Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to respond to Questions 3012, 3013, 3020, 3022, 3028, 3030, 3032, 3033, 3034, 3035, 3036, 3037, 3038, 3040, 3041 and 3043, which were tabled on 21 November 2023.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of Parliamentary Questions (PQs) and the Department remains committed to providing the highest level of service.
I sincerely apologise for the delay in responding to these PQs. The information requested in these PQs is detailed and complex, and we have been working hard to identify what information we can provide to accurately answer the questions raised. We hope to be able to provide an answer shortly
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he has taken to help increase the retention rate of staff in HM Prison and Probation Service.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Safe, decent, rehabilitative prisons require excellent and experienced staff, as does supervising offenders in the community to keep the public safe.
We want them to stay in the Prison Service and to support retention, we have:
Accepted every penny of the Prisons Service PRB pay recommendations for 2023/24.
Injected extra funding of more than £155 million a year since 2021 to support Probation staff to deliver more robust supervision.
Rolled out BWV to every officer, to help protect staff by defusing volatile situations.
Introduced a New Colleague Mentor scheme to help new recruits feel supported in their early weeks and months.
Retention for prison officers is improving, with the staff resignation rate dropping from around 10.7% to around 8.3% over the last year to December 2023.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 19 March 2024 to Question 17782 on Asylum, how many asylum seekers were charged with a criminal offence since entering the UK in each year since 2015.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
I refer the right honourable Member to the answer given by the Home Office to Question 17782, published on 19 March 2024 and subsequently corrected on 21 March 2024. Data on charges is held by the police and published by the Home Office.
Asked by: Samantha Dixon (Labour - City of Chester)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of accommodating young female offenders in all-male young offender institutions on the wellbeing of those female offenders.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The safety of all those in our custodial estate, including young female offenders is a key priority.
Girls currently make up less than 1% of children and young people within the youth estate which has a range of mixed gender settings. In HMYOI Wetherby, girls live separately from boys but attend education and activities together, as occurs in the community.
Girls in the youth estate can communicate trauma-related stress through internalising behaviours such as self-harming. Professionals work hard to deliver effective care.
The YCS is further developing gender-responsive guidance and training both at HMYOI Wetherby and for the wider youth estate.
Asked by: Louie French (Conservative - Old Bexley and Sidcup)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to increase prison capacity.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is currently delivering 10,000 new prison places by the end of 2025 and have a long-term commitment to build 20,00 places overall, which is the largest prison building programme in Britain since the Victorian era. We have already delivered c.5,900 of these, including through our two brand new modern and secure prisons. A third prison will open next year, and two more have planning permission; as a result, the total number of prison places is significantly higher than in 2010 and will rise further.
Meanwhile, with a new prisoner transfer agreement with Albania and expansion of the Early Removal Scheme, strong and decisive action is being taken to drive down the number of Foreign National Offenders in our prisons.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Crown Court hearings have been delayed due to a (a) failure to deliver a prisoner and (b) a delay in bringing a prisoner to a court by (i) Serco and (ii) other providers of escort services.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The number of contractual delays at the Crown Court attributable to the two PECS suppliers, in each month from September 2023 to February 2024, is shown in the table below.
Contractual delays include both failure to deliver a prisoner, and delay in bringing a prisoner to court. In contractual terms, a delay occurs when a prisoner who is at that time the responsibility of a PECS supplier, is not available in the courtroom at the required time so that courtroom business is delayed by 15 minutes or more. Whenever a delay occurs, its cause is investigated by the PECS Management Team in His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service. During the period for which data have been provided, there were no instances of failure to deliver a prisoner: all recorded instances are attributable to delay in bringing a prisoner to court.
