Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many convictions of sexual assault in which the perpetrator was a transgender woman born as a biological male have been recorded in each of the past five years.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on prosecutions and convictions for a wide range of offences including rape and sexual assault in England and Wales within the Outcomes by Offences data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics.
Data held centrally contains the sex of the offender where known but does not record if the offender was a transgender woman born as a biological male.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many convictions of rape in which the perpetrator was a transgender woman born as a biological male have been recorded in each of the past five years.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on prosecutions and convictions for a wide range of offences including rape and sexual assault in England and Wales within the Outcomes by Offences data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics.
Data held centrally contains the sex of the offender where known but does not record if the offender was a transgender woman born as a biological male.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of AI-generated transcripts in criminal proceedings; and how errors will be a) identified, b) challenged and c) corrected.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
HMCTS recognises the significant potential for AI transcription to drive productivity across the courts and tribunals. As such, HMCTS is piloting how automated transcription (using AI) could be used across all courts and tribunals, including criminal courts. This work is one of 15 AI Exemplar projects across Government.
At the start of 2025, HMCTS completed testing of how AI Transcription could be used to enhance efficiency in the Immigration and Asylum Chamber. This work evidenced strong accuracy, and potential efficiency gains achievable through AI-enabled transcription.
In line with HMCTS Responsible AI principles, any work to scale the provision of AI-generated transcripts across the courts and tribunals will establish robust processes for how errors will be a) identified, b) challenged and c) corrected.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has assessed the potential merits of UK accession to the Lugano Convention for businesses and legal professionals.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The UK applied to re-join the 2007 Lugano Convention in April 2020. This application remains pending as the European Commission stated in a Note Verbale in June 2021 that it was not in a position to consent to UK accession.
The UK Government remains committed to close and effective collaboration with EU and EFTA countries in the area of private international law. As evidence of this, the UK ratified the 2019 Hague Convention in 2024, to which the EU is also a Party. This now provides recognition and enforcement rules in civil and commercial matters between the UK and the EU and its Member States.
Hague 2019 rules provide greater certainty for businesses, reduce transactional and cross-border litigation costs, and support international trade and investments. Being part of this multilateral framework also encourages businesses to choose the UK’s world-beating courts and legal services for their international litigation, by providing greater predictability as to whether a UK judgment can be recognised and enforced abroad.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the workloads of prison officers in the North West.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Staffing models in public sector prisons and associated staffing numbers, are reviewed on a routine basis to take account of business changes that may impact on the workload of staff.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what his Department plans to do about the number of prisoners spending time on remand exceeding the Custody Time Limit of 6 months.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The use of remand is a judicial matter and decisions regarding it are up to the judiciary, whose independence from government is well-established. There are well established processes for extending Custody Time Limits. Applications must be approved by independent judges and defendants have the right to oppose any application.
Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when will the strategic governance review of the Probationary Service be published.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Government has committed to undertake a strategic review of the Probation Service in its manifesto. We remain committed to this and will review governance arrangements, looking at local partnerships across England and Wales.
This work will follow implementation of the Sentencing Bill reforms, which will significantly change how the Probation Service operates. Governance arrangements must be designed to enable and support the effective delivery of these reforms. Our priority is to ensure the Probation Service is on a stable footing and performance has improved before undertaking the review.
In the meantime, this Government will continue to strengthen joint working with local partners to reduce reoffending and better protect the public.
Asked by: Edward Argar (Conservative - Melton and Syston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what percentage of women sentenced to custody in (a) 2023, (b) 2024 and (c) 2025 received sentences of six months and fewer.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Latest Criminal Justice Statistics data published to the end of June 2025 shows that for female defendants aged 18 or over:
In 2023, 3,268 women received a custodial sentence of six months or less, representing 68% of all female custodial sentences.
In 2024, 4,078 women received a custodial sentence of six months or less, representing 71% of all female custodial sentences.
Between January and June 2025, 2,199 women received a custodial sentence of six months or less, representing 71% of all female custodial sentences during this period.
*Please note: The most recent published sentencing data is available up to June 2025.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Goole and Pocklington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, by how much they plan to reduce their Department's budget to help fund the digital ID scheme.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Digital Identity policy is in development, with a dedicated team inside the Cabinet Office working to develop the proposals.
Costs in this Spending Review period will be met within the existing Spending Review settlements.
We are inviting the public to have their say in the upcoming consultation as we develop a safe, secure, and inclusive system for the UK. No final decisions will be made until after the consultation.
Asked by: Gideon Amos (Liberal Democrat - Taunton and Wellington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what communications and outreach strategies the Department is implementing to inform victims, legal representatives, and support organisations about their eligibility and the future availability of free sentencing-remarks transcripts, in light of the 498 applications processed under the Rape and Sexual Offences pilot.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
In May 2025, we announced that we would continue to enable victims of rape and other sexual offences, whose cases were heard in the Crown Court, to apply for free transcripts of the sentencing remarks in their case, on an on-going basis. This followed a one-year pilot which ran from May 2024.
We have taken the following steps to promote the provision:
Providing the Witness Service, whose role is to support victims and witnesses at court, with an information sheet on the scheme to distribute to any eligible victims
Publishing a dedicated webpage on Gov.uk
Sharing information on the scheme at a forum with over 70 national and local stakeholders who work with or represent victims.
And creating social media posts on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and LinkedIn.