Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if his department will provide the total number of prisoner days, aggregated across all prisoners, in which an individual prisoner with a disability received a) no time in open air and b) no time out of cell.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The information requested for adult prisoners is not held by the Ministry of Justice, as collecting data on time in and out of cell would require detailed monitoring of cell activity in each prison establishment.
PSI 75/2011 (Residential Services), which includes general guidance on time-out-of-cell, can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/residential-services-psi-752011.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many a) reported illnesses or b) hospitalisations of prisoners in each of the last 10 calendar years have been partially or wholly attributed to unhygienic prison conditions.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Statistics on prisoners’ health are the responsibility of the NHS. I am informed that the figures that are collected do not indicate whether an illness or hospitalisation relates to unhygienic conditions or show the causes of illnesses linked to E-coli.
Arrangements are in place to ensure hygiene standards are maintained across the prison estate. These include regular monitoring and cleaning delivered through a combination of prisoner working parties and contracted cleaning services.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases of e-coli were reported in each individual prison in each of the last 10 calendar years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Statistics on prisoners’ health are the responsibility of the NHS. I am informed that the figures that are collected do not indicate whether an illness or hospitalisation relates to unhygienic conditions or show the causes of illnesses linked to E-coli.
Arrangements are in place to ensure hygiene standards are maintained across the prison estate. These include regular monitoring and cleaning delivered through a combination of prisoner working parties and contracted cleaning services.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his department is taking to improve or increase provision of training for newly appointed prison governors.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Enable Programme is a workforce transformation programme that aims to change how HMPPS trains, develops, leads, and supports its prison staff to ensure that they feel safe, supported, valued, and confident in their skills and ability to make a difference.
A key focus for the programme is to strengthen prison leadership and operational capability and build a quality pipeline of leaders for the future. This includes a new national Governor Induction programme which provides a dedicated package of learning for new Governors, offering professional, personal, and practical support to ensure they have the best start to their governing career.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his department is taking to reduce turnover rates of prison governors.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Enable Programme is a workforce transformation programme that aims to change how HMPPS trains, develops, leads, and supports its prison staff to ensure that they feel safe, supported, valued, and confident in their skills and ability to make a difference.
A key focus for the programme is to strengthen prison leadership and operational capability and build a quality pipeline of leaders for the future. To support this work Governor Succession Planning is managed via a National Talent Committee, that monitors tenure, identifies talent and considers succession in line with civil service rules. This senior multi-disciplinary team meet quarterly and are informed by internal management information, the leadership requirements of individual sites and the strengths of individual governors.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what consideration his department has given to making remand prisoners eligible for a) educational programmes and b) offender behaviour programmes.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice is committed to ensuring that individuals held on custody, including those on remand, have access to appropriate rehabilitative and educational support while in prison.
Remand prisoners are eligible to access core education provision within prisons. This may include literacy, numeracy, English for Speakers of Other Languages, basic digital skills, as well as library services. On arrival, all prisoners undergo initial screening for learning needs and receive an individual Learning and Work Plan to support progression. Governors must ensure that education is available to all prisoners who can benefit, in line with Prison Rule 32, and prisoners on remand are given the choice to participate in these opportunities. While remand prisoners cannot access advanced learning funded through student loans or the Prisoner Education Trust, they are encouraged to participate in the core educational offer within their prison setting.
Accredited offending behaviour programmes are generally reserved for sentenced individuals, as remand periods and uncertain outcomes make it impractical to deliver these interventions before sentencing. We are focused on expanding appropriate rehabilitative provision for people on remand; probation pre-release teams support all people in prison, including on remand, with pre-release planning. The scope of the Commissioned Rehabilitative Services has been extended to include remand prisoners, offering practical support such as accommodation and for women, additional services addressing finance, family and social inclusion.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if his department will provide the average number of visitation days, per prisoner, for a) all prisoners and b) disabled prisoners.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
This information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
However, a report about Social Contact in Prison published 11 December provides information about visit frequencies. The report notes that in the 12 months prior to June 2024, almost two thirds of prisoners (63%) had at least one face-to-face visit. 31% of prisoners received remote contact only and 5% of prisoners appeared to have had no contact.
The report can be accessed via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-contact-in-prison-april-2019-to-june-2024.
We know that visits are crucial to sustaining relationships with close relatives, partners and friends, and help prisoners maintain links with the community. HMPPS aims to encourage and assist the maintenance of relationships between prisoners and their families to support their social rehabilitation. The Help With Prison Visits scheme (HWPV) supports visitors on low incomes by providing a contribution towards visits costs for close relatives, partners or sole visitors.
All visits areas must be accessible for all, including disabled prisoners and visitors.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if his department will provide the total number of prisoner days, aggregated across all prisoners, in which an individual prisoner received a) no time in open air and b) no time out of cell.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The information requested for adult prisoners is not held by the Ministry of Justice, as collecting data on time in and out of cell would require detailed monitoring of cell activity in each prison establishment.
PSI 75/2011 (Residential Services), which includes general guidance on time-out-of-cell, can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/residential-services-psi-752011.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what action his department is taking to ensure prison estate maintenance providers are accountable for their performance.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The value and performance of the Department’s private-sector service providers is reviewed through routine contract and performance management and, in addition, ministers meet regularly with each provider’s Chief Executive Officers to hold them personally to account for their performance.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to Written Question 11190, what steps his department plans to take to reduce the remand population over the next calendar year.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We continue to work closely with partners from across the criminal justice system to manage the growth in the prison remand population. The Sentencing Bill, currently being considered before parliament, introduces a package of amendments to the Bail Act 1976, which, alongside the presumption to suspend short sentences of 12 months or less, will help to address the unsustainable growth in the prison remand population.
This package of amendments includes changing the “no real prospect” test in the Bail Act 1976 so that fewer exceptions to bail will apply where the court considers that a sentence of immediate custody is unlikely. We are also adding to the factors that the courts must consider when deciding whether to refuse or grant bail to include consideration of whether the defendant is pregnant, a primary caregiver, or a victim of domestic abuse.