sustainability of that service. \p Alex Davies-Jones: There is a comprehensive approach by HMPPS to improve recruitment and retention across the Probation Service and since unification in June 2021 there has been an overall increase to probation staffing by 20%. In the last 12 months, from 30 June 2024 to 30 June 2025 we have increased our number of Probation Officers by 7% (359 FTE) from 5,160 to 5,519 FTE.

Leaving rates to June 2025 can be found in table 11 of our published statistics. The Probation Officer leaving rate of 6.3% (taken from T11) in the year to the end of June 2025 was 1.7 percentage points lower than it was in the year to the end of March 2024. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/689f34791fedc616bb133a86/hmpps-workforce-statistics-tables-jun-2025_final.ods.

Since the launch of the HMPPS retention strategy, toolkit and exit interview process in 2021, a new retention oversight process (retention deep dives) was piloted in August 2022 and launched in Probation in April 2023 to target those Probation Delivery Units with the highest attrition. We are also currently working with Trade Unions to secure the best outcome in terms of the pay award for Probation.

We continue to invest in probation, and plan to onboard 1,300 trainee probation officers by March 2026 in addition to the 1,057 already on-boarded last year.

We are committed to ensuring that workloads for probation staff are sustainable and ensure protection of the public. That is why we have commissioned the Our Future Probation Service Programme to deploy new technologies, reform processes, and ensure prioritisation of probation staff time.
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Ben Obese-Jecty:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many of the 14,000 additional prison places will be delivered through the Rapid Deployment Cells project. \p Alex Davies-Jones: As outlined in the December 2024 10-Year Prison Capacity Strategy, this Government is committed to delivering an additional 14,000 prison places through the 20,000 prison places programmes.

The Rapid Deployment Cells Programme is a key part of our strategy to increase prison capacity and reduce pressure on the existing prison estate. Based on current plans, the programme will deliver approximately 1,800 places. As of September 2025, the project has installed 828 Rapid Deployment Cells across 16 sites.
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Nigel Huddleston:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to improve access to legal aid. \p Sarah Sackman: This Government is delivering significant fee uplifts to legal aid, with the first civil fee increases in almost 30 years and up to £92 million extra each year for criminal legal aid. This will support a more stable and sustainable legal aid sector, helping to ensure effective access to justice for some of the most vulnerable in our society.

In December 2024, we announced that criminal legal aid solicitors will receive up to £92 million more a year, to help support the sustainability of the criminal legal aid sector including prison law. Prior to that, in November 2024, we announced our response to the Crime Lower consultation, confirming an uplift to the lowest police station fees, introducing a new Youth Court fee scheme, and paying for travel in certain circumstances. Together, these changes amounted to a £24 million investment for criminal legal aid providers.

In civil legal aid, we recently published ‘Civil Legal Aid: Towards a sustainable future’ confirming that we will increasing fees for all housing & debt, and immigration & asylum legal aid work. This is a significant investment of £20 million a year. Providers will see significant increases in all fees, with the overall spending in these categories increasing by 24% for housing work and 30% for immigration work.
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Bobby Dean:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to ensure the safety of probation staff working with high-risk offenders. \p Alex Davies-Jones: The safety, health and wellbeing of all probation staff is vitally important to us.

Across the Probation Service, generic risk assessments and Safe Working Practice documents are in place. These documents outline foreseeable risks and detail the control measures implemented to mitigate those risks as far as is reasonably practicable. The Policy Instruction 12/2015 – Arrangements for the Management of Violence and Aggression – remains in effect, supported by the ‘Managing Violence and Aggression’ training.

Personal safety devices are in place across the business, and we are currently rolling out upgraded Personal Safety Devices (PeopleSafe) across regions. These enhanced devices incorporate improved functionality and reliability, informed by user feedback and operational insights gained from the previous models which are currently in place.

We are currently undertaking a site-by-site review of physical security across the Probation Service to identify any gaps in security and will press ahead to ensure all sites meet the required standard for facilitating high-risk supervision. A range of safety measures will be looked at, including closed circuit television, alarm systems, intercoms and reception screening.

