Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of prison leavers went on to live in settled accommodation after using the Community Accommodation Service Tier 3 in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
HMPPS Community Accommodation Service (CAS) provides transitional accommodation via three tiers of support, each focused on a different cohort. CAS3 was launched in July 2021, providing up to 12 weeks’ guaranteed accommodation on release for those leaving prison at risk of homelessness, with support to move on to settled accommodation. Initially implemented in five probation regions (Yorkshire and the Humber; North West; Greater Manchester; East of England; and Kent, Surrey and Sussex), the service was rolled out to Wales in June 2022. From April 2023, the CAS3 service was operating in all probation regions in England and Wales. By January 2023, the proportion of offenders housed on the first night of their release from custody was 7.6 percentage points higher in CAS3 regions versus non-CAS3 regions.
We are undertaking an evaluation of the impact of CAS3 on offenders’ obtaining settled accommodation and employment, and on re-offending outcomes. The report is due to be published in the autumn.
The National Audit Office’s report “Improving resettlement support for prison leavers to reduce reoffending”, published in May 2023, looks at the impact of CAS3 on accommodation outcomes during the period up to February 2023. It can be accessed via the following link:
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether it is his policy to invest all additional revenue from court and tribunal fees into the Courts and Tribunals Service to help tackle the civil case backlog.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Additional income raised from court and tribunal fees will make a significant contribution to vital work taking place across the Department to facilitate an effective and efficient justice system. This includes our continuous efforts to improve HMCTS service performance and reduce court backlogs.
Fees generated £727 million in income for the Ministry of Justice in 2022/23 out of the total c.£2.3 billion that it cost to run HMCTS. The recent round of fee uplifts is expected to raise another £30 million – £37 million a year in additional income.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the unused court capacity was in each year since 2015.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
HMCTS had the following number of sessions recorded as either available or unavailable since 2015:
Period | Available verified sessions | Unavailable verified sessions |
FY 15-16 | 1,552,490 | 42,692 |
FY 16-17 | 1,512,424 | 36,811 |
FY 17-18 | 1,387,270 | 37,598 |
FY 18-19 | 1,347,648 | 36,507 |
FY 19-20 | 1,302,006 | 38,408 |
FY 20-21 | 1,062,856 | 130,071 |
FY 21-22 | 1,277,033 | 86,511 |
FY 22-23 | 1,277,981 | 42,665 |
FY 23-24 | 1,281,838 | 48,201 |
A ‘session’ represents the time that court/hearing room space is available, with up to two sessions available each day. Available and unavailable sessions are recorded for all jurisdictions.
HMCTS record a session being unavailable for a number of reasons, including important alternative uses. For example:
HMCTS’ Courtroom Planner performance database was introduced in April 2015 to collect information on the availability of courtrooms. The data was suspended in April 2020 due to COVID disruption and resumed in September 2020. The data between April and August 2020 is therefore incomplete.
The amount of time we use our available estate for hearings is also connected to the funded number of sitting days in any one year, and the availability of key participants such as judiciary and legal professionals.
To maintain session levels, we are investing £220m in the two years to March 2025 for essential maintenance and repair work across the estate to ensure we are keeping as many courtrooms open as possible to hear more cases. This two-year capital maintenance allocation enables us to plan major estate projects in advance and with certainty. Maintenance funding is prioritised to sites that need it most, and this investment is a step forward in improving the quality of the court estate. We have a planned pipeline of future works to improve the resilience and quality of the court estate, and this is kept under regular review.
We have also introduced additional measures to speed up justice for victims and improve the justice system, including:
o Extending 20 Nightingale courtrooms beyond March 2024 to provide additional capacity in the court estate.
o Investing in judicial recruitment since 2017 which has resulted in the annual recruitment of approximately 1000 judges and tribunal members across all jurisdictions. In particular, this has led to an overall increase in the number of judges in the Crown Court.
Please note all data provided is internal and subject to data quality issues inherent in any large-scale manual system.
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prisoners sentenced to custodial sentences had previously received at least one (a) community and (b) suspended sentence in each year since 2010.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Sentencing in individual cases is a matter for the independent judiciary and, by law, courts are required to be satisfied that the offence committed is so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified, and even when that threshold is met, courts are able to consider whether a community sentence would be more suitable in that particular case. In many cases, sentences served in the community can more effectively reduce reoffending when compared to short custodial sentences.
Data showing the number and proportion of prisoners sentenced to custodial sentences, who have previously had at least one community order or suspended sentence order respectively for each year since 2010, is drawn from the Police National Computer. This can be viewed in the table below.
