Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the cost of suicides in prison over the last 12 months.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Every death in custody is a tragedy and the Government is committed to reducing the number of self-inflicted deaths in prison.
There is a variety of financial costs associated with responding to and investigating each self-inflicted death, making it difficult to calculate the total. However, it is the human cost, in terms of the loss of life, and the impact on the lives of others, including the bereaved family and friends and the staff who worked with the individual, that is of concern to the Government. It is our determination to avoid these harms, and our commitment to the welfare of those in our care, that drive our work to prevent self-inflicted deaths.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average length of (1) a completed prison governor tenure, and (2) existing prison governor tenures.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
(1) The average length of service of a completed prison governor tenure who left over the last 5 years is 4.2 years.
To note, the averages are based on total governor tenure (which would include them moving to different prisons) and not specific to time spent in one post.
(2) As at 30 June 2020, existing prison governors had spent an average of 2.7 years in their current post.
To note, this includes substantive band 10-11 Governing Governors only and does not include any deputy governors who may be filling the role on a temporary promotion.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of prison governors have stayed in post for more than (1) two, and (2) three years.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
As at 30th June 2020, 48% of prison governors had stayed in their current post for more than two years, and 39% had stayed in their current post for more than three years.
To note, this includes substantive band 10-11 Governing Governors only and does not include any deputy governors who may be filling the role on a temporary promotion.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made in increasing awareness of the Assisted Prisons Visits scheme among (1) prisoners, and (2) visitors, since the publication of the report by the National Offender Management Service Families Do Matter Project Report 2009, which found that 38 per cent of prisoners and visitors were unaware of that scheme.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
A new online Help with Visits service (formerly known as the Assisted Prison Visits Scheme) was introduced in June 2017 to simplify the application process and the ease of access to the service for members of the public who are visiting prisons.
Family service providers have continued to assist HMPPS with raising the profile of the Help with Visits Scheme and, through their service user forum, have provided feedback on the design of the updated literature. This will be launched once Covid-19 restrictions ease across the prison estate.
Additionally, a pilot across a number of prisons will be used to review eligibility criteria to help inform potential changes that may be made to improve access to social visits for prisoners and their families.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of the total population was ever in local authority care as children.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The information requested is not held by the department.
Information of the current number of children in care, as a proportion of the child population, is published in table A1 of the statistical release ‘National tables: children Looked after in England including adoption 2018 to 19’: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2018-to-2019.
Figures for the reporting year ending 31 March 2020 will be published later this year.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital aged 80 or over received ICU treatment; and how many of those patients survived.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The data is not available in the format requested.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital aged 80 or over died of the disease without receiving ICU treatment before being discharged.
Answered by Lord Bethell
The data is not available in the format requested.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children who were living with people now in prison, are currently living with the prisoners' partners.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The information requested is not held centrally and could not be collated without incurring disproportionate cost as individual records would need to be analysed.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to update the study by the Home Office Research Directorate Imprisoned Women and Mothers, published in 1997; and what assessment they have made of the finding in that report that only five per cent of female offenders’ children remain in the family home while their mother is in prison.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Although responsibility for the children of offenders sits with the Secretary of State for Education, we are actively committed to joined-up working across Government and, in our Female Offender Strategy 2018, encouraged a partnership-focused approach to addressing the needs of both imprisoned mothers and children affected by maternal imprisonment.
The Female Offender Strategy, published in June 2018, sets out our commitment to improving outcomes for women at all stages of the justice system, and this includes supporting those who have children. We know that female prisoners are more likely than male prisoners to be a primary carer and imprisoned mothers are more likely to be living with their children prior to custody – around 60% of women compared with about 45% of men in prison who have children.
We recognise that maternal imprisonment can have particularly detrimental impact on family life, and that children whose mothers are in prison are a vulnerable group and may need additional help to address both the short and long-term impacts that maternal imprisonment can have.
We have accepted the recommendations made in your secondary report on women, which demonstrated that supporting women to build and maintain health family ties is one of the many important factors to successful rehabilitation. We are making good progress with implementation of the Review and where needed we are working across Government to deliver the recommendations to their best effect. Going forward, we acknowledge the need for improved collection and transparency of data on primary carers in prison and their dependents in the community.
At the moment, information on a prisoner’s caring responsibilities and children living in the community is monitored locally by prison Governors/Directors to ensure the appropriate support can be provided to women and their families. On reception into custody, all prisoners are asked if they have any children living at home and what their ages are. Currently, this information is not captured in a way that can be centrally monitored, and we know that there are challenges around parents being reluctant to disclose this information due to fear of involvement from social services. However, we are considering how to monitor and publish this information.
Asked by: Lord Farmer (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people in prison have dependent children with whom they were living prior to sentencing, broken down by gender.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The information requested is not held centrally and could not be collated without incurring disproportionate cost, as individual records would need to be analysed.
We acknowledge that distance from home can be a real challenge for the maintenance of family ties, and that this is particularly acute in the female estate. HM Prison and Probation Service is committed to ensuring that prisoners are accommodated as close as possible to their resettlement communities and families. We have introduced a range of measures to minimise the impacts of any suspension to visits, due to local restrictions. The Help with Prison Visits Scheme is also available for assistance where close relatives on a low income are able to apply for financial assistance on a means tested basis to facilitate visits to relatives in custody.
This included introducing almost 1,500 secure mobile PIN phone handsets to contact family, provided additional pin credit for calls, and introduced video calls which are currently operating in over 100 prisons across England and Wales.
Close proximity of is one of the key factors considered when choosing where to place prisoners, particularly for those on short sentences or nearing release, where they need to rebuild family ties, secure housing and health services and look for work. In the female estate, this is inevitably more challenging, as the smaller population means there are significantly fewer establishments more widely spread.
We are committed to tackling domestic abuse and to supporting vulnerable individuals, such as female offenders who have experienced domestic abuse, to ensure they can rebuild their lives. We also acknowledge the need for improved collection and transparency of data on primary carers in prison and their dependents in the community. Information on a prisoner’s caring responsibilities and children living in the community is monitored locally by prison Governors and Directors to ensure the appropriate support can be provided to women and their families.
We will continue to provide additional support to enable prisoners to maintain contact and support where prison regimes are restricted and will keep this under regular review especially for offenders and families with vulnerability issues.