Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign nationals currently serving custodial sentences for sexual offences are held in prisons in England and Wales.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
A breakdown of Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) by offence group is published in the Annual prison population statistics and the most recent publication can be found here: prison-population-2025.ods. Please see Table_1_A_26, which shows the breakdown as of 30 June 2025.
As these statistics are published annually, we are not able to provide a more recent breakdown.
Between 1 November 2024 and 31 October 2025, we removed over 2,700 FNOs under the Early Removal Scheme, that is more than the number removed over the same period in the 2024, and a significant 74% increase compared to the same period in 2023. It will free up much-needed space in our prisons.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of civil servants in his Department are (a) on temporary contract and (b) consultants.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Information on the number of civil servants employed on temporary contracts is published quarterly by the Office for National Statistics as part of the accredited official statistics release Public Sector Employment, UK: September 2025. This can be accessed at:
(Source: ONS Public Sector Employment reference tables – Table 8 HC, September 2025 edition; MoJ Workforce MI, September 2025)
Public sector employment - Office for National Statistics
As at September 2025, according to the Office for National Statistics Public Sector Employment statistics (Table 8 HC), and published 16 December 2025, 455 civil servants in the Ministry of Justice were on temporary or casual contracts, representing approximately 0.5% of the Department’s civil service headcount (total 96,715).
Ministry of Justice Civil Service Headcount – September 2025
Contract Type | Male | Female | Total |
Permanent | 40,630 | 55,630 | 96,260 |
Temporary / Casual | 165 | 290 | 455 |
Overall Headcount | 40,795 | 55,920 | 96,715 |
Departmental expenditure on consultancy is published within the Ministry of Justice’s Annual Report and Accounts. The latest report for FY 2024/25 can be found at:
Ministry of Justice – Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25
(See Annex D: Off-payroll engagements, page 303).
For clarity, consultants are not civil servants and are therefore not included in civil service headcount figures. The latest Ministry of Justice, Workforce Management Information (June 2025), publishes total cost of contractors, which is part of the department’s transparency data and can be accessed at:
MoJ_headcount_and_payroll_data_for_June_2025_revised.ods
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign nationals convicted of sexual offences have been convicted of (a) a further sexual offence and (b) other violent offences after release from custody in the UK in each year since 2020.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on convictions and sentencing information for sexual offences in the Outcomes by Offence data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal justice statistics quarterly - GOV.UK.
However, it is not possibly to identify whether the offender was a foreign national. This information may be held in court records but to examine individual court records would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign nationals who were convicted of sexual offences were given suspended custodial sentences in each year since 2020.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on convictions and sentencing information for sexual offences in the Outcomes by Offence data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal justice statistics quarterly - GOV.UK.
However, it is not possibly to identify whether the offender was a foreign national. This information may be held in court records but to examine individual court records would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Lord Garnier (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) male, and (2) female, prisoners who were aged 25 years or younger at the time of sentencing were serving a life sentence in custody with a tariff of 15 years or more in each year since 2022, categorised by ethnic group.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes data in Offender Management Statistics Quarterly (OMSQ) on the prison population.
Table 1: Number of prisoners serving life sentence who were aged 25 years or younger at sentencing, with a tariff of 25 years or more, broken down by sex, ethnicity and imprisonment status.
| Ethnicity | Status | 30/06/22 | 30/06/23 | 30/06/24 | 20/06/25 |
Male | Asian/Asian British | Unreleased Life | 153 | 177 | 203 | 205 |
Black/Black British | Unreleased Life | 487 | 521 | 578 | 612 | |
Mixed | Unreleased Life | 142 | 155 | 174 | 192 | |
Not stated | Unreleased Life | * | * | 5 | 3 | |
Other ethnic group | Unreleased Life | 24 | 24 | 27 | 28 | |
Unrecorded | Unreleased Life | * | * | 11 | 4 | |
White | Unreleased Life | 742 | 777 | 796 | 814 | |
Female | Asian/Asian British | Unreleased Life | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Black/Black British | Unreleased Life | * | * | 3 | 3 | |
Mixed | Unreleased Life | * | * | * | * | |
Not Stated | Unreleased Life | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Other ethnic group | Unreleased Life | 0 | * | * | * | |
Unrecorded | Unreleased Life | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
White | Unreleased Life | 31 | 34 | 37 | 39 |
Table notes:
Tariff length is the time between date of sentencing and tariff expiry date, and does not take into account any time served on remand.
Offenders who are 25 years old or younger at sentencing includes everyone not yet 26 years old at sentencing.
Figures include offenders who received a Whole Life Order.
Disclosure control
An asterisk (*) has been used to suppress values of two or one. This is to prevent disclosure of individual information. Further disclosure control may be completed where this alone is not sufficient.