Additionally, the Home Visits Policy Framework forms part of the arrangements to help minimise risks to staff undertaking home visits in accordance with the Probation Service’s duty to ensure the safety of its employees so far as reasonably practicable. All those who undertake a home visit must conduct a pre visit risk assessment, which must be authorised by the line manager prior to the visit. The Framework can be accessed by the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-visits-policy-framework.
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Mike Martin:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of pay for workers in the Probation Service. \p Alex Davies-Jones: We are committed to supporting probation officers and value their hard work, commitment and dedication. As part of our approach to annual award proposals we will review our pay position and priorities for the award to get the best outcome for staff. As part of this process, we consider several factors including cost of living, business priorities and our competitive pay position with comparable workforces. Our pay proposals need to strike the difficult balance between affordability and providing investment to address our pay priorities and support attraction and retention.

In recent years we have made investments to pay through a multi-year pay deal (MYPD) covering the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2025. This provided certainty in pay increases throughout the period and secured necessary reforms to the pay structure to help address some longstanding pay issues.

We are currently engaging with the recognised Probation Service Trade Unions working to agree the best possible outcome for this year’s pay award in line with our priorities and the parameters of the civil service pay guidance.
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Mohammad Yasin:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will take steps to help ensure that transgender people giving evidence in court proceedings can access facilities without being required to disclose their gender identity. \p Sarah Sackman: HM Courts & Tribunals Service is waiting for the Equality and Human Rights Commission to publish their updated statutory Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations to support service providers. This follows the UK Supreme Court Ruling on definition of ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010.
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Mohammad Yasin:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to protect the (a) safety, (b) dignity and (c) privacy of transgender people participating in the criminal justice process. \p Sarah Sackman: Agencies across the criminal justice system are governed by the provisions of the Equality Act (2010), so must ensure that transgender people’s rights under the Act are protected. The Victims’ Code (2020) sets out the minimum level of service that all victims of crime should receive from criminal justice agencies, including the right to be treated with respect, dignity, sensitivity, compassion and courtesy and to have their privacy respected in accordance with the relevant privacy and data protection laws. This sits alongside a robust risk assessment framework to ensure the safety and security of all remanded defendants and prisoners.
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Matt Vickers:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment she has made of trends in the level of court backlogs in the North East. \p Sarah Sackman: For criminal courts, despite a brief fall at the end of 2024, the open caseload at the Crown court in the North East has steadily increased since 2022, with 10,678 open cases at the end of March 2025.

For this financial year (25/26), this Government is funding a record allocation of Crown Court sitting days to deliver swifter justice for victims – 110,000 sitting days next year, 4,000 higher than the last Government funded.

As a result of increased Government funding, the North East circuit will sit an extra 1,500 days in FY25/26, taking the total to around 15,000 days. The additional sitting time will be focused on reducing the time taken for a Crown Court trial to be heard.

As of March 2025, the Magistrates’ Court criminal workload across the North East stands at 46,444 cases. This represents an increase of 6,206 (15%) compared to March 2024. As with the Crown Court, the Magistrates’ Court across the North East have seen receipts exceed disposals.

For family courts, in public law the open caseload has reduced from 1,846 to 1,742 from May 2024 to May 2025, and in private law from 4,418 to 3,858 from May 2024 to May 2025. This means that we are delivering swifter justice and resolution for families and children.
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Lewis Cocking:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department has made an assessment of the effectiveness of the deterrent effect of immediate deportation for foreign nationals convicted of criminal offences. \p Alex Davies-Jones: The removal of Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) is a priority of this Government, which is why we are introducing new measures to enable the earlier removal of determinate sentenced FNOs as soon after sentencing as possible.

Deportation is a significant punishment and it is beneficial for us to deport FNOs as quickly as possible to protect the public, reduce pressures on prison capacity and mitigate the associated expense to the taxpayer. Once removed they will be barred from ever returning.
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Mohammad Yasin:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what guidance has been provided to court staff on the treatment of (a) trans and (b) non-binary people, following the update to the Equal Treatment Bench Book. \p Sarah Sackman: No guidance has been provided to court staff on the treatment of (a) trans and (b) non-binary people, following the update to the Equal Treatment Bench Book. HMCTS is waiting for the Equality and Human Rights Commission to publish their updated statutory Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations to support service providers. This follows the UK Supreme Court Ruling on definition of ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010.
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Ben Obese-Jecty:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what stab vests are issued to prison officers. \p Alex Davies-Jones: Protective body armour (PBA) is currently issued in the following circumstances:

Operational Response and Resilience Unit staff wear PBA when deployed. Where necessary, ballistic protection may be required.

