Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prison education staff have been made redundant in each of the past 12 months.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice and HM Prison and Probation Service are committed to ensuring that prisoners can access high-quality education and skills provision that supports rehabilitation and reduces re-offending.
The contract does not require Education suppliers to provide routine information about redundancies, and as the majority of teaching staff are employed by external providers, it is not possible to provide the information requested.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to paragraph 88 of the UK Government Resilience Action Plan, how many meetings Ministers in their Department have attended related to the Home Defence Programme.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Ministers have regular discussions with officials, external experts and ministerial colleagues on a range of issues, including national security, defence and resilience.
The Home Defence Programme was established in August 2024 to build the UK’s resilience to any potential escalation to conflict. It is an evolving and enduring programme of work which provides defence, security and resilience planning, focused on aligning military and civil effort in the event of a period of crisis and international hostilities affecting the UK, informed by and reflecting the recommendations from government strategies, including the Strategic Defence Review, National Security Strategy and Resilience Action Plan.
The Ministry of Justice is actively supporting this work.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department was invited by the Office for National Statistics to provide evidence or input into its review of the ethnicity harmonised standard.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
A review of the harmonised standard for ethnicity data collection is underway by the Government Statistical Service Harmonisation team.
A public consultation between October 2025 and February 2026 sought views from a wide range of users, including Government Departments and public bodies, to understand user needs for ethnic group data. This was supplemented by a programme of engagement activity, including with representatives of all government departments.
ONS have committed to providing an initial response to the public consultation in April, and a full report on the consultation in late summer 2026 will include more detailed information on the departments that responded to the consultation.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether it is his Department's policy that (a) Ministers and (b) special advisers use the disappearing messages function on Whatsapp on Government devices.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice's Information Management Policy explains that non-corporate communication channels such as WhatsApp 'must not be used unless absolutely necessary'. The policy directs staff to the Non-corporate communication channels for government business guidance, which is the primary guidance that ministers and officials should follow. Recordkeeping responsibilities are listed in paragraphs 19 to 24.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of courts using Community Orders under the Sentencing Framework on re-offending rates in the last two years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The reoffending rates for adults with an index disposal of a community order was 36.4% in 2022/23 and 38.0% in 2023/24. The data can be found in the latest proven reoffending statistics release, in the annual tables here, in table C1a.
Studies have found that short custodial sentences of less than 12 months were associated with higher reoffending rates (approximately 4 percentage points higher) than when court orders of any length had been given (which includes both community orders and suspended sentence orders).
However, it is essential that community punishment works. The Sentencing Act 2026 includes a range of measures to make community punishment tougher. These include banning offenders from attending pubs, bars and clubs, as well as public events such as sports and concerts. The courts will also be able to prohibit an offender from driving as a punishment regardless of the offence they have committed. We have also introduced new tough restriction zones which will restrict offenders to a specific geographical area. These will be electronically monitored and are intended to serve not just as a punishment, but as an important tool to protect victims.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South and Walkden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of Crown Court backlogs on the length of time defendants are held on remand prior to trial.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Crown Court backlogs can cause defendants to spend longer time on remand. This Government is committed to pulling every lever we have – investment, reform and efficiency – so can we turn the tide on the backlog. The Government has invested significantly in the system, including funding unlimited sitting days so that the Crown Court can hear as many cases as possible next year. We have also introduced the Courts and Tribunals Bill to enable much-needed reform of the criminal courts, and are leading a major efficiency drive, including the introduction of ‘blitz courts’ to get through the backlog.
The use of remand is a judicial matter, and there are well established processes for extending Custody Time Limits if needed. Applications must be approved by independent judges and defendants have the right to oppose any application.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of court delays in (a) Basildon, (b) Essex and (c) England attributable to late prisoner transport in each of the last three years.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The number of contractual delays caused by late prisoner transport to court attributable to the Prisoner Escort and Custody Service (PECS) suppliers for Basildon, Essex and England between 2023 and 2025 are shown in the table below.
Area | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | Total |
Basildon | 0 | 6 | 4 | 10 |
Essex | 14 | 30 | 33 | 77 |
England | 467 | 255 | 294 | 1016 |
PECS performance remains consistently over 99%, and while even small numbers of delays can have visible impacts in busy courts, we are improving reporting through digital development of a new application, this will further enable PECS to ensure performance data is transparent and accurately reflects what is happening across the system. We value feedback from all stakeholders which enable PECS to ensure performance data is transparent and accurately reflects what is happening across the system.
We recognise the problems we inherited in prisoner transfer with delays occurring at prisons, en route between prison and court and at courts themselves in bringing prisoners to the dock. The Minister of State for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending and I will chair an oversight body established to review prisoner transfer from end to end. This will monitor and drive performance improvements in prisoner transfer across the country.
We are working with the Department for Transport to issue guidance on PECS’ use of bus lanes to all local authorities. And in London, where traffic regularly causes delays, we are working closely with Transport for London (TfL) to reduce avoidable delays and keep the justice system moving.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department’s press release entitled Deputy Prime Minister sets out vision for the justice system, published on 24 February 2026, what steps he is taking to ensure that blitz courts do not lead to prolonged waits for trials for other types of cases.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is committed to reducing outstanding caseloads in the Crown Court while maintaining progress across all case types.
Targeted initiatives, sometimes referred to as “blitz” courts, are carefully planned and time-limited exercises designed to make best use of available courtrooms, judicial capacity and sitting days. They are intended to increase overall throughput rather than divert resources from other cases. The plan is for London to use two courts at the Central Criminal Court specifically to accommodate the blitz courts.
Listing decisions in the Crown Court are a matter for the independent judiciary. HMCTS works closely with the judiciary to monitor waiting times and operational pressures across the system to ensure that targeted activity in one area does not lead to unintended delays elsewhere.
We continue to fund increased Crown Court sitting days and for 2026/27 we have removed the financial limits on how many days Crown Courts can sit in order to improve timeliness for all court users.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department’s press release entitled Deputy Prime Minister sets out vision for the justice system, published on 24 February 2026, which additional local authorities plan to adopt the scheme allowing prisoner transport vans to use bus lanes.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We agree with Sir Brian’s Leveson’s recommendation in the Independent Review of the Criminal Courts that Prisoner Escort and Custody Services (PECS) should be enabled to use bus lanes when transporting prisoners. However, these decisions are ultimately for local authorities.
PECS vehicles already use bus lanes in Manchester, Bristol, Salford and Nottingham. We are currently engaging with local authorities across the country to expand this, and will work with the Department for Transport to ensure that local authorities are aware of the role they can play in reducing prisoner delays. For example, in London we are working closely with Transport for London to pilot a scheme that retimes traffic signals to prioritise PECS vans on three routes in the capital. Around 300 traffic lights will be adjusted so that PECS vehicles are more likely to receive green lights on their journey to court.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department’s press release entitled Deputy Prime Minister sets out vision for the justice system, published on 24 February 2026, what criteria will be used to evaluate the success of the AI-assisted listing pilot within HMCTS.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
HMCTS will evaluate the pilot of AI-enabled support for listing against criteria that will include expected:
reductions in administrative effort associated with listing;
improved timeliness and consistency of listing activity;
the impact on listing accuracy and associated rework; and
the effect on effective use of court capacity.
This will be considered alongside feedback from operational users and the judiciary on usability and confidence. Findings from this stage of the evaluation will inform decisions on any wider deployment. If we proceed, we will design an evaluation approach in line with Government Social Research standards that we would expect to publish as part of the programme of work.