Source: Prison NOMIS and Public Protection Unit Database
Data sources and quality
The figures in the above tables have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Asked by: Lord Garnier (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what the average tariff length of a life sentence for murder was in 2024 and 2025 to date, in years and months.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes data in Offender Management Statistics Quarterly (OMSQ) on the prison population.
Table 1: Mean Tariff Length for Offenders Who Committed Murder, by Year of Sentence
Year of Sentence | Mean Tariff (years) | Mean Tariff (months) |
2024 | 22 | 259 |
2025* | 22 | 260 |
Table notes:
Source: Public Protection Unit Database
Data sources and quality
The figures in the above tables have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment she has made of the levels of mental health issues among (a) parents and (b) young fathers during family court proceedings.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
We recognise the impact that family court proceedings can have on parents, particularly victims of domestic abuse, and are committed to long-term reform of the family court to better support users.
The family court has a range of powers to support and protect victims, including prohibiting in-person cross examination of survivors by alleged abusers and automatically providing special measures, such as the ability to provide evidence behind a screen.
We have redesigned the information and guidance for separating families on GOV.UK, making it more user-friendly through extensive user-tested changes. We are also testing a triage tool which will support users to access information specific to their personal circumstances, alongside signposting to relevant support and advice services.
Legal aid is available for parents in certain public and private family law matters subject to the relevant means and merits tests. Beyond legal aid, over £6 million will be provided in 2025–26 to 60 organisations, including Citizens Advice, Law Centres and AdviceNow, to expand free legal information and early support. The Help with Fees scheme ensures that court fees do not prevent parents accessing proceedings.
The Government has not carried out a specific assessment of the levels of mental health issues among parents and young fathers during family court proceedings. However, the Government is aware of the impact involvement in family court proceedings can have on the mental health of both the parents and children involved. and encourages those affected to seek appropriate support from local NHS and voluntary services.
In addition, the charity Support Through Court offers practical, procedural and emotional support to all parents facing court without legal representation. It operates across England and Wales and also offers a national helpline.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment has she made of the accessibility and quality of support for both parents during family court proceedings.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
We recognise the impact that family court proceedings can have on parents, particularly victims of domestic abuse, and are committed to long-term reform of the family court to better support users.
The family court has a range of powers to support and protect victims, including prohibiting in-person cross examination of survivors by alleged abusers and automatically providing special measures, such as the ability to provide evidence behind a screen.
We have redesigned the information and guidance for separating families on GOV.UK, making it more user-friendly through extensive user-tested changes. We are also testing a triage tool which will support users to access information specific to their personal circumstances, alongside signposting to relevant support and advice services.
Legal aid is available for parents in certain public and private family law matters subject to the relevant means and merits tests. Beyond legal aid, over £6 million will be provided in 2025–26 to 60 organisations, including Citizens Advice, Law Centres and AdviceNow, to expand free legal information and early support. The Help with Fees scheme ensures that court fees do not prevent parents accessing proceedings.
The Government has not carried out a specific assessment of the levels of mental health issues among parents and young fathers during family court proceedings. However, the Government is aware of the impact involvement in family court proceedings can have on the mental health of both the parents and children involved. and encourages those affected to seek appropriate support from local NHS and voluntary services.
In addition, the charity Support Through Court offers practical, procedural and emotional support to all parents facing court without legal representation. It operates across England and Wales and also offers a national helpline.
Asked by: Jenny Riddell-Carpenter (Labour - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on recognising parental alienation as a form of emotional harm to children.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government does not recognise the concept of “parental alienation” syndrome and does not believe it is capable of diagnosis.
The Family Justice Council has published guidance on “responding to a child’s unexplained reluctance, resistance or refusal to spend time with a parent and allegations of alienating behaviour”. The guidance provides a clear framework for assessing whether alienating behaviours are present. The guidance is clear that where the court finds that domestic abuse has occurred then the child’s rejection of the parent is appropriate and justified.
Cafcass practitioners receive mandatory training on alienating behaviours. Cafcass’ training programme includes training on the domestic abuse practice policy (introduced in 2024) and on indicators of understanding why a child does not want to spend family time with a parent guide, including due to alienating behaviours. The training policy and guide make clear that the first step in assessing the reasons for a child not wanting to see a parent is to consider whether domestic abuse is a factor so that Cafcass practitioners can explore the pattern of behaviours in the safest context.
Asked by: Luke Murphy (Labour - Basingstoke)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the reasons for current waiting times within the Specialist Team of the Probate Registry, and of the impact of those delays on bereaved families; and what measures his Department is introducing to reduce the distress and financial uncertainty caused by protracted waiting times.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Applications for Probate can be delayed where more information is needed from the applicant, a caveat is in place or where cases are more complex. HM Courts & Tribunals Service is investing in more staff, alongside system and process improvements to improve timeliness and further build capability for the more complex cases, which include cases involving a lost will.
The Ministry of Justice publishes regular data on probate timeliness in our regular quarterly family court statistics bulletin: Family Court Statistics Quarterly - GOV.UK.