Operation Tornado mobilised staff are issued PBA as part of their PPE.

Prison Officers are required to wear PBA during planned use of force or when managing high-risk prisoners.

Following a violent attack at HMP Frankland in April 2025, the Ministry of Justice conducted a snap review. As a result, rollout of PBA was announced for officers working in:

Close Supervision Centres

Separation Centres

Segregation Units within the high-security estate

The rollout is ongoing and includes individual fitting to ensure maximum protection.

All body armour conforms to the Home Office 2017 standards and all versions have knife and spike resistant protection.
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Bell Ribeiro-Addy:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how Allied Universal (G4S) performed against the key performance indicators at the most recent performance review on their electronic monitoring contact. \p Alex Davies-Jones: AUEM performance against the two contracts they deliver for Electronic Monitoring is published quarterly. The most recent reported performance can be found here: Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for government’s most important contracts - GOV.UK.
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Bell Ribeiro-Addy:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether departments have raised concerns about Allied Universal (G4S) compliance with contractual obligations relating to the (a) timeliness and (b) accuracy of electronic monitoring installations. \p Alex Davies-Jones: No concerns about Allied Universal’s performance against Electronic Monitoring contractual obligations about timeliness and accuracy of installation have been escalated from the Ministry of Justice to the Cabinet Office. Nor have the Cabinet Office raised any escalations from other Departments with the Ministry of Justice.
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Bobby Dean:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of probate office closures on application processing times. \p Alex Davies-Jones: The Ministry of Justice publishes average waiting times for processing grants of probate here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-court-statistics-quarterly.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) currently advises applicants to expect probate applications to be processed within the target time of 12 weeks, although this could take longer if a user needs to provide additional information. Currently, the average waiting time is under 5 weeks.

There are 1.2 FTE Registrars and 2 FTE Deputy Registrars currently in post. There are no vacancies, and capacity is sufficient to meet the requirement for these roles.

One of the main lessons learned following the Reform of the probate service in 2019 was that the centralisation of administrative work alongside the digitisation of the service led to the loss of experienced staff and a training gap for the staff in the Courts and Tribunals Service Centres. These issues have since been overcome and average processing times continue to improve.
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Sir Ashley Fox:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of staff in her Department did not meet the minimum office attendance target in the latest period for which data is available; and what sanctions her Department issues to staff who do not meet this target. \p Alex Davies-Jones: The Ministry of Justice has over 90,000 staff with the majority having operational roles delivering vital frontline services, including in our prisons, courts and probation services.

On 24 October 2024 the Cabinet Office announced that 60% minimum office attendance for most staff continues to be the best balance of working for the Civil Service. Senior managers will continue to be expected to be in the office more than 60% of the time.

If people do not meet that reasonable expectation, as with any management instruction it will be dealt with via existing performance management processes and ultimately with disciplinary action should there be sustained failure to comply.

For data on office attendance, the Ministry of Justice data is published at: Civil Service Headquarters occupancy data.
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Richard Foord:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether she plans to sign the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance; and for what reason the UK has not yet signed that Convention. \p Alex Davies-Jones: The Government considers that the current domestic framework and legislation already prevent arbitrary arrests, prohibits torture and degrading treatment, and holds the Security and Intelligence Agencies to account.

We therefore currently have no plans to sign or ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances.

We strongly condemn any instances of enforced disappearance internationally. We urge states to fully investigate any allegations, prosecute those responsible and provide justice to victims.
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Matt Vickers:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions she has had with local authorities on co-locating justice and support services. \p Alex Davies-Jones: There have been no discussions with local authorities on co-locating justice and support services. However, this Government is committed to ensuring victims have access to support and information, and that this is delivered efficiently and effectively at a local level. We intend to commence provisions in the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, which introduces a statutory Duty to Collaborate on relevant authorities, including local authorities, local policing bodies and Integrated Care Boards, to work together when commissioning support services for victims.

