Trusts are commonly used to make long-term financial provision for family members, including children and vulnerable adults.

Trustees must exercise their powers in accordance with the binding terms of the trust instrument and are subject to broader statutory duties.

Letters of wishes can be used to complement the binding legal terms of a trust, by providing guidance about how the person creating the trust would like trustees to exercise their discretion. Letters of wishes are generally not legally binding, but trustees must give the letter of wishes necessary regard when making decisions on how to manage the assets within the trust.

As such, letters of wishes are designed to give guidance while preserving the trustee’s ability to make decisions based on circumstances that may change many years after the letter was written.

The Government currently has no plans to reform the law in this area.

For cases received in the year 2025-26, the average waiting time between an application for a Child Arrangement Order being received and the first hearing taking place in the family courts was 67 days.

The Ministry of Justice’s spending in Wales has been estimated at £720,729,000 for the financial year 2025-26. This data is contained within the Country and Regional Analysis: 2025 dataset published by HM Treasury and is the most recent data available: Country and regional analysis: 2025 - GOV.UK. In the financial year 2024-25, our spending was estimated at £697,441,000.

In March 2026, the then UK and Welsh governments agreed an expanded and clearly defined role for the Welsh Government in youth justice. The UK Government will start this new arrangement by devolving funding to reduce the use of remand for children in Wales, and devolving the remaining funding for early intervention, currently delivered through the Turnaround programme. Both changes are due take effect from April 2027.

The Ministry of Justice estimates that combined the grant awards, for the Turnaround programme and that to reduce the use of remand to Welsh Youth Justice Services, will be in the millions of pounds across financial years 2027/28 and 2028/29. Details on the exact amounts to be devolved will be set out in the coming months.

The Justice Impact Test (JIT) is an internal Government process used by policymakers across Government to assess the potential impacts of policy proposals on the justice system. It forms part of the advice and analysis that informs the development of Government policy.

Disclosure of JITs undertaken could prejudice the effective formulation and development of Government policy. I am therefore unable to provide the information requested.

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Commercial sensitivities exist around aspects of this spend which could prejudice commercial interests, so we are unable to release individual names. All spend in these areas are subject to the standard value for money assessments.

With reference to Question 116101, each offender in the table is counted once in each calendar year and all previous convictions are counted as at the offender’s last qualifying conviction for each year.

The number of offenders who were convicted of theft from a shop more than once during 2024 are provided in the attached table.

Eligible Foreign National Offenders are capable of being removed under the Early Removal Scheme (ERS) once they have served at least 30% of the custodial period of their sentence and are within four years of their earliest release point.

As of 30 June 2026, there were c.4,800 Foreign National Offenders (FNO) in custody sentenced to standard determinate or extended determinate sentences who could become eligible for removal under ERS during their sentence. A precise estimate of the number in the eligible window is not possible as this number includes Irish nationals (who are not routinely considered for deportation), those who may be dual nationals and those that have the right to remain.

Early next year, we will implement the Sentencing Act power to allow the removal of determinate sentence FNOs immediately after sentence. This will not include those in prison for the most serious crimes such as life sentences, rape, or unlawful killing who will still be required to serve time in prison before they are deported.

Monthly removals under ERS going back to December 2022 can be found in the following two Home Office releases:

Returns from the UK between 1 December 2022 and 31 January 2026 - GOV.UK

Returns from the UK between 1 July 2024 and 31 July 2026 - GOV.UK

Within its first two years (July 2024 to June 2026), this Government has increased returns of FNOs by 41% compared to the last two years of the previous Government. Within the FNO returns (up to July 2026), there have been 3,141 early removal scheme returns, a 20% increase compared to the same period 12 months prior.

The Ministry of Justice does not collect data on the recognition of particular types of marriage.

The law on the recognition of overseas marriage in matters for which the Lord Chancellor has policy responsibility is principally found in the common law.

Under the common law, an overseas marriage is normally recognised if it complied with the requirements for the form of the ceremony where it took place (meaning by whom, where, when and how it was conducted) and if both parties had capacity to marry according to the law of their domicile (home country).

If a party to the marriage was domiciled in England and Wales and had a spouse or civil partner at the time of the marriage, the marriage will be void under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973. The court may also consider additional matters in deciding on recognition.

In areas for which the Lord Chancellor has policy responsibility, the court will normally apply common law rules to determine whether an overseas marriage (including a polygamous marriage) is recognised in England and Wales.

The Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 reinforces the common law rules on capacity to enter into an overseas marriage.

The Ministry of Justice mostly uses probabilistic record-linkage tools to link internal administrative datasets (such as court, prison and probation data), while most linking across departmental boundaries uses deterministic linking. However, there are a small number of projects that use probabilistic matching across departmental boundaries for analytical and research purposes, such as:

• Crown Prosecution Service data has recently been linked probabilistically to prisons and probation data, as part of work to join up data across the criminal justice system to improve understanding of the whole end-to-end system.

• Prisoner and family relationship data was linked with HMRC Child Benefit records to estimate the number of children affected by parental imprisonment.

The results of this linking are used for analytical and research purposes, informing policymakers with better quality evidence rather than informing decisions at an individual level.

