Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the average time those who enter prison on remand to await trial and sentencing will spend in custody.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The methodology for calculating the amount of time spent on custodial remand is currently being reviewed and further clarification will be issued in due course.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether those who identify as (1) Gypsy, (2) Roma, or (3) Traveller, in custody have any special needs recognised.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Data on people detained in police custody was published for the first time in November 2022, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-powers-and-procedures-other-pace-powers-england-and-wales-year-ending-31-march-2022.
For the year ending March 2023 the Home Office collected ethnicity data from forces using the 2021 Census categories, which includes the ‘Gypsy and Irish traveller’ and ‘Roma’ groups.
In addition, for the year ending March 2022 data, information was published on the ethnicity of people detained in custody and separately on whether a person was considered vulnerable and whether an appropriate adult was called. As this was the first year the data was collected the statistics were still in development and therefore an ethnic breakdown of vulnerable adults in custody was not published. Home Office analysts will assess the quality of the data collected for the year ending March 2023 and depending on the outcome will publish this breakdown as part of the ‘Police Powers and Procedures: Other PACE bulletin’, which is scheduled for release in November/December 2023, as pre-announced on Gov.uk, here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements/police-powers-and-procedures-other-pace-powers-england-and-wales-year-ending-march-2023.
Police custody officers should carry out an assessment of the risk and vulnerability of everyone in custody, on an individual basis. This assessment should take into account the person’s behaviour, any signs of illness or injury, their communication, including information from all available sources and the circumstances and environment in which they were found.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the average time those currently serving mandatory life sentences will spend in prison.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Sentencing is entirely a matter for our independent judiciary. Release from mandatory life sentences is determined by the Parole Board, when the Board is satisfied that detaining the offender is no longer necessary for the protection of the public.
While we do not have an estimate of the average time those currently in prison on mandatory life sentences will serve, we do publish average time served, based on release data, on an annual basis. Table below.
Mandatory life | Mean time served (years) |
2002 | 14 |
2003 | 15 |
2004 | 14 |
2005 | 14 |
2006 | 14 |
2007 | 16 |
2008 | 16 |
2009 | 17 |
2010 | 16 |
2011 | 16 |
2012 | 16 |
2013 | 17 |
2014 | 17 |
2015(1) | 17 |
2016 | 16 |
2017 | 17 |
2018 | 17 |
2019 | 18 |
2020 | 17 |
2021 | 17 |
2022 | 18 |
(1) Due to improvements in IT systems, the 2015 prison admissions data is now taken from a different source and, for statistical reporting purposes only, are produced using a different method. The 2015 figures from both the old and new systems have been presented to aid comparison.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the work conducted by the Prison Advice and Care Trust in England and Wales.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
H.M. Prison & Probation Service holds both contracts and grants with the Prison Advice and Care Trust (Pact) for work they undertake in prisons in England and Wales. Whilst no formal assessment of the work completed by Pact has been undertaken, all contracts and grants are awarded following open and fair competition. Those tendering for contracts or applying for grants (including Pact) are thoroughly assessed against the published criteria including the completion of due diligence checks prior to the awarding of any contract or grant.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of ground water levels to meet current needs in England; and whether such water levels have (1) decreased, or (2) increased, since 2000.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Environment Agency monitors groundwater levels across the country at thousands of locations and uses groundwater models designed to manage water resources, balancing the needs of both abstractors and the environment. Groundwater models provide current and future trends of water availability and are used to inform Abstraction Licencing Strategies used for local water resource management.
Over the past 20 years, groundwater levels in some areas have declined and in other areas increased. Over relatively short periods of time groundwater levels can vary significantly in response to environmental factors (particularly rainfall both in terms of overall quantity and timing) and due to changing abstraction pressures. It should be noted that groundwater levels in most locations were relatively high in the 2000s due to a period of high rainfall recharge which caused significant groundwater flooding in some areas and more recently have been relatively low due to prolonged dry weather.
The Environment Agency’s assessment shows that since 2017 the number of groundwater bodies with sustainable abstraction has increased from 72% to 73%.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to publish the results of the public consultations on proposals to close manned ticket offices at railway stations in England; and if not, why they do not plan to publish.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
This is an industry led process where Train Operating Companies put forward proposals to close or change the opening hours of station ticket offices and launch passenger consultations. The independent passenger bodies, Transport Focus and London TravelWatch, are currently considering the consultation responses and will publish their response to each train operator’s proposals once the process has completed.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Scott of Bybrook on 9 June (HL8162), whether these figures for the incidence of rough sleepers can be divided into females and males.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
In the 2022 Rough Sleeping Snapshot, there were 2,539 men (83% of the total) and 464 women (15% of the total) sleeping rough on a single night in autumn. Gender was ‘not known’ for 66 people (2% of the total). The gender breakdown of people sleeping rough was similar across all regions in England and was similar to previous years.
Women who sleep rough may make themselves less visible in order to stay safe, by moving at night or concealing themselves or their gender. They therefore may not be fully captured by the snapshot. This reinforces the need for tailored, specific interventions, for example in programmes like the Rough Sleeping Initiative (RSI). £6.5 million of the Rough Sleeping Initiative 2022-25 is going towards funding women-specific services across 22 local authorities in England.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 27 June (HL8446), what plans they have to discuss with South Western Railways that company's failure to provide water for passengers during hot weather, unlike the other operators cited.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Ensuring the welfare of passengers and rail staff is a top priority for train operating companies, including during particularly hot weather. The advice remains for passengers to carry a bottle of water on all train journeys in hot weather, so that they can keep hydrated. Most modern trains also have air conditioning installed to maintain cool temperatures, but, where air conditioning is not available, operators ventilate trains as best as they can by opening windows throughout journeys and train doors at stations, where possible.
For hot weather, an ill passenger or an air conditioning failure, South Western Railways stocks water on most trains, and will provide to passengers in those circumstances. South Western Railway also maintains water supplies at key stations so that they can be added to trains during periods of extreme hot weather, particularly at key stations on their longer distance lines.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Markham (HL8662) on 3 July, whether such English Raw Drinking Milk, together with unpasteurised cheddar cheese and whey butter, can be sold from England into (1) Northern Ireland, (2) Scotland, and (3) Wales.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
English Raw Drinking Milk (RDM), unpasteurised cheddar cheese and whey butter can be sold from England into Northern Ireland and Wales. English unpasteurised cheddar cheese and whey butter may be sold into Scotland, however, Scotland has prohibited the sale of RDM since 1983.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the finding by N White et al A Systematic Review of Predictions of Survival in Palliative Care: How Accurate Are Clinicians and Who Are the Experts?, published on 25 August 2016, which found that the accuracy of prognoses for terminal illnesses ranged between 23 and 78 per cent; and who is responsible within NHS England for collecting such data.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made. Data on the accuracy of prognoses of terminal illness is not collected by NHS England.