Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans, if any, they have to provide dedicated funding for restorative justice to provide equal access across the country and avoid discriminating against either (1) offenders, or (2) victims.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government recognises the value of restorative justice and the benefits it can bring to enable victims to cope and recover, and for offenders to be part of that process.
As part of the core funding provided to Police Crime and Commissioners (PCCs) for victim support services, they are able to commission restorative justice services according to their local need. This year, MoJ has allocated around £64.3m to PCCs for core funding. For information, in 20/21, PCCs spent around £3.7m from their core funding on restorative justice. PCCs are also able to utilise other funding streams outside of their MoJ grant for restorative justice.
In addition, the Government has provided £4.6m this financial year to fund the Homicide Service. This service provides practical and emotional support to families bereaved by Homicide, including access to restorative justice services
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how they will ensure women prison leavers supported by the Ministry of Justice’s temporary accommodation service are supported into permanent accommodation.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar - Shadow Attorney General
We are investing more than £20m in supporting prison leavers at risk of homelessness into temporary accommodation. Individuals released from prison will be provided up to 12 weeks of temporary accommodation and will be supported into long-term settled accommodation before the end of that 12-week period. Initially launching in five national probation regions, the service will support around 3,000 offenders in its first year and will be commencing this Summer. It will be in operation during the financial year 2021-22, with a view to scaling up and rolling out nationally.
The service will take account of the needs of women, including those with complex needs and accommodation provision will be dedicated to single gender usage as required. Community Probation Practitioners, working together with local partners, will be responsible for ensuring that vulnerable female prison leavers receive appropriate support and are provided with housing beyond the 12 weeks’ emergency accommodation.
In 2020, Hestia Battersea was changed from a male to female Approved Premises to give better geographic spread of AP provision for women, becoming the first AP for women in London since 2008.
In addition, Eden House, the first new AP in over thirty years, will open in this month supporting female offenders.
HMPPS will work in conjunction with MHCLG’s announced funding to support both male and female prison leavers at risk of homelessness into private rental tenancies. Funded schemes to support women will be developed to recognise their specific needs and will be part of plans to secure settled accommodation by the end of the 12 weeks’ temporary accommodation provided by HMPPS.
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have (1) to widen the criteria for, and (2) to increase the use of, the Home Detention Curfew scheme for individuals released from prison.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar - Shadow Attorney General
The Home Detention Curfew is a robust scheme which allows suitable, risk-assessed, prisoners to work towards rehabilitation in the community, while remaining subject to strict monitoring and other conditions. If they breach these conditions, they can be returned to custody. There are currently no plans to change the scheme.
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will implement all of the commitments in their Female Offender Strategy (Cm 9642), published on 27 June 2018.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar - Shadow Attorney General
The Government remains committed to delivering its commitments in the Female Offender Strategy. The Strategy has three overarching aims: 1) fewer women offending and reoffending; 2) fewer women in custody, especially on short sentences, with more managed effectively in custody; and 3) better conditions for women in custody that support effective rehabilitation. Considering how we can best address the needs of female offenders and to improve outcomes for them, their families and their communities, is a complex issue that we want to get right. The Strategy’s publication was the start of a new and significant programme of work to deliver better outcomes for female offenders that will take some years to deliver.
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many (1) prison staff, and (2) prisoners, have received their (a) first, and (b) second, COVID-19 vaccinations; and what progress they have made in restoring family visits to prisoners.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar - Shadow Attorney General
The total number of staff in Public Sector and Youth Custody Prisons who have declared that they have received their first COVID-19 vaccination, as at midday 21 May 2021, was 10,612. The total number of staff in Public Sector and Youth Custody Prisons who have declared that they have received their second COVID-19 vaccination, as at midday 21 May 2021, was 2,508.
For prisoners in England as at the end of 14 May 2021, the total number who had received their first COVID-19 vaccination was 25,655. The total number of prisoners of all ages who had received their second COVID-19 vaccination was 8,485.
Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service strongly encourages all staff and prisoners who are offered the Covid-19 vaccine, to take it. We ask employees to let us know when they have had each dose of the Covid-19 vaccine by recording their vaccine status on our HR system. As the disclosure of their vaccine status is entirely voluntary, it means the self-declaration rates presented below will be lower than the actual number of staff who have been vaccinated. However, the data collected to date is still valuable in understanding staff vaccination take up and coverage.
We are acutely aware of the impact of the restrictions on family visits, and we have had to make some difficult decisions to protect both prisoners and staff. As of 20 May, 107 establishments have commenced delivery of Stage 3 of the National Framework for Prisons which allows for the delivery of social visits with social distancing and face coverings. We are also working with Public Health England and Public Health Wales to look at how we can take safe and incremental steps to improve the experience of such visits. As part of this work we are piloting lateral flow testing for visitors.
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the Prison Reform Trust No Life, No Freedom, No Future: The experiences of prisoners recalled under the sentence of Imprisonment, published on 3 December 2020; and what plans they have publish a response to that report.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar - Shadow Attorney General
The Government values the work of the Prison Reform Trust and, specifically, the ongoing dialogue with the Trust as to how best to support those serving the sentence of Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP), whether in prison or in the community.
The Government and officials acknowledge that recalling any offender to custody involves some disruption. However, we have not identified cases of “unnecessary” recalls of offenders subject to IPP licences. HM Chief Inspector of Probation found in a thematic review of the Probation Service’s culture and practice on recall, published on 10 November last year, that offender managers are considering, properly, public protection when deciding how to respond to evidence that offenders have breached their licence conditions in such a way as to indicate escalating risk. Thus, where an offender on an IPP licence is recalled to custody, it is because the Probation Service has concluded that the offender’s risk is now too high for it to be managed effectively in the community, even with the imposition of additional licence conditions.
However, offender managers must always consider whether there are safe alternatives to recall when responding to breaches of licence conditions and evidence of increased risk. Additionally, HM Prison and Probation Service is working to improve the quality and timeliness of its risk assessments following recall, so that the Parole Board may in some cases safely direct the re-release of recalled offenders on an IPP licence earlier than is currently the case.
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to prioritise the use of videophones by prisoners with children while family visits are not possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic; and what plans they have for similar prioritisation for prisoners held at long-distance from their families when the restrictions in place to address the COVID-19 pandemic have ended.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar - Shadow Attorney General
We are committed to continuing to offer secure video calling after the current Covid-19 restrictions have ended, and are considering future options in line with the recommendations of Lord Farmer’s reviews for maintaining family ties. We will continue to be guided by public health advice, and we will work with our stakeholders to inform our longer-term planning.
Secure video calls are now running in all public and private prisons and Young Offender Institutions across England and Wales. This was introduced alongside other measures to support family engagement, such as additional mobile phone handsets and extra phone credit while social visits have been suspended. Social visits in the Youth Custody Service estate have continued and on compassionate grounds in the adult estate.
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what criteria need to be satisfied to allow family visits of prisoners to resume; what date they plan to resume family visits of prisoners; and what plans they have to provide more video-capable telephones in prisons.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar - Shadow Attorney General
Social visits in adult prisons have been suspended during the period of national lockdown, but will resume once it is safe to do so.
Decisions will be based on public health advice, assessments of local outbreaks and ability to safely facilitate visits, and so dates may vary between different sites. No sites will resume visits before the end of March when the ‘stay at home’ order is expected to be lifted under the government roadmap on easing restrictions.
Visits to children in the youth custody estate and compassionate visits to adult establishments have continued throughout national lockdown.
Secure video calls have now been introduced at all prisons across England and Wales, though there are no plans to provide video-capable telephones at this time. Currently 66% of prison cells have in-cell telephony. Additionally, within open prisons, mobile phones have been permitted as a transitional measure for family contact. Further considerations for their use are being made in line with regime recovery and availability of secure video calls across all open prisons.
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to reduce the average length of time that prisoners spend on remand awaiting trial.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar - Shadow Attorney General
Judges are prioritising the most urgent cases. We were one of the first among other comparable jurisdictions globally to resume jury trials, and Crown Courts currently list thousands of cases each week.
Our systems show that where a defendant is in custody and had a first hearing in February 2021, most cases are listed for trial in the Crown Court prior to September 2021.
In September 2020, Her Majesty’s Prison Probation Service (HMPPS) began a trial of a dedicated and proactive Bail Information Service (BIS) in several courts and prisons in the North West of England and Wales. This service provides the courts with timely information relating to the defendant and availability of alternative provisions, such as suitable accommodation, to help to reduce unnecessary remands and increase the appropriate use of bail and bail conditions. In tandem with this trial, HMPPS are rolling-out a Covid-19 response BIS in all public sector remand prisons. A key aim of both initiatives is to inform the design, resourcing and delivery of a future dedicated and proactive national BIS.
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to recognise the work of the Governor of HMP Pentonville during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Lord Wolfson of Tredegar - Shadow Attorney General
The Ministry of Justice is not able to comment on an individual employee’s specific recognition or reward.
We do however recognise that HMPPS staff in prisons, probation, headquarters and the Youth Custody Service have had an extraordinary and challenging year. There are recognition and reward procedures in place, and we offer a range of ways to recognise and thank individual members of staff for their particular efforts. This can take the form of personalised recognition, using performance recognition vouchers, or a gift. Special bonus payments may also be an appropriate recognition mechanism for exceptional performance contributions.