Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Crown Court Judges were assigned to Shrewsbury Crown Court on 1 March in each of the last 5 years including 2026.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This question has been interpreted to mean the total number of salaried Crown Court Judges assigned to Shrewsbury Crown Court on 1 March and not the number that actually sat on 1 March each year. 1 March 2025 and 1 March 2026 were on a Saturday and Sunday respectively.
The number of salaried Crown Court Judges assigned to Shrewsbury Crown Court on 1 March for each of the past 5 years are as follows:
1 March 2022: In Post: 3 – Full Time Equivalent: 1.9
1 March 2023: In Post: 3 – Full Time Equivalent: 2.1
1 March 2024: In Post: 3 – Full Time Equivalent: 2.2
1 March 2025: In Post: 4 – Full Time Equivalent: 3.2
1 March 2026: In Post: 3 – Full Time Equivalent: 3
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether a three-month prognosis is required for a prisoner to be considered for early release on compassionate grounds.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Secretary of State has a statutory power to grant the early release of prisoners serving a sentence or term of imprisonment in custody on compassionate grounds. The power is used in exceptional circumstances only and in accordance with the HMPPS Early Release on Compassionate Grounds Policy Framework.
The table shows the number of prisoners granted early release on compassionate grounds from 2021 to 2025. We do not centrally collate information on the number of applications for such early release.
Calendar year | Total |
2021 | 11 |
2022 | 1 |
2023 | 7 |
2024 | 6 |
2025 | 3 |
The figures from this table 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.
The Policy Framework makes clear that there are no prescribed timescales for completing an application for release. However, it is imperative that applications are expedited as far as possible and that they provide all the necessary information, including medical evidence, for an informed decision to be made without delay.
Medical evidence must include a report from the prison GP and an additional report from the medical specialist involved in the care of the prisoner. These reports should provide a diagnosis, an assessment for incapacity/frailty, prognosis, treatment pathway/plan and, where applicable, a clear indication of life expectancy.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many prisoners (1) applied for, and (2) were granted, early release on compassionate grounds in each of the past five years.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Secretary of State has a statutory power to grant the early release of prisoners serving a sentence or term of imprisonment in custody on compassionate grounds. The power is used in exceptional circumstances only and in accordance with the HMPPS Early Release on Compassionate Grounds Policy Framework.
The table shows the number of prisoners granted early release on compassionate grounds from 2021 to 2025. We do not centrally collate information on the number of applications for such early release.
Calendar year | Total |
2021 | 11 |
2022 | 1 |
2023 | 7 |
2024 | 6 |
2025 | 3 |
The figures from this table 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.
The Policy Framework makes clear that there are no prescribed timescales for completing an application for release. However, it is imperative that applications are expedited as far as possible and that they provide all the necessary information, including medical evidence, for an informed decision to be made without delay.
Medical evidence must include a report from the prison GP and an additional report from the medical specialist involved in the care of the prisoner. These reports should provide a diagnosis, an assessment for incapacity/frailty, prognosis, treatment pathway/plan and, where applicable, a clear indication of life expectancy.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people serving an imprisonment for public protection (IPP) sentence have taken their own lives while they (1) have absconded, (2) are out on release on temporary licence, and (3) have a concurrent sentence running alongside their IPP sentence.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people serving an imprisonment for public protection sentence have died of natural causes while in prison since 2023.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Please see the number of people serving an imprisonment for public protection sentence who have died of natural causes while in prison since 2023 in the table below. Please note that these figures are derived from the HMPPS Deaths in Prison Custody database. As classification of deaths may change following inquest or as new information emerges, numbers may change from time to time. As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman investigate each death.
Year | Number |
2023 | 8 |
2024 | 12 |
2025 | 6 |
Notes
Figures include incidents at HMPPS operated Immigration Removal Centres and during contracted out escorts (including contracted out escort of prisoners from STCs), but do not include incidents at Medway STC.
Deaths in prison custody figures include all deaths of prisoners arising from incidents during prison custody. They include deaths of prisoners while released on temporary license (ROTL) for medical reasons but exclude other types of ROTL where the state has less direct responsibility.
All classifications of deaths remain provisional until confirmed at inquest. Due to the number of deaths that remain unclassified (awaiting further information) in recent years, and the latest year particularly, caution should be used when comparing with earlier periods.
In addition to deaths in prison custody which actually occur in hospitals, hospices or nursing homes a small proportion will occur while in an ambulance on the way to hospital, while on escort.
An indeterminate sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) was introduced in 2005. It was intended for high risk prisoners considered ‘dangerous’ but whose offence did not merit a life sentence. The number of prisoners held on this sentence increased initially and the increase was offset by reductions elsewhere.
IPP prisoners in this table include both recalled and unreleased prisoners recorded as serving an IPP as their main sentence.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many court interpreters have been requested for translation services in each year since 2020, broken down by the language requested.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice publishes quarterly data on the volume of completed language interpreter and translation services requests, split by requestor type, as part of the Criminal court statistics release. However, published data is not broken down by language.
Criminal Court Statistics: Criminal court statistics - GOV.UK
The Ministry of Justice has provided a table in the attachment showing the number of completed service requests both through contracts (with thebigword Group Ltd and Clarion UK Ltd) and off-contract, for each year from 2020 to 2024, split by language. The table is a breakdown of the published figures, split by language.
Given the request for ‘court interpreters’, we have filtered the data to include criminal courts and civil & family courts. We have not included data for Tribunals or other types of Ministry of Justice interpreter usage.
Data has not been provided for 2025 as we do not yet have a complete dataset for this year.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of the prison population is made up of foreign national offenders; and how many foreign national offenders have been removed from the UK in the last 12 months.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
As of 31 December 2025, Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) made up 12% of the prison population of England and Wales. This is the latest available published data and can be found at Table 1_Q_11 in the attached link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6978d8c475d4437096552064/prison-population-31-Dec-2025.ods
The Home Office are responsible for the removal of FNOs, and their latest published data shows that between 1 February 2025 and 31 January 2026 there were 5,689 FNOs removed of which 3,044 were removed under the Early Removal Scheme. The full data can be found here: Returns from the UK between 1 December 2022 and 31 January 2026 - GOV.UK
All Foreign National Offenders who receive a prison sentence in the UK are referred for deportation at the earliest opportunity and will be barred from ever returning to the UK. Deportations of foreign national offenders including murderers and rapists are up 32%, with more than 8,700 deported since this Government came into power.
Asked by: Richard Quigley (Labour - Isle of Wight West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress his Department has made on plans for the redevelopment of the former Camp Hill prison site on the Isle of Wight, including its sports facilities.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice is currently evaluating all potential options for the site and is maintaining engagement with the local authority to explore appropriate future uses for both the site and the sports pitch once it is designated as surplus to operational requirements.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when his Department plans to publish the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman's independent review into the use of restraints on pregnant women during hospital escorts between 2021 and 2025.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Prisons & Probation Ombudsman will publish the report of his investigation once it has concluded. We understand that no publication date has been set at this stage.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders released on licence since 5 July 2024 and recalled to custody had not been returned to custody by the end of December 2025.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Once an offender’s licence has been revoked, it falls to the Police to apprehend the offender and return them to prison custody.