Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign nationals held in the prison estate have previously been detained after conviction.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. This is because it would require data linking between prison data and the Ministry of Justice extract of the police national computer.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on the number of naloxone kits issued (a) within custodial settings in and (b) on release from HM Prisons in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested is not held centrally.
Naloxone kits have been issued and maintained by individual healthcare providers across the prison estate and have not been supplied by the Ministry of Justice over the time specified in the question.
From January 2024, His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) is coordinating roll-out of Naloxone training on a voluntary basis to prison staff. We will collate data on the use of Naloxone by HMPPS staff as roll-out and usage progresses.
The information requested for opioid overdose reversals is not held centrally. In relation to fatalities, ONS data on drug-related deaths includes the number in which opiates are mentioned on the death certificate (which differs from the number of overdoses) – table 7 in this publication Drug-related deaths and suicide in prison custody - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk). However, this only covers up to 2019, as it uses data from Coroner’s reports on which there is a considerable time lag. Furthermore, depending on the circumstances, an opioid overdose could be classed as a self-inflicted death or an ‘other: non-natural' death. Therefore, without checking the individual cases, it is not possible to obtain an accurate figure from the wider data, on fatalities.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many opioid overdoses in custodial settings have (a) been successfully reversed and (b) resulted in fatalities in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested is not held centrally.
Naloxone kits have been issued and maintained by individual healthcare providers across the prison estate and have not been supplied by the Ministry of Justice over the time specified in the question.
From January 2024, His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) is coordinating roll-out of Naloxone training on a voluntary basis to prison staff. We will collate data on the use of Naloxone by HMPPS staff as roll-out and usage progresses.
The information requested for opioid overdose reversals is not held centrally. In relation to fatalities, ONS data on drug-related deaths includes the number in which opiates are mentioned on the death certificate (which differs from the number of overdoses) – table 7 in this publication Drug-related deaths and suicide in prison custody - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk). However, this only covers up to 2019, as it uses data from Coroner’s reports on which there is a considerable time lag. Furthermore, depending on the circumstances, an opioid overdose could be classed as a self-inflicted death or an ‘other: non-natural' death. Therefore, without checking the individual cases, it is not possible to obtain an accurate figure from the wider data, on fatalities.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many times naloxone has been administered in custodial settings in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested is not held centrally.
Naloxone kits have been issued and maintained by individual healthcare providers across the prison estate and have not been supplied by the Ministry of Justice over the time specified in the question.
From January 2024, His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) is coordinating roll-out of Naloxone training on a voluntary basis to prison staff. We will collate data on the use of Naloxone by HMPPS staff as roll-out and usage progresses.
The information requested for opioid overdose reversals is not held centrally. In relation to fatalities, ONS data on drug-related deaths includes the number in which opiates are mentioned on the death certificate (which differs from the number of overdoses) – table 7 in this publication Drug-related deaths and suicide in prison custody - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk). However, this only covers up to 2019, as it uses data from Coroner’s reports on which there is a considerable time lag. Furthermore, depending on the circumstances, an opioid overdose could be classed as a self-inflicted death or an ‘other: non-natural' death. Therefore, without checking the individual cases, it is not possible to obtain an accurate figure from the wider data, on fatalities.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he expects radon gas testing to be completed at Dartmoor prison; and what assurances he has been given that there are no safety concerns for the staff and prisoners who remain on site.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
HMP Dartmoor is currently operating at a reduced capacity due to the presence of radon gas in accommodation areas. This is a temporary measure while work to permanently reduce radon levels is completed.
The prison will return to its full operational capacity at the earliest possible opportunity following the completion of remedial works to ensure that the accommodation can be safely occupied. A design solution for the remedial works is currently being designed and tested.
The health and safety of staff and prisoners remains a top priority for the Department. Testing across all residential areas continues and prisoners have been removed from accommodation where readings were returned at above actionable levels. At all times, the safety and wellbeing of staff and prisoners will be at the heart of our decision making and we are guided by experts in this area. There are no adverse safety implications to staff or prisoners who remain on the site.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate he has made of when HMP Dartmoor will return to its full operational capacity following the detection of radon gas in that prison.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
HMP Dartmoor is currently operating at a reduced capacity due to the presence of radon gas in accommodation areas. This is a temporary measure while work to permanently reduce radon levels is completed.
The prison will return to its full operational capacity at the earliest possible opportunity following the completion of remedial works to ensure that the accommodation can be safely occupied. A design solution for the remedial works is currently being designed and tested.
The health and safety of staff and prisoners remains a top priority for the Department. Testing across all residential areas continues and prisoners have been removed from accommodation where readings were returned at above actionable levels. At all times, the safety and wellbeing of staff and prisoners will be at the heart of our decision making and we are guided by experts in this area. There are no adverse safety implications to staff or prisoners who remain on the site.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to help prevent reoffending by people convicted of violent offences.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
This Government is committed to tackling the causes of reoffending to keep our communities safe. Between 2010/11 and 2020/21, the overall proven reoffending rate has decreased from 31.6% to 24.4%.
Rehabilitation is critical to reducing reoffending. It is the process by which we assist people either to change themselves or improve their life circumstances, addressing their drivers of reoffending and therefore cutting crime. Rehabilitation takes many forms, ranging from the delivery of a cognitive behaviour programme to enabling a person to access suitable accommodation and the means to earn a living.
HMPPS offers 5 Accredited Programmes specifically designed for those individuals convicted of general, domestic, intimate partner violent offending: Kaizen, Becoming New Me Plus (BNM+), Building Better Relationships (BBR), New Me Strengths (NMS), and Living as New Me (LNM). The Thinking Skills Programme (TSP) is a responsive and flexible Accredited Programme that may be suitable for those offenders who do not meet the eligibility criteria for more specific programmes, as well as the New Me MOT toolkit, offering continuity of support to those who have completed the Kaizen, BNM+, or NMS programmes.
