Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of how many owners of Community Rehabilitation Companies have hired public relations companies or consultants since February.
Answered by Lord Faulks
The MoJ robustly manages and monitors the performance of Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs), in line with Government standards, to make sure they fulfil their contractual commitments to maintain service delivery, reduce reoffending and deliver value for money to the taxpayer. CRCs are contracted to deliver services for a fixed fee. We are aware that some of the CRCs have contracted with Public Relations Agencies. However, we would not normally monitor information on how many owners hire PR companies or consultants.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the proportion of people in the justice system currently supervised by the National Probation Service and Community Rehabilitation Companies is different to the proportions predicted during the Transforming Rehabilitation contracting process; and whether any differences between the predicted and actual numbers of people so supervised has had any impact on the development of the supply chains contained in the winning Transforming Rehabilitation contract bids.
Answered by Lord Faulks
No prediction of the case allocation split between the National Probation Service (NPS) and Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC) was made at the time of the Transforming Rehabilitation competition. Instead, actual data was used to identify the proportion of cases that sat with either the NPS or CRCs. The actual proportion of offenders allocated to the NPS or CRCs is now different compared to that at the time of the competition. Any shift in the relative caseloads held between NPS and CRCs would be as a result of a change in the mix of offenders within the system
The Ministry of Justice monitors offender case allocation and expects providers to implement the supply chains that were set out in their bids during the TR competition, unless otherwise agreed with the Authority. We are working with suppliers to ascertain any potential impact on the supply chain.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the accuracy in practice of the Weighted Annual Volumes estimated for each contract package area in order to develop contracts for the Transforming Rehabilitation programme.
Answered by Lord Faulks
The Weighted Annual Volume (WAV) was not estimated. Flat projections were made for each contract package area and made available to bidders for the purposes of bid evaluation. The contracts held with Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) include a payment mechanism which accounts for changes in volumes (paying providers more if volumes increase, and less if volumes decrease). This was communicated to providers throughout the bidding and competition process.Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to ensure that women's centres that are not in Community Rehabilitation Company supply chains do not close due to a lack of funding.
Answered by Lord Faulks
The new Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) owners were required to put forward plans to make sure female offenders are properly supported as part of their bids. All eight owners of the 21 CRCs included in their bids organisations that deliver services for women. CRCs are currently in the process of finalising who they wish to commission services from on an ongoing basis. The MoJ robustly manages and monitors the performance of CRCs, in line with government standards, to make sure they fulfil their contractual commitments to maintain service delivery, reduce reoffending and deliver value for money to the taxpayer. This includes making sure they provide services that meet the particular needs of female offenders.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are taking steps to monitor whether women's centres have lost funding since the Transforming Rehabilitation programme came into force in February.
Answered by Lord Faulks
The new Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) owners were required to put forward plans to make sure female offenders are properly supported as part of their bids. All eight owners of the 21 CRCs included in their bids organisations that deliver services for women. CRCs are currently in the process of finalising who they wish to commission services from on an ongoing basis. The MoJ robustly manages and monitors the performance of CRCs, in line with government standards, to make sure they fulfil their contractual commitments to maintain service delivery, reduce reoffending and deliver value for money to the taxpayer. This includes making sure they provide services that meet the particular needs of female offenders.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many organisations now running Community Rehabilitation Companies included plans to contract women's centres in the bids for Transforming Rehabilitation contracts; and what steps will be taken if Community Rehabilitation Companies that included such plans in their bids fail to act upon them within a reasonable time.
Answered by Lord Faulks
The new Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) owners were required to put forward plans to make sure female offenders are properly supported as part of their bids. All eight owners of the 21 CRCs included in their bids organisations that deliver services for women. CRCs are currently in the process of finalising who they wish to commission services from on an ongoing basis. The MoJ robustly manages and monitors the performance of CRCs, in line with government standards, to make sure they fulfil their contractual commitments to maintain service delivery, reduce reoffending and deliver value for money to the taxpayer. This includes making sure they provide services that meet the particular needs of female offenders.
Asked by: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many women were in prisons in England on 30 June in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 respectively.
Answered by Lord Faulks
The decision to sentence a person to a custodial sentence, or to remand a person into custody prior to trial or sentencing, is a matter for the independent judiciary and courts will take into account all the circumstances of the offence and the offender in determining this.
For the last two years, the female prison population has been consistently under 4,000 for the first time in a decade. Data on the number of women in prison is published annually at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/339036/prison-population-2014.xls
The numbers of women in prisons in England on 30th June on each of the years in question were:
2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 |
4,463 | 4,283 | 4,505 | 4,307 | 4,267 | 4,185 | 4,123 | 3,853 | 3,929 |
We are committed to making sure that sentencers have robust community options at their disposal. The Female Offenders Advisory Board are working in Greater Manchester on a pathfinder aimed at providing sentencers with robust and effective sentencing options in the community which may divert women from custody, where appropriate. Learning from the pathfinder will inform a new operating model for working differently with women in the criminal justice system. We are also testing a new model of liaison and diversion in police custody and the courts. The trial scheme, in 10 areas, will aim to identify, assess and refer people with mental health, learning disability, substance misuse and social vulnerabilities into treatment or support services.
We are also working to make sure that female offenders have the support they need to turn their lives around. In March 2014, we published a first year progress report on delivery of our strategic objectives for female offenders, which sets out clearly our key priorities for addressing the needs of female offenders and reducing the number of women in custody. Our Transforming Rehabilitation reforms also mean that those serving under 12 month sentences will, for the first time in recent history, be subject to statutory supervision including a licence period in the community, aimed at supporting successful community reintegration and rehabilitation. Proportionally, more women than men are serving short sentences so they will benefit particularly from this element of the reforms.