The Duty aims to ensure local commissioners gain a better understanding of the needs of victims in their area, create a more strategic approach to commissioning and remove barriers for those seeking to access support. We will be consulting on the guidance on the Duty to Collaborate in due course.
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Carla Denyer:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 8 April 2025 to Question 44154 on Family Proceedings, when she plans to publish her Department's review of the presumption of parental involvement. \p Sarah Sackman: The Government recognises that the review into the presumption of parental involvement is eagerly awaited. It is right that we take the necessary time to consider the findings. The review is now complete and will be published shortly, alongside the accompanying research reports and our next steps.
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Sir Ashley Fox:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department has made an assessment ​of the potential impact of the Renters' Rights Bill on levels of capacity in (a) the civil courts and (b) tribunals. \p Sarah Sackman: The Ministry of Justice (including its executive agency His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service) is working closely with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to assess the potential impact of the Renter’s Rights Bill on the justice system, to ensure that there is sufficient resource in the civil courts and tribunals to respond to demand.
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Sir Ashley Fox:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she has taken to ensure that there is sufficient capacity for tribunals to handle any increased caseload following the Renters' Rights Bill going into force. \p Sarah Sackman: His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service is undertaking a significant programme of work in preparation for an increased caseload in the tribunal following commencement of the Renters’ Right Bill. This includes streamlining case handling processes and establishing a centralised operational hub; ensuring the availability of suitable estates capacity for hearings; delivering critical improvements to the existing technology systems to increase resilience and support increased workloads; and recruitment of additional administrative staff. Plans are also in train to recruit additional judicial office holders.

The Government has concluded that there is a sound case for an alternative body or mechanism to make initial determinations on rent challenge cases in the future. This would relieve some demand from the tribunals. The Government intends to establish such a body or mechanism, subject to completing a full viability assessment. Further details of this will be confirmed in due course.
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Ayoub Khan:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of conducting a review of language professionals’ (a) minimum pay rates, (b) cancellation fees and (c) working conditions on the long-term (i) procurement and (ii) retention of public service interpreters. \p Sarah Sackman: The Ministry of Justice has undertaken a review of interpreter remuneration and conditions as part of the current procurement exercise for the interpreting service. This included a Delivery Model Assessment and extensive market engagement. The House of Lords Public Services Committee (PSC) also conducted an inquiry into the interpreting service in courts and published their subsequent report in March 2025.

The Ministry of Justice has drawn on the valuable learning and insights from these reviews which informed the Department’s response to the House of Lords PSC report. The response, which covers the topics raised in more detail, can be accessed via this link: committees.parliament.uk/publications/48172/documents/252233/default/.
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Lewis Cocking:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the cost to the public purse was of providing legal aid to asylum seekers charged with criminal offences in the UK in the last year. \p Sarah Sackman: Expenditure data for asylum seekers across all legal aid schemes is not held centrally.
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Sir Ashley Fox:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of staff in her Department have flexible working arrangements; and how many of those work compressed hours. \p Alex Davies-Jones: The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
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Mr Angus MacDonald:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions she has had with the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs on the adequacy of the staffing of the Information Commissioner’s Office to deal with complaints. \p Alex Davies-Jones: No discussions have taken place between the former Secretary of State for Justice and the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs regarding the adequacy of the staffing of the Information Commissioner’s Office to deal with complaints.
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Mr Angus MacDonald:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions she has had with the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs on the standardised 21-week wait for the Information Commissioner’s Office complaints department. \p Alex Davies-Jones: No discussions have taken place between the former Secretary of State for Justice and the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs on the standardised 21-week wait for the Information Commissioner’s Office complaints department.
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Lee Anderson:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information they hold on the number of workdays that were completed remotely in their Department in (a) 2024 and (b) 2025 to date. \p Alex Davies-Jones: The Ministry of Justice does not hold data on the number of days completed remotely by staff. The Ministry of Justice has over 90,000 staff with the majority having operational roles delivering vital frontline services, including in our prisons, courts and probation services.
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Gideon Amos:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information her Department holds on the number of tribunal hearings that have been (a) delayed and (b) cancelled due to annual limits on the number of sitting days by fee‑paid judges in (i) total, (ii) the Immigration and Asylum Chamber and (iii) the Social Entitlement Chamber in each of the last five years. \p Sarah Sackman: The Ministry of Justice does not collect data on the number of tribunal hearings that have been delayed or cancelled specifically due to annual limits on the number of sitting days by fee-paid judges. While tribunal performance statistics are published quarterly, they do not disaggregate delays or cancellations by cause.

