Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent steps his Department has taken to promote learning in prisons.
Answered by David Gauke
We are making ambitious reforms to education, as set out in the ‘Education and Employment Strategy’ published in May. This means that, from next April, prison governors will have direct control of their education budgets, will decide the curriculum and will have chosen the provider(s) of their education, promoting learning that best meets the needs of their prisoners.
Alongside the Prison Education Framework, we have launched a Prison Education Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS), with over 170 education providers offering a huge range of learning and skills. It is through the DPS that prisons will secure Information, Advice and Guidance which enables prisoners to make informed choices about their education and future employment options.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prosecutions there have been for motor vehicle theft in the Nottinghamshire area in the latest period for which figures are available.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The number of defendants prosecuted for for motor vehicle theft in the Nottinghamshire area in 2017 can be found in the Criminal Justice Statistics Court Outcomes by PFA tool in the following link:
Ensure that only ‘Magistrates Court’ is selected in ‘Court Type’, select offence: ‘130 Theft of a motor vehicle (excl. aggravated vehicle taking’, which is a summary motoring offence, ‘48 Theft of a motor vehicle or other conveyance (excl. aggravated vehicle taking)’ a triable either way offence and ’37 Aggravated vehicle taking’.
Select ‘Nottinghamshire’ in ‘Police Force Area’.
Drag ‘Offence’ in to the ‘Rows’ in the PivotTable fields to see a breakdown of prosecutions for each motor vehicle theft offence.
The location refers to where offence is dealt with, not where the offence occurred.
Figures are available for 2007 to 2017, figures for 2018 are planned for publication in May 2019.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the level of use of synthetic cannabinoids in prisons.
Answered by Rory Stewart
In 2017/18, the rate of positive tests for new psychoactive substances in random mandatory drug testing was 12.2%.
New psychoactive substances (NPS) are a game changer for prison safety, and this statistic reinforces the scale of the challenge.
We are addressing this head on, and our £7m investment in prison security will further bolster defences via airport-security style scanners, improved searching techniques and phone-blocking technology.
We have also launched a drugs taskforce with law enforcement and health partners across government to restrict supply, reduce demand and build recovery.
We are also adopting pioneering approaches such as our ‘Drug Recovery Prison’ pilot at HMP Holme House, which is leading the way in tackling the supply of drugs and putting offenders on a long-term path to recovery.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to increase support for victims of crime in Nottinghamshire.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The government is committed to making sure that victims of crime have access to a broad range of support services, to help them cope with and, as far as possible, recover from the effects of crime. In 2017/18 we spent £97m to fund support services for victims of crime, we are forecast to spend broadly the same in 2018-19.
The Ministry of Justice provides approximately £68m of this funding to Police and Crime Commissioners (PCC) to commission victim support services locally, based on the needs identified in their area. Just over £1.3m of this was allocated to the PCC for Nottinghamshire.
My officials are considering longer-term and more sustainable funding arrangements as part of our work to develop a new delivery model for supporting victims and witnesses of crime. This work will form part of the Government’s Victims Strategy to be published shortly.