All data-linking activity is subject to the Ministry of Justice's established governance arrangements, including completion of a Data Protection Impact Assessment where required and engagement with the Ministry of Justice AI & Data Science Ethics Framework. These processes consider a wider range of ethical, legal and data protection issues including the potential implications for individuals of being included within, or excluded from, linked datasets.

The Ministry of Justice uses Splink, a probabilistic record linkage tool created in the Department, across a variety of services and analytical applications.

Where the match score exceeds a certain threshold, records are typically linked automatically, without human review. The score threshold varies according to use case and is set following assessment of accuracy required for the intended purpose, including where linked records may support operational processes.

Before a linking model is deployed, human review is undertaken on a sample of recorded pairs to assess linkage accuracy inform selection of an appropriate confidence threshold. Linkage performance is subsequently monitored, and threshold and matching algorithms are adjusted where necessary in response to identified issues or changes in data quality.

In addition, record linkage projects are subjected to appropriate governance and ethical overview, including through the Ministry of Justice AI and Data Science Ethics Framework.

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The Ministry of Justice is committed to improving timeliness in child arrangement proceedings, and the Family Justice Board regularly monitors timeliness data against performance targets it has set both regionally and nationally.

The roll out of Child Focused Courts represents a significant reform to family private law. Families benefit from a streamlined, problem-solving approach which brings forward a holistic assessment of needs and risks and enables the court to make safe decisions without delay.

Data from the 10 areas already operating the model shows cases are being resolved up to twice as fast as the national average, and outstanding cases have fallen by over 50%. Although the model is not yet operational in Surrey, the Government recently announced the national rollout of Child Focused Courts across England and Wales by March 2029. As part of a phased approach to rollout, we will work to ensure all areas are preparing for implementation of the model.

We recognise the significant impact that lengthy proceedings can have on children and families, and we are committed to improving timeliness private law proceedings. In March, the Government announced the national rollout of Child Focused Courts across England and Wales by March 2029.

The Child Focused Model focuses on early identification of risk, increased engagement with children and bespoke support for victims, all within a streamlined court process. Evidence from areas already delivering the model shows cases are being resolved up to twice as fast as the national average.

The Government recognises concerns about the financial abuse of older and vulnerable people, including abuse by individuals in positions of trust, and is committed to taking action under the Fraud Strategy 2026-2029.

The law contains a range of safeguards to protect older and vulnerable people from financial abuse in relation to powers of attorney. Lasting powers of attorney (LPAs) require a certificate provider to confirm there was no fraud or undue pressure in making the LPA, and they must be registered by the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) before use. OPG can investigate concerns about how attorneys exercise their powers, and where necessary will refer matters to the Court of Protection, local authorities or the police.

However, where no LPA exists, for example if an individual is falsely claiming to act under a power of attorney, responsibility sits with the relevant organisation, such as a bank, to undertake appropriate checks before accepting the individual’s authority. The Government’s modernising LPA project will further increase protections by giving legal status to OPG’s use and view service, which allows parties to check the status of an LPA in real time.

The law similarly contains a range of safeguards in relation to wills and the administration of estates. For a will to be valid, the testator must have the required testamentary capacity, intend the document to operate as their will, understand and approve its contents, and make it free from undue influence, fraud or forgery. The validity of a will may be challenged before the courts on any of these grounds. Personal representatives and executors are also under a legal duty to administer estates properly and may be subject to court action, including being removed or replaced by the court, or to criminal investigation where misconduct or fraud is alleged.

The Government is currently considering the recommendations made by the Modernising Wills Law report published by the Law Commission in 2025 (Modernising wills: Final report – Law Commission), including recommendations intended to strengthen protections for vulnerable testators, and will respond in due course.

The Government recognises concerns about the financial abuse of older and vulnerable people, including abuse by individuals in positions of trust, and is committed to taking action under the Fraud Strategy 2026-2029.

The law contains a range of safeguards to protect older and vulnerable people from financial abuse in relation to powers of attorney. Lasting powers of attorney (LPAs) require a certificate provider to confirm there was no fraud or undue pressure in making the LPA, and they must be registered by the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) before use. OPG can investigate concerns about how attorneys exercise their powers, and where necessary will refer matters to the Court of Protection, local authorities or the police.

However, where no LPA exists, for example if an individual is falsely claiming to act under a power of attorney, responsibility sits with the relevant organisation, such as a bank, to undertake appropriate checks before accepting the individual’s authority. The Government’s modernising LPA project will further increase protections by giving legal status to OPG’s use and view service, which allows parties to check the status of an LPA in real time.

The law similarly contains a range of safeguards in relation to wills and the administration of estates. For a will to be valid, the testator must have the required testamentary capacity, intend the document to operate as their will, understand and approve its contents, and make it free from undue influence, fraud or forgery. The validity of a will may be challenged before the courts on any of these grounds. Personal representatives and executors are also under a legal duty to administer estates properly and may be subject to court action, including being removed or replaced by the court, or to criminal investigation where misconduct or fraud is alleged.

The Government is currently considering the recommendations made by the Modernising Wills Law report published by the Law Commission in 2025 (Modernising wills: Final report – Law Commission), including recommendations intended to strengthen protections for vulnerable testators, and will respond in due course.