Any hearing delays or cancellations in the tribunal system, which can occur for a range of reasons, including judicial availability, would not be directly attributable to sitting caps, as these would be applied before sitting days are scheduled.

It is the Chamber President’s responsibility to set expectations around how many days individual fee-paid judges should sit in the tribunal each year. It is a long-standing practice for reasons of fairness and well-being that no fee-paid office holder should exceed the level of business days of a salaried counterpart. Moreover, sitting levels will vary considerably between individual fee-paid judges. Operational decisions regarding judicial deployment, including sitting day allocations, are managed by HM Courts and Tribunals Service in consultation with the judiciary.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-09-08)

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Lewis Cocking:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many asylum seekers have been prosecuted for sexual offences in the last year; and what proportion were housed in government-funded accommodation at the time. \p Sarah Sackman: The Ministry of Justice publishes data on the number of defendants prosecuted for sexual offences. This can be obtained in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, which can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics.

However, data held centrally does not include if a defendant was an asylum seeker or where they were housed.

The removal of Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) is a priority of this Government, to reduce pressures on prison capacity and mitigate the associated expense to the taxpayer. This is why we are introducing new measures to enable the earlier removal of determinate sentenced FNOs as soon after sentencing as possible.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-09-08)

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Nadia Whittome:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of limiting the right to jury trial on civil liberties. \p Sarah Sackman: The right to a fair trial is a well-established common law principle in England and Wales to which this government remains committed. A fair trial can be achieved by alternative modes of trial and currently over 90% of criminal cases are heard in the magistrates’ courts, without a jury.

Jury trials are a cornerstone of our justice system and will remain in place for the most serious cases, however, we must consider bold action to tackle the rising backlog.

Sir Brian Leveson has published the first part of his Independent Review of the Criminal Courts, setting out a number of recommendations on the use of jury trials in the Crown Court.

The right to a fair trial is a well-established common law principle in England and Wales to which this government remains committed. A fair trial can be achieved by alternative modes of trial and currently over 90% of criminal cases are heard in the magistrates’ courts, without a jury.

We are carefully considering Sir Brian’s proposals before setting out the Government’s full response in the autumn.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-09-08)

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Matt Vickers:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of digital hearings on access to justice. \p Sarah Sackman: Remote hearings can, in appropriate cases, improve access to justice by reducing travel requirements, enabling more flexible scheduling and supporting vulnerable users through remote participation. The mode of hearing is a judicial decision ensuring the interests of justice are met. User experience and feedback continue to inform improvements to the remote hearing service.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-09-08)

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Matt Vickers:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to reduce waiting times for family court proceedings. \p Sarah Sackman: Good progress is being made to reduce waiting times in the family court. In public law, average case duration was 33 weeks as at the end of May 2025, which is a four-week reduction since May 2024. In private law, the average case duration in was 38 weeks as at the end of May 2025, which is a reduction of just under four weeks since May 2024.

The Family Justice Board has agreed system-wide targets for 2025/26, with a continued focus on tackling delay and reducing outstanding caseloads. In public law, this includes a system wide focus on the Public Law Outline; and in private law, areas delivering a wider rollout of the Pathfinder model which has made significant progress in addressing delays.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-09-08)

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Matt Vickers:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to expand the availability of restorative justice schemes in England. \p Alex Davies-Jones: This Government supports the use of restorative justice in line with the evidence of its efficacy. We know that restorative justice can improve victim satisfaction and reduce reoffending when delivered in the right circumstances. This not only benefits the victims and the offender but also their community.