PECS contractual delays to Crown Court hearings, September 2023 to February 2024
Serco | Total moves to Crown Court | Number of contractual delays | Performance % |
Sep 2023 | 4872 | 5 | 99.90 |
Oct 2023 | 4651 | 8 | 99.83 |
Nov 2023 | 5408 | 17 | 99.69 |
Dec 2023 | 3803 | 20 | 99.48 |
Jan 2024 | 5136 | 14 | 99.73 |
Feb 2024 | 4733 | 7 | 99.86 |
GEOAmey | Total moves to Crown Court | Number of contractual delays | Performance % |
Sep 2023 | 4904 | 2 | 99.96 |
Oct 2023 | 5169 | 3 | 99.95 |
Nov 2023 | 5559 | 2 | 99.97 |
Dec 2023 | 4419 | 1 | 99.99 |
Jan 2024 | 5586 | 1 | 99.99 |
Feb 2024 | 5223 | 1 | 99.99 |
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions there have been in Greater London for (i) dangerous cycling in contravention of section 28, (ii) careless and inconsiderate cycling in contravention of section 29 and (iii) cycling when under the influence of drink or drugs in contravention of section 30 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 in each of the last three years for which information is available.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on the number of prosecutions and convictions in England and Wales for the following offences:
13711 - Reckless and dangerous driving by pedal cyclist - Contrary to section 28(1) of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and Schedule 2 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988.
13712 - Careless driving by pedal cyclist - Contrary to section 29 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and Schedule 2 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988.
13713 - Pedal cyclist driving under the influence of drink or drugs - Contrary to section 30 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and Schedule 2 of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988.
These can be accessed by navigating to the ‘Prosecutions and convictions’ tab and using the HO Offence Code filter to select the above offences in the Outcomes by Offence data tool.
The police force area filter enables you to select specific areas, in this case, select ‘Metropolitan’.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average holding time was for phone calls to the probate office contact line in each year since 2019.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The average holding time (Average Speed of Answer (ASA)) for phone calls to the Probate office contact line in each year since 2019 is as follows:
2021 = 17 minutes 28 seconds
2022 = 33 minutes 23 seconds
2023 = 12 minutes 17 seconds
HMCTS does not hold ASA data prior to 2021 due to a change in system in Spring 2021.
HMCTS has recruited over 100 additional staff, between June 2022 and June 2023, to improve both telephone response times and increase the overall volume and speed of grants being issued.
In addition, HMCTS have undertaken additional staff training to ensure probate call agents can resolve more queries at the first time of contact and issue the grant wherever possible.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of (a) closures of magistrates courts and (b) trends in the recruitment of magistrates on case capacity in Greater Manchester.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The decision to close any court only happens following full public consultation, and only when effective access to justice can be maintained. Courts that have closed were either underused, dilapidated or too close to another existing HMCTS location in the same local area.
In recent years there has been considerable recruitment of magistrates in Greater Manchester, both for the Adult Court and the Family Court, and current magistrate numbers are sufficient to manage the volume of work in Greater Manchester.
Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of, and what action they are taking to reduce, overcrowding in prisons in England and Wales.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
In prisons where we have crowding in place, a rigorous cell certification process is undertaken that ensures the use of cells is subject to formal assessment of safety and decency.
We continue to pursue the package of longer-term measures the Lord Chancellor announced on 16 October 2023 to reform the justice system and continue to address the prison capacity challenges. The measures include: the extension of the Early Removal Scheme, introducing a presumption to suspend sentences of 12 months or less, curtailing the licence period for IPP sentences and extending the use of Home Detention Curfew. On 11 March, the Lord Chancellor announced the next steps in our plan, to allow us to go further and faster in removing foreign national offenders (FNOs). This includes expediting prisoner transfers with our priority partners such as Albania, and the creation of a new taskforce across the Home Office and Ministry of Justice to change the way we process FNO cases radically.
To meet pressing demand, we are building c.20,000 modern, rehabilitative prison places – the biggest prison build programme since the Victorian era. We have already delivered c.5,900 of these, including through our two new 1,700 places prisons, HMP Five Wells and HMP Fosse Way, and c.590 Rapid Deployment Cells across 11 sites. By the end of 2025, we are on track to have delivered around 10,000 places in total.
The Government will continue to monitor the evolving situation with demand for prison places carefully, so that we can make sure we have the right approaches in place to maintain the capacity required for a safe and effective criminal justice system.