In addition to our targeted work to prevent violent crime reoffending, we are also working hard to ensure that prison leavers across the estate have the right building blocks in place to ensure they are successful on release. For example, we are helping prison leavers to secure accommodation, employment, and substance misuse treatment, all of which are essential for rehabilitation and can significantly reduce the likelihood of reoffending. We are also delivering Commissioned Rehabilitative Services which provide offenders with tailored, community-based services to support rehabilitation and drive down reoffending. On top of this, we are expanding the use of electronic monitoring for both community-based sentences and post-custody licence to help reduce the risk of reoffending and support robust offender management.
Finally, public protection work is central to the work of the Probation Service. We have also increased our baseline funding by £155 million per annum which is helping us to increase staffing and take other action to improve delivery across HMPPS so that the service can best achieve its purpose of protecting the public and reducing reoffending.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many trainee probation officers have resigned from the service within (a) one week, (b) one month and (c) three months of starting their role as a trainee probation officer.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The recruitment team has worked extensively to improve candidate experience by broadening the information and communication channels available to potential applicants, to help reduce attrition. This includes interactive webinars for successful candidates to ensure new trainees are starting the role with a clear understanding of their responsibilities, the organisation, and the trainee programme. We have also reviewed the trainee learning and development curriculum to improve learner experience and have launched a refreshed induction in March 2024.
For the period from 16 October 2016 to 31 December 2023, there have generally been two cohorts of Trainee Probation Officers who started training each year. Out of the people undertaking this training:
10 individuals resigned in the period up to one week after the start date of their PQiP training course.
23 resigned in the period of over a week but up to and including one month after the start date of their PQiP training course.
57 resigned in the period of over one month up to and including three months after the start date of their PQiP training course.
For the two cohorts across 22/23 there were 1,514 starters, for the two cohorts across 21/22 there were 1,518 starters and for the two cohorts across 20/21 there were 1,007 starters. We are unable to provide data on 23/24 at the current time as this would pre-empt the next set of published data, which will be released on Thursday 16 May 2024.
Notes:
1. Includes staff on Trainee Probation Officer (PQiP) courses. A considerable majority of these individuals are of the Probation Services Officer grade.
2. Resignation date taken as the last day of service. Date that resignation handed in is not available.
3. Staff who left for other reasons are not included.
5. In order to arrive at this information there had to be some data matching from a trainee probation officer staff list to staff who left to separate out trainees from substantive Probation Services Officers. In instances where data from the staff list was incomplete with data such as relevant staff ID then matching may not have been possible.
6. Data on the number of starters each financial year can be found in the March edition of the Probation Officer Recruitment Annex (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6464f746d3231e001332db9d/annex-probation-officer-recruitment-March-2023_final.ods).
7. It should be noted that a considerable number of trainees withdraw from PQiP training but remain in HMPPS. For information on withdrawal and leaving rates from PQiP training, please see Table Three of Probation Officer Recruitment Annex.
8. In January 2023, a considerable number of PQiPs onboarded early to the Probation Service. For the purposes of this response, we have looked at the time of resignation following the time at which they started their PQiP training course. If any of these individuals left the service before starting their PQiP training course, they have been excluded from this analysis.
Asked by: Janet Daby (Labour - Lewisham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average number of hours spent out of their cell by inmates was on (a) weekdays and (b) weekend days in each young offender institution in February 2024.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested regarding average time-out-of-room spent by children and young people in young offender institutions during February 2024 is shown in the table below.
| Cookham Wood | Feltham | Parc | Werrington | Wetherby |
Weekdays | 3:24 | 5:02 | 8:30 | 4:06 | 6:25 |
Weekends | 2:01 | 3:49 | 5:47 | 3:10 | 4:33 |
The average time spent out-of-room each day by children and young people at Oakhill Secure Training Centre in February 2024 was 13 hours. As information about Oakhill Secure Training Centre is collated on a different basis from information about young offender institutions, it is not possible to provide the requested breakdown between weekdays and weekends.
We know the importance of ensuring that time in custody is purposeful and are committed to ensuring that children and young people have the necessary and appropriate access to education, skills, and work provision with a consistent daily programme of activities.
The Youth Custody Service is reviewing regime models and staff deployment to maximise time out of room, creating as open a regime as it is safe to do so, as well as providing education and enrichment for those who cannot safely be in a classroom setting. Additionally, work done to reduce conflict and manage behaviour, to increase the size of groups who are mixing in the regime, has increased time out of room.
Asked by: Feryal Clark (Labour - Enfield North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were convicted of knife crime offences in the year ending March (a) 2023 and (b) 2018; and how many such people were first time offenders.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
In the year ending March 2023, 2,108 children were convicted of a knife crime offence (defined as knife possession and knife threatening offences) and for 1,924 of those individuals this was their first knife crime offence. Compared to the year ending March 2018, 2,635 children were convicted of a knife crime offence and for 2,398 of those individuals this was their first knife crime offence.
In the year ending March 2023, 11,899 people (i.e. adults and children) were convicted of a knife crime offence and for 9,314 of those individuals this was their first knife crime offence. Compared to year ending March 2018, 12,163 people were convicted of a knife crime offence and for 9,865 of those individuals this was their first knife crime offence.
Tackling knife crime is a priority and this Government is determined to do all it can to break the deadly cycle of violence that devastates the lives of individuals, families and communities.
We are taking significant action to both prevent and respond to crimes involving weapons through the Serious Violence Strategy, the Offensive Weapons Act 2019, the recruitment of 20,000 new police officers, and increasing stop and search powers.