This is why, under the Victims’ Code, victims must be told about the option of restorative justice and how to access it. Under a devolved model of commissioning, we also provide Police and Crime Commissioners with grant funding for victim support services, which can include restorative justice services. They are best placed to assess local need and commission services based on the needs of the population in the local area.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-09-08)

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Matt Vickers:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to help reduce the time taken for probate processing. \p Alex Davies-Jones: HM Courts & Tribunals Service have invested in more staff, alongside system and process improvements to reduce and then maintain lower processing times during the last year.

The Ministry of Justice publishes data on probate timeliness here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/family-court-statistics-quarterly.
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Mr Toby Perkins:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will ensure that independent celebrants are included in the Government response to the Law Commission’s report entitled Celebrating Marriage: A New Weddings Law, published on 18 July 2022. \p Alex Davies-Jones: The Law Commission’s 2022 report on weddings made 57 recommendations for reform of weddings law, including how independent celebrants could conduct legally binding weddings. The Government appreciates the importance of this issue and will provide an update in due course.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-09-08)

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Fabian Hamilton:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will amend Section 100 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 to prevent irrelevant previous disclosures being used as bad character evidence in sexual offence trials; and if she will issue guidance to the (a) CPS, (b) police and (c) judiciary on this. \p Alex Davies-Jones: This Government is absolutely committed to improving the experience of victims at court.

The Law Commission has concluded its comprehensive review into the use of evidence in sexual offence prosecutions. This is a helpful report, and an important opportunity to consider how we can make changes to the criminal justice system, so that practitioners and juries do not rely on so-called rape myths and misconceptions when making decisions in court.

The review has made recommendations on the admissibility of evidence related to previous disclosures, as well as the admissibility of other evidence – for example sexual behaviour evidence. We are carefully considering these recommendations and will set out our approach in due course.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-09-08)

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Ben Obese-Jecty:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to page 25 of the National Security Strategy 2025, published on 24 June 2025, if she will take legislative steps to introduce a new offence for (a) acts preparatory to extreme violence and (b) individuals identified as violence fixated. \p Alex Davies-Jones: As mentioned in the National Security Strategy 2025, the Government accepts and strongly supports the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation’s (IRTL) recommendation to consider creating a new offence to capture individuals intending to kill multiple people and planning for such attacks.

As recognised by the IRTL, this is a complex area of law and will require working through difficult legal and ethical issues to avoid unintended consequences. We are considering carefully the best way to close the gap in the legislation.

The Government is also working at pace to understand the causal factors and adequacy of public policy interventions to address the risk posed by individuals fascinated with extreme violence and/or mass casualty attacks, but who do not meet the terrorism threshold.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-09-08)

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Mr Will Forster:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if her Department will consider reviewing the potential merits of listing a specific addiction as the cause of death by suicide on death certificates. \p Alex Davies-Jones: The Government has no plans to change the information which coroners are required to determine with regard to cause of death in cases of suicide.

The information recorded by the coroner in the Record of Inquest is dependent on the circumstances of the individual case and is at the coroner’s discretion as an independent judicial office holder. Any medical conditions mentioned in part 2 of the Record of Inquest must be known or suspected to have contributed to the death, and not simply be other conditions which were present at the time of death.

With regard to the possible contributory factors in a suicide, such as an addiction, it cannot be guaranteed that consistent and comprehensive information on a deceased person’s background will be made available to the coroner in every case. In addition, expecting coroners to routinely assess and record specific underlying conditions would take the coronial role fundamentally beyond its legal parameters, which are to determine who has died, and how, when and where they died.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-09-08)

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Laura Kyrke-Smith:To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to support families of UK citizens murdered overseas. \p Alex Davies-Jones: The Government remains committed to improving the support available to families affected by these tragic events. We recognise the importance of ensuring that bereaved families receive clear, compassionate, and timely information.

The Ministry of Justice is working closely with the Victims’ Commissioner, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, and the National Police Chiefs’ Council to develop guidance aimed at improving the accessibility and clarity of information for families in these circumstances.

Families bereaved by homicide abroad can also access government commissioned support services. This includes the Homicide Service which offers emotional, practical, specialist, advocacy, and peer support to help families build resilience to cope with the impact of these devastating crimes.