Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to guarantee the continued provision of quality assured chaplaincy services to every prison in England and Wales by continuing the guidelines Faith and Pastoral Care for Prisoners (PSI 05/2016) and including those guidelines in any future prison policy frameworks.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
PSI 05/2016 Faith and Pastoral Care of Prisoners is not in the first tranche of PSIs to be deregulated. When it is replaced by a Policy Framework I am confident that Governors will have the guidance they need to ensure the delivery of chaplaincy services that meet the pastoral and faith needs of prisoners. Discussions are already under way to see how the present Assurance and Compliance quality assurance process may be developed to support delivery of chaplaincy services in the future.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will ensure that overcrowding does not restrict prisoners' access to chaplaincy services; and whether they intend to include such access in future performance measures.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
The Prison Safety and Reform White paper set out a range of performance measures so that the performance of prisons is judged on the results they deliver rather than just compliance with processes. Access to Chaplaincy services is not currently included in these measures. Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service seek to ensure that prisoners have access to chaplaincy services in accordance with PSI 5/2016 (Faith and Pastoral Care for Prisoners). Overcrowding in and of itself would not restrict access to chaplaincy services.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to implement a systematic and quality assured communications gateway to enable prison staff to work with families to reduce self-harm and suicide.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
Families can play a significant role in supporting offenders; positive family relationships have been identified as a protective factor in desistance from crime. For this reason, we are promoting strong family ties (including significant others) as an important plank of our Prison Reform Programme, alongside education and employment.
The Government published a review by Lord Farmer on 10 August, which made several recommendations to strengthen family or significant other ties to help offenders turn their lives around and protect public safety. We are taking the recommendations forward, including (in October 2017) giving Governors the budget and flexibility to spend their resources appropriately to help prisoners keep important family ties.
One of Lord Farmer’s recommendations related to the introduction of an “auditable and responsive ‘gateway’ communication system for families and significant others”. We are fully committed to ensuring that prisoners can communicate with their loved ones. We recognise that there is no single method of communication that will be suitable for all users. We will shortly be issuing guidance to prisons on publicising how loved ones can share information about prisoners who may be at risk of self-harm or suicide. In addition, we will issue guidance on facilitating early contact with prisoners’ families or their significant others when they arrive at the prison, so that we can involve them in their support and encourage ongoing contact; and on involving families in the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork process for supporting those at risk.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to introduce performance measures on family contact covering every stage of a prisoner's sentence.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
Families can play a significant role in supporting an offender; positive family relationships have been identified as helping to reduce reoffending. For this reason, we are promoting strong family or significant other ties as part of prison reform, alongside education and employment. We believe that a prisoner’s family or significant other is the most effective resettlement agency we have – as the prison inspectorate, the probation service and Ofsted all agree.
Lord Farmer’s review (August 2017) contains several recommendations to strengthen family or significant other ties to help offenders turn their lives around.
We are taking forward his recommendations. In October of this year we devolved the budget for family interventions to governors, providing them with the flexibility to spend their resources appropriately to help prisoners keep important family or significant other ties.
The Prison Safety and Reform White Paper committed to implementing a performance measure on family relationships for governors, and this will build upon the observations contained within Lord Farmer’s comprehensive report. Work is currently underway to define the content of this measure.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve access to release on temporary licence.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie
We will be exploring in the coming months how best to ensure access to ROTL for those who would benefit, within a robust risk assessment framework. We want to maintain improvements made to ROTL recently while allowing governors greater discretion so that prisoners get the skills and training they need.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect to publish their response to the submissions received through their consultation, Schools that work for everyone.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The department plans to respond on the consultation, ‘Schools that work for everyone’, in due course.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the removal of the 50 per cent cap on faith-based admissions on the ability of the Catholic Church to open new schools.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The proposal to remove the 50% cap on faith admissions in faith free schools is set out in the ‘Schools that work for everyone’ consultation document (copies available in the House Library). The department plans to respond on this consultation in due course.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the regional demand from parents for places in Catholic schools; and how the removal of the 50 per cent cap on faith-based admissions will meet that demand.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The proposal to remove the 50% cap on faith admissions in faith free schools is set out in the ‘Schools that work for everyone’ consultation document (copies available in the House Library). The department plans to respond on this consultation in due course.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the removal of the 50 per cent cap on faith-based admissions on the ethnic diversity of Catholic schools.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The proposal to remove the 50% cap on faith admissions in faith free schools is set out in the ‘Schools that work for everyone’ consultation document (copies available in the House Library). The department plans to respond on this consultation in due course.
Asked by: Lord Murphy of Torfaen (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of removing the 50 per cent cap on faith-based admissions on pupils from ethnic minority backgrounds who seek a place in a Catholic school.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The proposal to remove the 50% cap on faith admissions in faith free schools is set out in the ‘Schools that work for everyone’ consultation document (copies available in the House Library). The department plans to respond on this consultation in due course.