Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of employment tribunals had mental health as a contributing factor in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
This information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to reform mental health tribunals; and what steps he is taking implement those plans.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
We are waiting to see the report of Sir Simon Wessely’s Independent Review of the Mental Health Act before we consider any reforms to the Mental Health Tribunal. We expect the report to be published shortly.
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 25 October to Question 182159 on Prisons: Sexual Offences, what support his Department provides to prisoners who report sexual assault.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Any sexual assault that takes place in prison is deplorable, and all reported incidents are referred to the police for investigation. In 2017 less than 1.3% of all reported assaults on prisoners were sexual assaults. We are committed to reducing violence in prison and we encourage prisoners to report assaults, so that we can take action against perpetrators and support victims. The most important support that we can provide is to ensure that all allegations are taken seriously and investigated thoroughly, and that appropriate action is taken if they are proven.
The nature of any further support provided will depend on the circumstances of the case and the prisoner’s preferences, as well as an assessment of the risk of repeat victimisation. At its most straightforward this involves ensuring that further contact between person reporting the assault and the alleged perpetrator is prevented. Where this involves moving one or more prisoners between wings or prisons, it must not be to the reporter’s detriment. Ongoing support may include increased supervision of the reporter by prison staff, who may also work with them to build their sense of security and to restore their confidence. We expect our new key workers to play a growing role in work such as this. Finally, it may also include referral to other sources of help, such as peer supporters, healthcare staff, or more specialist support services from outside the prison.
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 30 October to Question 183925 and with reference to the announcement of 22 April, by what date his Department expects to have employed the final 500 additional prison staff.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Prison Officer recruitment has continued since the 22 April announcement. According to the latest published workforce statistics, from October 2016 to June 2018 there was a net increase of 3,653 full time equivalent Prison Officers.
The 3,000 additional officers figure was passed in March 2018. A precise date is not available as our statistics use end of month data snapshots.
We met our public target of recruiting 2,500 extra prison officers 7 months ahead of schedule.
The latest set of HMPPS (formerly NOMS) workforce statistics covering the period to 30 June 2018 is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hm-prison-and-probation-service-workforce-quarterly-june-2018
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 30 October to Question 183925, what steps his Department is taking to improve support for prisoners in the early days in custody.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The Government takes very seriously its responsibility to keep prisoners safe, and we are committed to reducing the number of self-inflicted deaths and self-harm incidents across the estate. We know that prisoners are at increased risk during the early days in custody and in the period following a transfer between prisons. This is why, as part of our prison safety programme, we are continuing our efforts to support prisoners by:
• improving staff knowledge and understanding of the factors known to increase risk of self-harm, to help them to identify and respond appropriately to prisoners at risk. Our revised introduction to suicide and self-harm prevention training has already reached over 17,000 staff;
• improving the flow, quality and use of risk information about people coming into our prisons, to support effective decision-making about risk;
• renewing our partnership with Samaritans by confirming a further three years’ funding for their valuable Listeners Scheme, and working with them to share learning from the ‘Coping with Life in Prisons’ project, a successful pilot initiative in which Samaritans-trained ex-prisoners delivered emotional resilience training to groups of newly-arrived prisoners;
• producing an early days toolkit to help staff enhance their support for prisoners during their first few days and weeks in custody; and
• improving the multi-disciplinary ACCT case management process for those identified as at risk of self-harm or suicide.
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his Department’s policies of the findings of a report by Inquest entitled Still Dying on the inside: examining deaths in women's prisons, published in May 2018, that 93 women have died in custody in England and Wales since March 2007; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Edward Argar
We are very aware of the number of women who have tragically died in our custody, and we welcome the Inquest report that rightly draws attention to the figures and to the risks this population presents. I look forward to meeting Inquest soon to discuss the recommendations in their report. Our published statistics show that the 93 deaths from 2007 to 2017 to which the report refers include 41 from natural causes, 39 that were apparently self-inflicted and 13 other deaths, including 6 that have yet to be classified. The Government takes very seriously its responsibility to keep staff and prisoners safe, and we are committed to reducing the number of self-inflicted deaths in our prisons. This is why we have established a prison safety programme through which we are taking forward a comprehensive set of actions to improve safety in custody. This includes a workstream on women offenders, which has drawn on helpful reports from the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman and the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody to identify and take forward focused work in women’s prisons. These are in addition to the measures that we are taking across the estate, which include rolling out revised and improved training for staff in assessing and managing the risk of suicide and self-harm amongst prisoners (which has already reached more than 17,000 staff); improving support for prisoners in their early days in custody; revising the ACCT case management process for those identified as being at risk; and renewing our partnership with the Samaritans by confirming a further three years' grant funding for their valuable Listeners Scheme. On 27 June we published our strategy for female offenders, which sets out our vision and plan to improve outcomes for women both in the community and in custody. We want to see:
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Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to page 5 of the September 2018 HM Prison and Probation Service report Self-harm by adult men in prison: A rapid evidence assessment, whether he plans to undertake additional research to explore protective factors among males who self-harm in prison.
Answered by Rory Stewart
We have commissioned additional research in response to the recommendations in this publication, including a study that involves interviewing male prisoners who have previously self-harmed in order to explore what they feel enabled them to stop.
The Government takes very seriously its responsibility to keep prisoners safe, and we are committed to reducing the incidence of self-harm across the estate. This is why we have established a prison safety programme through which we are taking forward a comprehensive set of actions to improve safety in custody.
We have invested in over 3,000 additional staff in order to deliver consistent, purposeful regimes. We have also introduced the new key worker role, under which staff can give prisoners more effective challenge and support. We are taking action in a number of ways to identify and support prisoners at risk, including::
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the September 2018 HM Prison and Probation Service report Self-harm by adult men in prison: A rapid evidence assessment, what assessment his Department has made of the reason why the rate of self-harm among male prisoners increased from 161 to 306 incidents per 1,000 prisoners between December 2006 and the end of 2015.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The causes of self-harm in prisons are complex. They include “imported factors”, such as the characteristics of the population coming into prison, and “custodial factors”, such as the nature of the prison environment and regime.
The Government takes very seriously its responsibility to keep prisoners safe, and we are committed to reducing the incidence of self-harm across the estate. This is why we have established a prison safety programme through which we are taking forward a comprehensive set of actions to improve safety in custody. They include:
renewing our partnership with the Samaritans by confirming a further three years' grant funding for their valuable Listeners Scheme.
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many band 3 prison officers have (a) commenced and (b) completed the training on safety in custody announced in February 2017.
Answered by Rory Stewart
By the end of June 2018 over 17,000 prison staff (of all grades) had begun the training and over 6,000 had completed all six modules.
Regrettably, we are not able to provide the corresponding figures for band 3 prison officers, because our electronic recording system is not currently accessible while planned improvements are being made. I will write to the Hon Member as soon as these figures become available.
Asked by: Baroness Berger (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the by HM Prison and Probation Service entitled: Self-harm by adult men in prison: A rapid evidence assessment, published in September 2018, whether he plans to undertake further research to explore the potential link between self-harm and violence or aggression in male prisoners as recommended in that report.
Answered by Edward Argar
The link between self-harm and violence is well established and informs our existing policy. For instance, the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) case management process for prisoners at risk of self-harm or suicide already includes an enhanced case management process for use where prisoners pose a risk of harm to others, as well as to themselves.
We continue to develop our work with this link in mind. The Prison Safety Programme includes a range of measures designed to address both violence and suicide and self-harm in our prisons. A study of individuals engaged in ‘dual harm’ (both to themselves and to others) is taking place in a number of prisons, and the early findings have been used to inform the programme.