Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Answers of 2 February 2026 to Question 109197, 109198, 109199 and 109200, if he will publish the number of people who were (a) convicted of and (b) did not receive an immediate custodial sentence for a (i) robbery, (ii) burglary, (iii) theft and (iv) sexual offence by year of conviction and individual number of previous conviction for that offence up to a maximum of six convictions, rather than grouping previous convictions.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The breakdown requested for PQ 109197, PQ 109198 and PQ 109199 was provided in PQ response 111800. The data for PQ 109200 is provided in the attached excel table. The table includes data covering the period 2020 – 2024 on:
The number of offenders who were convicted of a specified offence but did not receive an immediate custodial sentence, by the number of previous convictions for that specified offence up to a maximum of 6.
As set out in previous responses, this data is not regularly published or held in an easily accessible format. The information supplied has been sourced from a bespoke retrieval from the Police National Computer database.
Previous convictions are already a statutory aggravating factor, with Sentencing Guidelines being clear that sentencers must consider the nature and relevance of previous convictions, and the time elapsed since the previous convictions.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many directors with responsibility for human resources are employed across their department and its executive agencies; and how many of those directors hold professional HR qualifications from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development or equivalent professional bodies.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
As the number of individuals is five or fewer, the Ministry of Justice is unable to disclose the figure. This is to protect against the risk that individuals could be identified, in line with our obligations under the UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison education staff were employed in January (a) 2025, and (b) 2026, by prison.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We are committed to ensuring that prisoners can access high-quality education and skills provision that supports rehabilitation and reduces re-offending.
The curriculum delivered through core education contracts is decided at local level, as is the number of education staff employed. It would not be possible to obtain this information from each prison without incurring disproportionate cost. It should be noted that the majority of teaching staff are employed by external providers.
In the interests of transparency, we intend to publish figures for changes to core education delivery volumes at individual prison level in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for a breakdown of what prison education courses, according to annual delivery plan data, were provided in January (a) 2025, and (b) 2026, by prison, level of qualification and duration.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We are committed to ensuring that prisoners can access high-quality education and skills provision that supports rehabilitation and reduces re-offending.
The curriculum delivered through core education contracts is decided at local level, as is the number of education staff employed. It would not be possible to obtain this information from each prison without incurring disproportionate cost. It should be noted that the majority of teaching staff are employed by external providers.
In the interests of transparency, we intend to publish figures for changes to core education delivery volumes at individual prison level in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison education staff, according to annual delivery plan data, were employed in January (a) 2025, and (b) 2026, by prison.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We are committed to ensuring that prisoners can access high-quality education and skills provision that supports rehabilitation and reduces re-offending.
The curriculum delivered through core education contracts is decided at local level, as is the number of education staff employed. It would not be possible to obtain this information from each prison without incurring disproportionate cost. It should be noted that the majority of teaching staff are employed by external providers.
In the interests of transparency, we intend to publish figures for changes to core education delivery volumes at individual prison level in the coming weeks.
Asked by: Llinos Medi (Plaid Cymru - Ynys Môn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what is his Department’s timescale for the distribution of updated materials on the Victims Code to police forces; and what assessment has he made of adherence to that timescale.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
We launched the consultation on a new Victims’ Code on 5 February, which will be open to responses for 12 weeks. Following consideration of the consultation responses, and any subsequent changes, we will issue a government response and then issue the new Code in accordance with the Parliamentary process set out in the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024. We will update and distribute revised materials alongside the new Code.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what guidance his Department has issued to conveyancers, the Land Registry, or other stakeholders on the application of perpetuity rules to commercial land instruments following the enactment of the Perpetuities and Accumulations Act 2009.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
No guidance has been issued by the Ministry of Justice since the Act came into force. The explanatory notes to the legislation set out the effects of the changes to the law: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2009/18/notes/contents.
This is a complex and technical area of law. Individuals should seek independent legal advice on how the Act applies to their unique circumstances.
Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Timpson on 3 February (HL14086), what plans they have, if any, to use the ethnicity harmonised standards in published statistics; why the Offender Management Statistics use the 6+1 identity code system; and whether they plan to start to use the 18+1 identity code system.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
In accordance with the principles embodied in the Code of Practice for Statistics; Trustworthiness, Quality and Value, we keep statistics for publication under continuous review. Uniform standards across Government are applied wherever appropriate, including in the reporting of ethnicity, where it is necessary to balance the benefit of a high level of detail in data gathering, against ease of interpretation for those reporting the information, and the value of consistency in reporting over time.
In the case of Offender Management Statistics, the 18+1 classification is used for the ethnicity information published in the annual prison population tables, which supplement the 6+1 series produced quarterly.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the current number of either-way cases in the present Crown Court backlog that have yet to elect mode of trial.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes information about cases in the open caseload at both the magistrates’ courts and at the Crown Court. This includes breakdowns of volumes and durations as part of the Crown Court open caseload published as part of Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly: Criminal court statistics quarterly.
The Ministry of Justice does not publish data relating to the progression of cases or mode of trial in the open caseload.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the proportion of cases in the backlog are still pending the decision of the defendant to elect mode of trial.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes information about cases in the open caseload at both the magistrates’ courts and at the Crown Court. This includes breakdowns of volumes and durations as part of the Crown Court open caseload published as part of Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly: Criminal court statistics quarterly.
The Ministry of Justice does not publish data relating to the progression of cases or mode of trial in the open caseload.