Table showing the number and proportion of offender s(1), (2) sentenced to immediate custody(3) in each year since 2010(4), who previously(5) received at least one community order(6) or suspended sentence order respectively(7), prior to the immediate custodial sentence. England and Wales(8).
Year | Number of offenders who received at least one community order prior to an immediate custodial sentence | Proportion of offenders who received at least one community order prior to an immediate custodial sentence | Number of offenders who received at least one suspended sentence order prior to an immediate custodial sentence | Proportion of offenders who received at least one suspended sentence order prior to an immediate custodial sentence |
2010 | 34,550 | 40% | 23,602 | 28% |
2011 | 40,134 | 46% | 25,870 | 29% |
2012 | 42,183 | 49% | 26,216 | 31% |
2013 | 41,201 | 52% | 26,670 | 33% |
2014 | 41,962 | 54% | 27,746 | 36% |
2015 | 41,699 | 54% | 28,381 | 37% |
2016 | 42,985 | 55% | 30,138 | 38% |
2017 | 41,424 | 56% | 30,010 | 41% |
2018 | 38,318 | 57% | 28,112 | 42% |
2019 | 35,524 | 58% | 25,634 | 42% |
2020 | 28,623 | 59% | 20,895 | 43% |
2021 | 28,523 | 55% | 20,898 | 41% |
2022 | 27,230 | 56% | 20,339 | 42% |
Source: MoJ extract of the Police National Computer
1 - 'Proportion' refers to the number of offenders in each year who received an immediate custodial sentence in each year and had at least one previous community order or suspended sentence order respectively as a proportion of all offenders who received an immediate custodial sentence in the same year.
2 - Offenders are counted once in each year but may appear in multiple years if they received an immediate custodial sentence in more than one of the years.
3 - Immediate custodial sentences include types of detention other than adult prison (e.g. detention and training orders given to 10 to 17 year olds or detention in Young Offenders Institutions). An offender sentenced to immediate custody does not necessarily mean that the offender is a member of the prison population.
4 - The figures for 2020 and 2021 are likely to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
5 - Previous community orders or suspended sentence orders respectively may have been received at any time prior to the index offence (last immediate custodial sentence) in each year.
6 - Community orders strictly include community orders, with or without electronic monitoring or curfew restrictions, but excludes other types of community sentences (e.g. youth rehabilitation order, supervision orders) and other sentences that may be served in the community (e.g. suspended sentence orders). At least some of the orders included were only introduced in their current form in 2005.
7 – individuals can be present in both columns
8 - England and Wales includes all 43 police force areas plus the British Transport Police
Asked by: Siobhain McDonagh (Labour - Mitcham and Morden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of rape trials that have been postponed within 24 hours' notice in each year since 2010.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The data held centrally by the Ministry of Justice on ineffective trials does not specifically identify those that have been postponed within 24 hours' notice. This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.
The Government is committed to improving the Criminal Justice System’s response to adult rape. This includes the significant progress we have made in delivering our Rape Review Action Plan. Within this plan, we set ourselves stretching ambitions to return the volumes of police referrals to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), CPS charges and Crown Court receipts for adult rape to 2016 levels. In practice, this means more than doubling the number of cases reaching court since the Rape Review was commissioned in 2019. We are pleased to say we have already exceeded these ambitions.
We also recognise that lengthy waiting times can be particularly difficult for victims of rape and other serious sexual offences who wish to see justice done and move on with their lives. The Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales has recently announced that all rape cases outstanding for more than two years will be listed by the end of July 2024, providing certainty to those victims that their cases will be prioritised and heard as soon as possible.
Alongside the SPJ’s efforts, we continue to make sure we do more than ever to improve timeliness at court. This includes delivering over 107,000 additional sitting days in Crown Courts; opening two permanent ‘super courtrooms’ in Manchester and Loughborough; increasing criminal legal aid spending by £141 million per year; investing over £220 million for essential modernisation and repair work of court buildings (up to March 2025); and investing further in judicial recruitment and retention.
We know that support services play a critical role in supporting victims including those engaging with the Criminal Justice System. This is why we are quadrupling funding for victims and witness support services by 2024/25, up from £41 million in 2009/10. The funding will allow us to increase the number of Independent Sexual and Domestic Violence Advisors to around 1,000 by 2025.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he (a) is taking and (b) plans to take steps to assess the efficacy of restraining orders in preventing repeat incidents of domestic violence (i) in minority ethnic communities and (ii) generally.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Restraining orders play an important role in ensuring that victims are appropriately protected, and feel safer, particularly within the context of repeated and/or escalating behaviour that disproportionately impacts women and girls, such as domestic abuse.
