Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to help protect the privacy of people affected by fatal or serious accidents.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is committed to open justice which means criminal justice should be administered in public and subject to public scrutiny including media reporting. However, there are exceptions in statute or common law which: exclude the press/public from court for all/part of proceedings; permit information to be withheld from open court; or impose temporary/permanent bans on reporting of proceedings or part of proceedings (e.g. identity of those appearing).
Automatic reporting restrictions are applied to complainants in rape cases and all other sexual offences. There is a ban on reporting any matter that would identify a child or young person (under 18) in the Youth Court, whether that is a victim, witness or defendant. Victims of Female Genital Mutilation, Human Trafficking, and Forced Marriage are also granted automatic anonymity for life.
Lifetime anonymity can be granted to an adult witness or victim in any offence if the quality of the witness’s evidence or their co-operation is likely to be diminished by reason of fear/distress in testifying.
Reporting restrictions are a matter for judicial discretion - decisions on whether to impose these are made on a case by case basis by judges taking into account the circumstances of the case, the parties involved and the interests of justice.
In addition, the Victims’ Code is a practical and useful guide for all victims of crime to understand what they can expect from the criminal justice system. This includes victims of fatal or serious accidents where they constitute a criminal offence. We will consult on a new Victims’ Code in due course to ensure that we get the foundations for victims right.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much it costs per minute to make a call from (1) a prison wing payphone, and (2) an in-cell phone, to (a) a landline, and (b) a mobile phone, at (i) weekdays and (ii) weekends.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Calls from prison wing payphones and in-cell phones are charged at the same national rates.
Calls to UK landlines:
2.48 pence per minute during the week midnight Sunday to midday Friday
2.20 pence per minute during the weekend midday Friday to midnight Sunday
Calls to UK Mobiles
5.50 pence per minute during the week Sunday to midday Friday
3.60 pence per minute during the weekend midday Friday to midnight Sunday
The Ministry of Justice has reduced call rates in the public prison estate by negotiating a 20% reduction to all UK landline and UK mobile numbers. These rates have applied since 1 April 2025 and support the Department’s commitment to maintaining family contact.
Source: Ministry of Justice letter to the Justice Committee, July 2025: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/48682/documents/255236/default
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people of each (1) ethnic group, and (2) religion, were in prison as of 30 September 2025.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested is routinely published in H M Prison & Probation Service’s Offender Management Statistics Quarterly publication. It is set out in the attached tables.
The figures in these tables 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.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many and what proportion of prisoner leavers were assessed as posing high or very high risk of harm between April 2024 and March 2025.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
24,264 prisoner leavers released between April 2024 and March 2025 were assessed as posing high or very high risk of harm at the point of release between April 2024 and March 2025. This is 42% of all releases.
Public protection is this Government’s top priority.
Offenders on licence are subject to strict conditions – including exclusion zones, restriction zones and electronic monitoring – and they can be returned to prison if they breach any of these rules, in such a way as to demonstrate that their risk is no longer manageable in the community.
Notes
For information on the definition of ‘release’ in this context, please see the Notes page of the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly Releases tables which can be found here: prison-releases-Jan-to-Mar-2025.ods.
Information on release has been drawn from the Prison National Offender Management Information System (P-NOMIS). This has been linked to risk of harm information on National Delius (nDelius), the probation case management system.
Where the release could be matched between the two systems, risk of harm is as assessed at release. In cases where the release could not be matched, the risk of harm is drawn from information on NDelius closest to the release date.
Data are drawn from large administrative IT systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the information collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system due to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government under what circumstances a convicted sex offender can obtain a gender recognition certificate while serving a prison sentence for sexual offences.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Applications for a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) are considered by the Gender Recognition Panel, which is a judicial tribunal. There are stringent criteria and a high threshold of evidence required for obtaining a GRC and not everyone who applies is granted one.
The allocation of transgender prisoners is based on a careful assessment of risk. Regardless of whether an individual holds a Gender Recognition Certificate, transgender women with birth genitalia and/or any history of violent or sexual offending cannot be placed in the general women's estate except in exceptional circumstances, where an exemption has been granted by Ministers. No transgender women have received such an exemption under this Government.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Gloucester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many and what proportion of (1) men, and (2) women, arriving in custody have self-declared as part of the basic custody screening interview that they have been in the care of local authority children’s services, in each year since 2016.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested is set out in the table below. This table provides only a count of Basic Custody Screenings where care experience was disclosed and does not provide this as a proportion of all BCSs completed over the time period so caution should be applied when considering trends.
Years | Number of BCS “Cared For” Entries 1 | Number of BCS “Cared For” Entries 1 |
| Men | Women |
2016-17 | 8706 | 1709 |
2017-18 | 7723 | 1149 |
2018-19 | 7844 | 1369 |
2019-20 | 7688 | 1262 |
2020-21 | 3963 | 773 |
2021-22 | 3468 | 878 |
2022-23 | 3387 | 1000 |
2023-24 | 4079 | 1109 |
2024-25 | 5035 | 1513 |
Note:
Basic Custody Screening data does not provide a full picture of the number of prisoners disclosing care experience each year, as it does not include data for prisoners who choose to disclose care experience at later points during their time in custody.
