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Written question asked by John Hemming (Liberal Democrat) on Friday, 20 February 2015, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 24 February 2015. It was answered by Shailesh Vara (Conservative) on Friday, 27 February 2015 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Contempt of Court

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the letter sent on 2 February 2015 to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Yardley by HM Courts and Tribunals Service's Performance, Analysis and Reporting Team, what the (a) name of the judge, (b) date and (c) period of committal was of each court order issued by (i) Birmingham County Court, (ii) Birmingham High Court and (iii) Birmingham Family Court for contempt of court since November 2014.

Answer

In order to answer 223311 Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) would have to manually check every court log from 1 May 2013 to the present at Birmingham County Court, Birmingham Family Court and the High Court at Birmingham. Birmingham County Court and Birmingham Family Court between them heard in excess of 24,000 cases, each of which would have to be manually checked for any hearings for contempt of court.

HMCTS have been able to check records of cases heard since November 2014, and identified those where committal orders were made for imprisonment for contempt of court. The contemnors weren’t all present at court and did not necessarily begin their term of imprisonment straight away. There were none at Birmingham Family Court. Details of committal orders made for imprisonment for contempt of court at Birmingham County Court and High Court since 1 November 2014 can be found in the table below. This data has been collated specifically to answer this question and has not been checked to the standard of Official Statistics.

Court

Judge

Date

Period

Birmingham High Court

HHJ Purle QC

13-2-15

6 weeks

Birmingham County Court

DJ Rich TD

7-11-14

8 weeks

Birmingham County Court

HHJ McKenna

19-11-14

16 weeks

Birmingham County Court

HHJ McKenna

15-1-15

18 weeks

Birmingham County Court

HHJ McKenna

15-1-15

25 weeks

Birmingham County Court

DJ Ingram

30-1-15

24 weeks

Birmingham County Court

DJ Shorthose

13-2-15

26 weeks


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
224769
Session
2014-15
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Court orders Birmingham Contempt of court
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk