Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many and what proportion of (1) men, and (2) women, arriving in custody have self-declared as part of the basic custody screening interview that they have been in the care of local authority children’s services, in each year since 2016.

Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The information requested is set out in the table below. This table provides only a count of Basic Custody Screenings where care experience was disclosed and does not provide this as a proportion of all BCSs completed over the time period so caution should be applied when considering trends.

Note:

1. The figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the level of detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system.

Basic Custody Screening data does not provide a full picture of the number of prisoners disclosing care experience each year, as it does not include data for prisoners who choose to disclose care experience at later points during their time in custody.

We know that people taken into care as children are disproportionately likely to end up in the criminal justice system, with research estimating that 24-31 per cent of the adult prison population spent time in care as children.

We are committed to addressing this disproportionality in England and Wales, both by improving support for people with care experience while in the criminal justice system, and by working with colleagues across government to reduce the number of people with care experience who enter the criminal justice system. As part of this, HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) plans to publish a new ‘Supporting Prisoners with Care Experience’ policy framework in spring 2026.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many and what proportion of prisoner leavers were assessed as posing high or very high risk of harm between April 2024 and March 2025.

Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

24,264 prisoner leavers released between April 2024 and March 2025 were assessed as posing high or very high risk of harm at the point of release between April 2024 and March 2025. This is 42% of all releases.

Public protection is this Government’s top priority.

Offenders on licence are subject to strict conditions – including exclusion zones, restriction zones and electronic monitoring – and they can be returned to prison if they breach any of these rules, in such a way as to demonstrate that their risk is no longer manageable in the community.

Notes

For information on the definition of ‘release’ in this context, please see the Notes page of the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly Releases tables which can be found here: prison-releases-Jan-to-Mar-2025.ods.

Information on release has been drawn from the Prison National Offender Management Information System (P-NOMIS). This has been linked to risk of harm information on National Delius (nDelius), the probation case management system.

Where the release could be matched between the two systems, risk of harm is as assessed at release. In cases where the release could not be matched, the risk of harm is drawn from information on NDelius closest to the release date.

Data are drawn from large administrative IT systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the information collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system due to possible errors with data entry and processing.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of women reoffended on average who had served (1) any custodial sentence, and (2) a custodial sentence of less than 12 months, between April 2022 and March 2023.

Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The proven reoffending rate for women released from custody between April 2022 and March 2023 was 46.0%.

The proven reoffending rate for women released from custodial sentences of less than 12 months between April 2022 and March 2023 was 64.1%.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much it costs per minute to make a call from (1) a prison wing payphone, and (2) an in-cell phone, to (a) a landline, and (b) a mobile phone, at (i) weekdays and (ii) weekends.

Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Calls from prison wing payphones and in-cell phones are charged at the same national rates.

Calls to UK landlines:

• 2.48 pence per minute during the week midnight Sunday to midday Friday

• 2.20 pence per minute during the weekend midday Friday to midnight Sunday

Calls to UK Mobiles

• 5.50 pence per minute during the week Sunday to midday Friday

• 3.60 pence per minute during the weekend midday Friday to midnight Sunday

The Ministry of Justice has reduced call rates in the public prison estate by negotiating a 20% reduction to all UK landline and UK mobile numbers. These rates have applied since 1 April 2025 and support the Department’s commitment to maintaining family contact.

Source: Ministry of Justice letter to the Justice Committee, July 2025: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/48682/documents/255236/default

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many people of each (1) ethnic group, and (2) religion, were in prison as of 30 September 2025.

Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The information requested is routinely published in H M Prison & Probation Service’s Offender Management Statistics Quarterly publication. It is set out in the attached tables.

The figures in these tables have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

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