They are one of several existing protective orders that can be used in cases of domestic abuse to protect a victim, such as Non-Molestation Orders, Stalking Protection Orders, and Domestic Violence Protection Orders.
Abusers who breach restraining orders face tough penalties including jail time. Where a restraining order is breached, CPS guidance encourages prosecutors to consider whether a new course of conduct is present and, if so, to ensure that it is prosecuted in addition to the breach in question.
Safeguarding victims of all crimes, and particularly from those such as domestic abuse is a priority for this Government. That is why we are going further to protect victims of domestic abuse by piloting a new Domestic Abuse Protection Order from Spring 2024 which will give courts the power to impose exclusion zones, curfews, and electronic monitoring tags on abusers. The order will be independently evaluated to understand its effectiveness in protecting all victims.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many hours of corruption prevention training are provided to non-uniformed prison staff.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The vast majority of prison staff are hardworking and dedicated. A minority of staff engage in corrupt activity which is often as a result of conditioning and manipulation by prisoners.
Our Counter Corruption Unit led Awareness sessions, delivered by our Prevent team, run between two and two and a half hours, dependent on staff involvement on the day. We do not record this as hours delivered, but sessions, and we have delivered 2544 sessions since April 2021.
Data collection/recording methods changed in January 2023 to reflect the number of attendees to these sessions. Since then, over 9702 staff have been trained in total. They changed again in June 2023 to record those that were of an operational grade. From June 2023 onwards, 2602 non-operational staff received training.
This Corruption Prevention training is in addition to the induction security training package delivered to non-operational staff by local establishments for new starters, which will be establishment specific in terms of length.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many serving prisoners are subject to serious crime prevention orders in England and Wales.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Data on how many serving prisoners are subject to serious crime prevention orders is not currently held and would only be available at disproportionate costs.
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, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure offenders convinced of child criminal exploitation are not released into the same community as the victims on the completion of a custodial sentence.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Individuals convicted of serious sexual, violent and terrorist offences are managed under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) on release from custody. MAPPA enables the Police, Probation and Prison Services to work together with other agencies to manage the risks posed by these individuals in the community, in order to protect victims and members of the public.
All offenders released from custodial sentences before the end of their sentence will be supervised on licence in the community by the Probation Service. Victims who opt in to the Victim Contact Scheme (VCS), which is available for victims of specified sexual or violent offences where the sentence is 12 months or more, have the statutory right to request licence conditions for when the offender is released. Typically, these conditions will include a non-contact condition and exclusion zones, prohibiting the offender from entering areas where the victim lives, works or travels to frequently.
Where victims do not qualify for the VCS, the supervising officer in the Probation Service will undertake a risk assessment and may request licence conditions to mitigate identified risks where they relate to victims of the index offence.
Licence conditions end when the offender completes his/her sentence. However, where the Police have concerns about an offender’s ongoing risk to a victim or the general public, they may apply may apply to the Magistrates Court for the imposition of a civil order, which may place restrictions or obligations on the offender which replicate some of the protections of the licence.
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, whether he is taking steps to ensure offenders convicted of Child Sexual Exploitation are not released into the same community as the victims on completion of a custodial sentence.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Individuals convicted of serious sexual, violent and terrorist offences are managed under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) on release from custody. MAPPA enables the Police, Probation and Prison Services to work together with other agencies to manage the risks posed by these individuals in the community, in order to protect victims and members of the public.
All offenders released from custodial sentences before the end of their sentence will be supervised on licence in the community by the Probation Service. Victims who opt in to the Victim Contact Scheme (VCS), which is available for victims of specified sexual or violent offences where the sentence is 12 months or more, have the statutory right to request licence conditions for when the offender is released. Typically, these conditions will include a non-contact condition and exclusion zones, prohibiting the offender from entering areas where the victim lives, works or travels to frequently.
Where victims do not qualify for the VCS, the supervising officer in the Probation Service will undertake a risk assessment and may request licence conditions to mitigate identified risks where they relate to victims of the index offence.
Licence conditions end when the offender completes his/her sentence. However, where the Police have concerns about an offender’s ongoing risk to a victim or the general public, they may apply may apply to the Magistrates Court for the imposition of a civil order, which may place restrictions or obligations on the offender which replicate some of the protections of the licence.