Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their response to the recommendations made in the report by HM Inspectorate of Prisons of February 2014 reviewing the monitoring of Gypsy, Romany and Traveller prisoners.
Answered by Lord Faulks
I welcome the report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons, People in Prison: Gypsies, Romany and Travellers.
Meeting the needs of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) prisoners has traditionally been challenging due to very low declaration rates. To address this, and to improve the support received by them, the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) has carried out work to increase the confidence of these prisoners to declare their ethnicity.
In March 2014, NOMS implemented a new tool to monitor various outcomes for prisoners against a range of protected characteristics, including GRT prisoners. This has proved to be successful and declaration rates have increased. The tool allows NOMS to better understand where gaps in services for GRT prisoners are, and for services to be commissioned where appropriate.
NOMS has worked closely with organisations such as the Friends Family and Travellers and the Irish Chaplaincy in Britain to provide information to staff and prisoners regarding best practice when working with GRT prisoners.
The Youth Justice Board (YJB) commissioned and jointly published (with HMIP) the report: 'Children and Young People in Custody 2012-13: An Analysis of 12-18 year olds' perceptions of their experience in secure training centres'. This was the first published annual summary of children and young people's self-reported experiences and perceptions from surveys carried out with young people in each of the four Secure Training Centres (STCs). The YJB will continue to commission these reports and monitor the findings from this survey in future years to gain a better understanding of the representation GRT young people within STCs.
Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they will publish their legislative plans to allow humanist marriages now that the public consultation is closed.
Answered by Lord Faulks
The Government is carefully considering the analysis of the responses we have received and the implications for marriage law and practice if a change were to be made to legislation. We plan to publish the Government’s response to the review by 1 January 2015.
Asked by: Baroness Whitaker (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their response to the recommendations in the report by HM Inspectorate of Prisons <i>People in prison: Gypsies, Romany and Travellers </i>that there should be further research into the reasons why people from those communities are in prison and how they are supported; and that the number of young people of Gypsy, Romany and Traveller background in Secure Training Centres should be investigated.
Answered by Lord Faulks
The Ministry of Justice is considering how best to take forward Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) report recommendation for research into the reasons why people from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) communities are in prison.
To address the historically low declaration rates of GRT prisoners and to improve the support received by GRT prisoners, the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) has carried out extensive work to increase the declaration rates of GRT prisoners including work to increase the confidence of GRT prisoners to declare their ethnicity.
In March 2014, NOMS implemented a new tool to monitor various outcomes for prisoners against a range of protected characteristics, including GRT prisoners. NOMS is now monitoring outcomes for this group of prisoners.
The Youth Justice Board (YJB) commissioned and jointly published (with HMIP) the report: 'Children and Young People in Custody 2012-13: An Analysis of 12-18 year olds' perceptions of their experience in secure training centres'. This was the first published annual summary of children and young people's self-reported experiences and perceptions from surveys carried out with young people in each of the four Secure Training Centres (STCs).
The YJB will continue to commission these reports and monitor the findings from this survey in future years to gain a better understanding of the representation GRT young people within STCs.