Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners were released on Fridays in the last quarter of 2022; and what steps his department is taking to prepare to implement the Offenders (Day of Release from Detention) Bill.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Prisoner releases data for the fourth quarter of 2022 are not yet available. Data covering this period are scheduled for release on Thursday 27 April 2022, as part of the next Offender Management Statistics Quarterly publication.
The Government is supporting the Member for Barrow and Furness, Simon Fell MP’s, Offenders (Day of Release from Detention) Bill. The Bill has been introduced to the House of Lords and is awaiting its second reading, Sponsored by Lord Bird. My department is preparing a policy framework to provide guidance on decisions for eligible offenders, in consultation with stakeholders. Should the Bill pass all stages of its parliamentary passage, the policy will be published after Royal Assent.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that prisoners with drug dependence can access community drug treatment services in their community as soon as possible after release.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
We work closely with the Department for Health and Social Care, NHS England and the Welsh Government to support access to, and continuity of, care in custody and into the community, in line with the goals of the Adult National Partnership Agreement published on 23 February 2023.
As part of our up to £120m investment in getting more offenders into treatment, we are focused on ensuring dedicated staff are in place to ensure continuity of treatment as soon as someone is released. We are recruiting Health and Justice Coordinators in every probation region to improve links between prison and local treatment services, and Drug Strategy Leads in key prisons to ensure a focus on treatment. We are also rolling out more video calling technology, providing prisoners with the opportunity to engage with community treatment pre-release.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has had recent discussions with the Lord Chief Justice on his commission of qualitative research to determine the level of any inappropriate behaviour within the judiciary.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
It is standard practice not to comment on discussions between Ministers and the judiciary. The Lord Chief Justice and Senior President of Tribunals have statutory responsibilities for the welfare of the judiciary. They have set out the work they are leading in a joint message that was published on the judiciary website on 19 January.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average waiting time is for a First-tier Tribunal (Asylum Support) hearing.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Information on the number of cases which are listed for hearing weekly in the First-tier Tribunal (Asylum Support) (FtT (AS)) is not held. This information is only held monthly.
All valid appeals received in the FtT (AS) in the period July 2021 – December 2022 (the latest 18 month period for which published data are available), have been determined or withdrawn. The average waiting time for a valid Asylum Support appeal to be determined is 14 days.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases are awaiting First-tier Tribunal (Asylum Support) hearings; and how many of those types of cases have been awaiting that type of hearing in each of the last 18 months.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Information on the number of cases which are listed for hearing weekly in the First-tier Tribunal (Asylum Support) (FtT (AS)) is not held. This information is only held monthly.
All valid appeals received in the FtT (AS) in the period July 2021 – December 2022 (the latest 18 month period for which published data are available), have been determined or withdrawn. The average waiting time for a valid Asylum Support appeal to be determined is 14 days.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases were listed for First-tier Tribunal (Asylum Support) hearings in each week of the last 18 months.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Information on the number of cases which are listed for hearing weekly in the First-tier Tribunal (Asylum Support) (FtT (AS)) is not held. This information is only held monthly.
All valid appeals received in the FtT (AS) in the period July 2021 – December 2022 (the latest 18 month period for which published data are available), have been determined or withdrawn. The average waiting time for a valid Asylum Support appeal to be determined is 14 days.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what penalties for the late arrival of prisoners at court hearings may be imposed under contracts held by his Department with the relevant transportation providers.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
For the purposes of the Prisoner and Escort Custody Services contract, a delay occurs when a court is prevented from commencing its planned business at the intended start time, and it has no other business that can reasonably be rescheduled to take its place, resulting in one or more parties being inconvenienced.
If a prisoner is unavailable at the start time, and this unavailability results in a delay of more than 15 minutes in proceedings, service points are incurred. After the initial 15 minutes, points are incurred for each period of 15 minutes of court time lost. For delays in the Crown Court, the contractor, if at fault, will forfeit £2000 for each hour of delay; in magistrates’ courts the penalty is £1200 per hour.
If the problem persists, additional measures, such as the requirement for an improvement plan, will be taken.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the definition of late arrival at court is under contracts held by his Department with providers of prisoner transportation; and what the threshold is for the application of a penalty to such a provider for the late arrival of a prisoner at court.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
For the purposes of the Prisoner and Escort Custody Services contract, a delay occurs when a court is prevented from commencing its planned business at the intended start time, and it has no other business that can reasonably be rescheduled to take its place, resulting in one or more parties being inconvenienced.
If a prisoner is unavailable at the start time, and this unavailability results in a delay of more than 15 minutes in proceedings, service points are incurred. After the initial 15 minutes, points are incurred for each period of 15 minutes of court time lost. For delays in the Crown Court, the contractor, if at fault, will forfeit £2000 for each hour of delay; in magistrates’ courts the penalty is £1200 per hour.
If the problem persists, additional measures, such as the requirement for an improvement plan, will be taken.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average cost was to train each prison officer at HMPS College Newbold Revel as of 1 March 2023.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Prison officer training is delivered at numerous sites across England & Wales, including our training centre, Newbold Revel.
The average cost to train one prison officer is £5,400 per learner, excluding consumable costs.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and Penge)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how long each Governor has been in post in each prison in England and Wales.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
In line with statistical guidance and GDPR, this data cannot be released. As there is only one Governor per Prison, it would be possible to identify individuals due to the small sample sizes.