Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many women received a custodial sentence of (1) less than one month, (2) between one month and two months, (3) between two months and three months (4) between three months and four months, and (5) between four months and six months in each of the last two years in England and Wales; and how many of each had served their sentence on remand.
Answered by Lord Lemos - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on defendant outcomes by remand status and sex at criminal courts in England and Wales in the Remands data tool. They can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics.
The attached table provides details of how many female defendants were remanded into custody and how many were subsequently not sentenced or given a community sentence in each of the last two years in England and Wales.
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on custodial sentence lengths by sex at criminal courts in England and Wales in the Outcomes by Offences data tool. They can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics.
The requested information on female custodial sentence lengths in England and Wales is provided in the attached table. However, published sentencing statistics do not record the length of time a person spent on remand in prison, or whether any subsequent custodial sentence was served while the individual was on remand.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many women were remanded in prison in each of the past two years, and how many of these were subsequently (1) not sentenced, and (2) received a community sentence.
Answered by Lord Lemos - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on defendant outcomes by remand status and sex at criminal courts in England and Wales in the Remands data tool. They can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics.
The attached table provides details of how many female defendants were remanded into custody and how many were subsequently not sentenced or given a community sentence in each of the last two years in England and Wales.
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on custodial sentence lengths by sex at criminal courts in England and Wales in the Outcomes by Offences data tool. They can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics.
The requested information on female custodial sentence lengths in England and Wales is provided in the attached table. However, published sentencing statistics do not record the length of time a person spent on remand in prison, or whether any subsequent custodial sentence was served while the individual was on remand.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will publish an integrated workforce plan for health and social care.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
On 29 July, the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care set out the Government’s plans to fix the social care system, so that it gives people dignity, security and support when they need it most. This includes integrating the social care workforce with the National Health Service workforce, creating routes for progression, better pay, training and job security.
We will provide an update on the 10 Year Workforce Plan in due course.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many Psychiatric Intensive Care Units there were in every region of the country in each of the last five years.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not held centrally by NHS England.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to reform the student loans system over the next 12 months.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The government is taking decisive action to better support disadvantaged students, make things fairer for graduates, and create a more flexible, responsive post-16 education system through the introduction of the Lifelong Learning Entitlement in January 2027.
Since 2024, we have raised the Plan 2 repayment threshold twice, protected borrowers from the risk of inflation shocks by capping interest rates on Plan 2 and Plan 3 loans at 6% for the 2026/27 academic year, and future-proofed maintenance loans by committing to increase them every year in-line with forecast inflation. Further, we are making care leavers automatically eligible for the maximum rate of maintenance loan, and we will be reintroducing targeted, means-tested maintenance grants in the2028/29 academic year, funded by a levy on providers for international students.
We will continue to look for ways to make the system fairer for students, graduates and taxpayers in a financially sustainable way.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to support unpaid carers over the next 12 months in the light of increases to the cost of living.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government recognises the vital contribution made by unpaid carers and is committed to ensuring they receive the support they need.
The cross-government Unpaid Carers Action Plan, published on 14 July, sets out our work to improve how unpaid carers are recognised, how support is offered, and how they can be helped to reach their full potential and live fulfilling lives.
Financial support is available from the Department for Work and Pensions through Universal Credit, Pension Credit, and – in England and Wales – Carer’s Allowance. The Universal Credit Act 2025 introduced, for the first time ever, a sustained above-inflation increase to the Standard Allowance to rebalance support for those on low incomes. This increased by 6.1% in April 2026. The Universal Credit carer element, which is payable in addition to the Standard Allowance for those providing unpaid care of 35 hours a week or more for a severely disabled person, was increased in line with the increase in the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) by 3.8%.
The Standard Minimum Guarantee in Pension Credit was increased in line with average earnings growth by 4.8%. The Pension Credit carer addition, which is payable in addition to the Standard Minimum Guarantee, was increased in line with the increase in the CPI by 3.8%, as was Carer's Allowance.
The weekly earnings limit in Carer's Allowance was increased to £204 per week, aligned with 16 hours at the National Living Wage. This continues the policy we introduced last year, which saw the largest ever increase in the earnings limit since Carer's Allowance was introduced, and means over 60,000 additional people are expected to receive Carer's Allowance between 2025/26 and 2029/30.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many (1) high, (2) medium, and (3) low, secure beds in mental health units were available in every region of England in each of the last five years.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Neither the Department nor NHS England holds centrally validated information on the number of secure beds in each region.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure the financial stability and development of Appropriate Adult services across the criminal justice system in the next three years.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises the important role that Appropriate Adults play in safeguarding the rights and welfare of children and vulnerable adults within the criminal justice system, ensuring they are treated fairly and able to participate effectively in police processes.
Appropriate Adult services are delivered locally through a range of partnership arrangements, including local authorities, police and crime commissioners and voluntary sector organisations, enabling provision to reflect local need and demand.
The Home Office provides grant funding to support Appropriate Adult services, including through funding to the National Appropriate Adult Network
The Government is committed to upholding the safeguards set out in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and its Codes of Practice, which requires that children and vulnerable adults are supported by an Appropriate Adult during police interactions.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the education budget for (1) women's prisons, and (2) men's prisons, in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Timpson
To provide figures that show education budgets broken down by men’s and women’s prisons over the period requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. The budget encompasses various different services which are managed in different ways and are not all apportioned on a per-prison level.
Figures for the budget across both men and women’s prisons are shown in the table below. This only covers education, it does not cover broader skills training and employment work, for example that is delivered through prison industries and workshops.
Financial Year | Total Education Budget for Male and Female estate in millions |
2021/22 | £146.8 |
2022/23 | £153.2 |
2023/24 | £166.2 |
2024/25 | £170.4 |
2025/26 | £176.3 |
Budgets for locally commissioned services are allocated to individual prisons based on size of population, type of establishment and geographic area. Other services are commissioned nationally, such as Higher Education provision through the Open University and Distance Learning through the Prisoners’ Education Trust. We are focusing on improving attendance and driving up quality to ensure that every pound spent has greater impact on learners.
Both contracts through which core education was delivered during the period allocated a greater per-prisoner amount to women's prisons.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to improve the fitting quality of electronic monitoring tags.
Answered by Lord Timpson
The field and monitoring service contract, with the provider Serco, has clear contractual requirements governing the delivery of the Electronic Monitoring service, including the fitting of electronic monitoring tags. The latest performance data from Serco evidenced continued improved performance with all contractual KPIs met.
The relevant contract can be found on contract finder via the following links, and have also been attached for ease: Electronic Monitoring Field and Monitoring Service (FMS) - Contracts Finder and Electronic Monitoring - MDSS contract - Contracts Finder.