We know that people taken into care as children are disproportionately likely to end up in the criminal justice system, with research estimating that 24-31 per cent of the adult prison population spent time in care as children.
We are committed to addressing this disproportionality in England and Wales, both by improving support for people with care experience while in the criminal justice system, and by working with colleagues across government to reduce the number of people with care experience who enter the criminal justice system. As part of this, HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) plans to publish a new ‘Supporting Prisoners with Care Experience’ policy framework in spring 2026.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to help reduce the time taken for cases to go to trial in the commercial court.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
I am pleased to say there are currently no undue delays in listing trials in the commercial court. However, we are constantly seeking improvements in timeliness.
Listing and case management in the Commercial Court are matters for the judiciary. HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) supports the court to progress cases efficiently by:
We continue to monitor performance with HMCTS and the judiciary and will support further operational improvements to help ensure cases are heard in a timely manner.
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 the judgment in R (on the application of PACCAR Inc and others) v Competition Appeal Tribunal and others [2023] UKSC 28 as of 26 July 2023, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the judgment on the stability and functioning of the litigation funding sector.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government recognisessthat the PACCAR judgment introduced significant uncertainty about whether Litigation Funding Agreements remain valid and brought to light concerns about the regulatory regime that applies to them.
That is why, on 17 December 2025, we announced our intention to introduce legislation to mitigate the effects of the PACCAR judgment and bring in proportionate regulation of litigation funding agreements. Third-party litigation funding plays a critical role in access to justice and in maintaining the attractiveness of England and Wales as a jurisdiction and we are committed to ensuring it works fairly for all. We will outline next steps in due course.
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 the judgment in R (on the application of PACCAR Inc and others) v Competition Appeal Tribunal and others [2023] UKSC 28 as of 26 July 2023, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the judgment on the UK’s position as a global centre for dispute resolution and on the wider legal services sector.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government recognisessthat the PACCAR judgment introduced significant uncertainty about whether Litigation Funding Agreements remain valid and brought to light concerns about the regulatory regime that applies to them.
That is why, on 17 December 2025, we announced our intention to introduce legislation to mitigate the effects of the PACCAR judgment and bring in proportionate regulation of litigation funding agreements. Third-party litigation funding plays a critical role in access to justice and in maintaining the attractiveness of England and Wales as a jurisdiction and we are committed to ensuring it works fairly for all. We will outline next steps in due course.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will review the regulation of estate planning and trust-selling practices to ensure consumers are given clear and comprehensible information about risks and long-term consequences.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government recognises the financial loss, distress and uncertainty experienced by former clients affected by the collapse of WW&J McClure Ltd (McClure), particularly in relation to family protection trusts and wider estate planning arrangements.
The legal profession in England and Wales, together with its regulators, operates independently of government. Responsibility for regulating the sector sits with approved regulators, overseen by the Legal Services Board (LSB). The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) is responsible for regulating the professional conduct of solicitors and most law firms in England and Wales. This includes McClure, as well as Jones Whyte which took on the work in progress and certain assets of McClure when it went into administration in April 2021. The SRA regulates the firms’ activities in England and Wales, with matters relating to their Scottish offices falling under the Law Society of Scotland. Details of the SRA’s ongoing work in relation to McClure is available here: https://www.sra.org.uk/news/news/mcclure/.
With regards to asking the SRA to meet representatives of former clients of McClure, given regulatory independence, the Ministry of Justice does not direct the SRA’s stakeholder engagement. However, I have discussed the impact of the firm’s collapse with the SRA and know that the SRA is continuing to meet with various stakeholders, including those representing former clients.
Any warning signs relating to McClure prior to the firm’s collapse, and when these were identified by legal services regulators, are similarly operational matters for the independent SRA. The Ministry of Justice does not hold this information.
In relation to successor firm requirements, SRA guidance for firms is available here: https://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/guidance/closing-down-your-practice/. Under the SRA’s framework, its assessment is that Jones Whyte is not a successor practice. However, the firm must make sure it complies with a range of obligations, including those which have been set out in a compliance plan which the firm has agreed and on which the SRA is monitoring progress. This includes secure handling and storage of client papers and documents, and appropriate arrangements for file distribution and advice to impacted clients on their options.
With regard to changes to legal services regulation since the collapse of McClure, there has been continued work to strengthen how risks to consumers are identified and addressed. The SRA’s Corporate Strategy 2023-26 includes strengthening risk based and proactive regulation as a strategic priority and it has pursued action in this area. For example, in its recent Business Plan, the SRA sets out the steps it has taken to improve how it uses data and intelligence to spot risks more swiftly and take action to manage them effectively. The SRA has also indicated that it is accelerating this work, including through further investment in people and technology. In addition, the SRA is implementing changes in response to the LSB’s independent reviews of its regulation of Axiom Ince Ltd and SSB Group Ltd.
The Ministry of Justice keeps the statutory framework set by the Legal Services Act 2007 under review to ensure that it is operating effectively and protects consumers. The Government has no current plans to review the regulation of estate planning and trust-selling practices. The Department's focus is on improving the enforcement of existing rules.