Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women were on remand at HMP Styal from courts in North Wales in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The department is unable to identify the total number of women in each year as the information is not centrally held. Table 1 in the attached instead sets out the number of women with a home address in North Wales held at HMP Styal who were serving less than/more than 6 months at quarterly intervals over the last 5 years.
Table 2 attached, shows the number of women remanded to HMP Styal by a court in North Wales since 2014.
There is persuasive evidence that short custodial sentences do not work in terms of rehabilitation and that community sentences, in certain circumstances, are more effective in reducing reoffending, and therefore keeping the public safe. We will therefore be looking at what more we can do to emphasise that short custodial sentences should be viewed as a last resort.
In June we published our female offender strategy which makes clear that we want fewer women serving short sentences in custody and more remaining in the community, making use of women’s centres to address needs such as substance misuse and mental health problems.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the recommendations in the report, Management and supervision of men convicted of sexual offences, published by HM Inspectorate of Probation in January 2019, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the Excellence and Quality in Process is improved.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
We are grateful to H M inspectorates for their helpful report. We will publish an action plan shortly, setting out our comprehensive response to the report’s recommendations and conclusions. The Inspectorates recognised that the EQuiP (Excellence and Quality in Process) system is a work in progress. We will consider the report’s observations in relation to EQuiP as we continue to develop the system.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
What recent assessment he has made of the performance of prison contractors.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Several privately managed prisons are among some of the highest performing prisons across the estate; these include HMP Oakwood, HMP Bronzefield, HMP Dovegate and HMP Ashfield.
As well as contractual performance indicators, privately managed prisons are subject to the Prison Performance Tool. These annual ratings are published on gov.uk.
Privately managed prison providers achieve the majority of their contractual targets, and their performance is closely monitored by the robust contract management processes in place.
Each privately managed prison has an on-site Controller, employed by HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). The Controller has regular review meetings with the contractor against performance indicators.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many sexual offenders were not moved to a local resettlement prison in their area of release due to a lack of spaces available for vulnerable prisoners at those sites in each of the last three years.
Answered by Rory Stewart
This information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. Data on the reasons for movement of prisoners is not centrally held. To answer would involve the examination of thousands of individual records at local level.
Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) endeavours to hold prisoners in establishments which keep them as close to home as possible so they can (re)build family ties, secure housing, access health services and look for work. Consideration is also given to other factors such as time to serve, offending behaviour and the access to relevant training programmes as per the requirements set out in their sentence plan.
Closeness to home is particularly important for those nearing release so they can access resettlement services. To support this, HMPPS will ensure that most prisoners are returned to their home community rehabilitation company or probation area for release where they are managed by either a contracted-out or state provider or the National Probation Service (depending on level of risk). This will provide continuity of service for offenders in custody and the community.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many mobile phones have been seized in prison establishments in (a) 2015-6, (b) 2016-7 and (c) 2017-18.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The number of mobiles phones found in prison is published here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-hm-prison-and-probation-service-digest-2017-to-2018
Please refer to table 9.6, this covers data from 2016/2017. The number of mobile phones found in an incident was not specifically recorded prior to October 2015 when a new incident type was introduced.
We are investing £70 million determined to tackle head-on the issues that undermine the safety and security of our prisons. We are taking decisive measures to find and block mobiles, including investing into detection equipment, including hand-held detectors and portable detection devices. These figures highlight the success of these measures, and the determination of prison staff to disrupt this behaviour. Any offender found using a mobile phone could face an extra two years behind bars.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department plans to take to ensure that Her Majesty’s Prisons and Probation Service implement a national needs analysis for people serving both custodial and community sentences; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rory Stewart
National needs information about prisoners and those under probation supervision is available to those making decisions about HMPPS service planning and provision. Immediate needs of prisoners are recorded on the Basic Custody Screening Tool (BCST). The needs of those under supervision by probation are recorded on case management systems. Assessments of both those in prison and on probation are completed using the Offender Assessment System (OASys) and other specialist tools. This information is used to plan delivery of interventions that help reduce the likelihood of reoffending and/or manage the risk of serious harm. Additionally, national data tools, including segmentation of the prison and probation population, are made available to HMPPS periodically to support business planning decisions at a local and national level. |
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners released from training prisons whose sentences were for sexual offences did not receive (a) Community Rehabilitation Company resettlement and (b) Through the Gate services on release in each of the last three years.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) do not hold the specific information requested centrally and it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost by manually searching offender records to ascertain whether those released from training prisons were offered resettlement activities or Through the Gate services following their release from prison.
We are taking decisive action to improve the delivery of probation services in England and Wales, including investing £22million in extra support for offenders leaving prison. When sex offenders are released, they are closely monitored by police and probation and subject to strict licence conditions – and liable to be returned to custody for breaching them. We have introduced a new Director General role for Probation to develop a dedicated approach to managing sex offenders, and we are expanding supervised accommodation, investing in training and deploying specially trained probation officers to focus on sex offenders in prison.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans for strategies for sexual offenders to be implemented in all prisons that house them.
Answered by Rory Stewart
I note that the question is related to one of the findings in the recently published thematic inspection by HM Inspectorate of Probation and HM Inspectorate of Prisons on the management and supervision of men convicted of sexual offences. We take this report, and our responsibilities to protect the public, incredibly seriously. With this in mind we will publish a full action plan setting out a comprehensive response to the Inspectorates’ recommendations and conclusions, including how we will respond to this and the other recommendations made in the report, shortly.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that all prisons that house sexual offenders have a strategy developed for managing those offenders.
Answered by Rory Stewart
I note that the question is related to one of the findings in the recently published thematic inspection by HM Inspectorate of Probation and HM Inspectorate of Prisons on the management and supervision of men convicted of sexual offences. We take this report, and our responsibilities to protect the public, incredibly seriously. With this in mind we will publish a full action plan setting out a comprehensive response to the Inspectorates’ recommendations and conclusions, including how we will respond to this and the other recommendations made in the report, shortly.
Asked by: David Hanson (Labour - Delyn)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many trainee probation officers were trained to work with sexual offenders in each of the last three years.
Answered by Rory Stewart
All trainees working towards attaining the Professional Qualification in Probation Practice receive training in working with sexual offenders.
We are taking decisive action to improve the delivery of probation services in England and Wales, including investing £22 million in extra support for offenders leaving prison. When sex offenders are released, they are closely monitored by police and probation and subject to strict licence conditions – and liable to be returned to custody for breaching them. We have introduced a new Director General role for Probation to develop a dedicated approach to managing sex offenders, and we are expanding supervised accommodation, investing in training and deploying specially trained probation officers to focus on sex offenders in prison.