Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on local traffic levels of the proposed Category C prison at Full Sutton; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The department remains committed to previously announced plans, subject to planning approvals, value for money and affordability, to build six category C modern prisons which, along with the reorganisation of the existing estate, will provide the physical conditions for Governors to achieve better educational, training and rehabilitative outcomes.
A revised Outline Planning Application for a new, modern category C prison at Full Sutton has been submitted to East Riding of Yorkshire planning authority and documents making up the application, including a thorough Traffic Assessment (TA), will be publicly available on the local authority’s planning portal in the coming days. The conclusion of the new TA, revised from the original iteration to account for the increase in capacity, is that the highway network surrounding the new prison is expected to continue to operate within capacity during both the construction and operational phases.
We will continue to engage with local stakeholders as we develop our plans for the new prison which forms a crucial part of the department’s commitment to deliver modern, safe and decent accommodation.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what alternative locations his Department considered before the decision was taken to build a new Category C prison at Full Sutton.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The department remains committed to previously announced plans, subject to planning approvals, value for money and affordability, to build six category C modern prisons including on the sites of former prisons at Wellingborough and Glen Parva, on land adjacent to HMP Full Sutton, a new site in South Wales, and the redevelopment of existing prisons at Hindey and Rochester. The new prisons will all provide modern, fit for purpose category C accommodation and are planned to be built in locations where the department has identified the greatest need for this type of capacity.
The MoJ began its assessment of options for delivering new prisons through the Prison Estate Transformation Programme (PETP) in 2016 which focused on MoJ owned sites that had the potential to accommodate new custodial space and could deliver on the objectives of the PETP including meeting demand. In addition, the department wrote to local authorities across England and Wales resulting in the identification of 39 potential sites suitable for a prison development which were each assessed against a pre-determined criteria.
A revised Outline Planning Application for a new, modern category C prison at Full Sutton has been submitted to East Riding of Yorkshire planning authority and documents making up the application, will be publicly available on the local authority’s planning portal in the coming days.
We will continue to engage with local stakeholders as we develop our plans for the new prison which forms a crucial part of the department’s commitment to deliver modern, safe and decent accommodation.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps is he taking to reduce levels of illiteracy among prisoners.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The government introduced mandatory testing of prisoners’ levels of maths and English in August 2014. There is no comparable data prior to that. Prisoners are tested on reception to custody and, since 1 August 2017, we also test prisoners when they move between establishments and on release.
The table below sets out data on assessed levels of English on reception:
Academic year: | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | ||
| Number | % | Number | % |
Education assessments in English | 72,680 |
| 62,230 |
|
of which … |
|
|
|
|
Entry Level 1 | 5,760 | 7.9% | 4,620 | 7.4% |
Entry Level 2 | 9,630 | 13.2% | 9,770 | 15.7% |
Entry Level 3 | 21,620 | 29.7% | 21,050 | 33.8% |
Level 1 | 25,850 | 35.6% | 18,560 | 29.8% |
Level 2 | 9,340 | 12.9% | 6,340 | 10.2% |
Not known | 890 | 1.2% | 2,410 | 3.9% |
The Department for Education has not yet published data for the 2016/17 academic year.
Entry Level 3 would be the level expected of an 11-year old: in the 2015/16 academic year, 57% of prisoners were at or below that level in English.
We are empowering prison governors, enabling them to tailor education and training in their establishment to the needs of their prisoners. Our core common curriculum of maths, English, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and ICT will be available in every prison. We will shortly announce which Awarding Organisations’ qualifications will be used in these subjects, ensuring continuity of learning as prisoners move through the system.
The results of our new tests on transfer or release will enable us to hold governors to account for prisoners’ progress in English and in maths.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what comparative assessment he has made of (a) current levels and (b) levels 10 years ago of illiteracy among those serving a prison sentence.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The government introduced mandatory testing of prisoners’ levels of maths and English in August 2014. There is no comparable data prior to that. Prisoners are tested on reception to custody and, since 1 August 2017, we also test prisoners when they move between establishments and on release.
The table below sets out data on assessed levels of English on reception:
Academic year: | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | ||
| Number | % | Number | % |
Education assessments in English | 72,680 |
| 62,230 |
|
of which … |
|
|
|
|
Entry Level 1 | 5,760 | 7.9% | 4,620 | 7.4% |
Entry Level 2 | 9,630 | 13.2% | 9,770 | 15.7% |
Entry Level 3 | 21,620 | 29.7% | 21,050 | 33.8% |
Level 1 | 25,850 | 35.6% | 18,560 | 29.8% |
Level 2 | 9,340 | 12.9% | 6,340 | 10.2% |
Not known | 890 | 1.2% | 2,410 | 3.9% |
The Department for Education has not yet published data for the 2016/17 academic year.
Entry Level 3 would be the level expected of an 11-year old: in the 2015/16 academic year, 57% of prisoners were at or below that level in English.
We are empowering prison governors, enabling them to tailor education and training in their establishment to the needs of their prisoners. Our core common curriculum of maths, English, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and ICT will be available in every prison. We will shortly announce which Awarding Organisations’ qualifications will be used in these subjects, ensuring continuity of learning as prisoners move through the system.
The results of our new tests on transfer or release will enable us to hold governors to account for prisoners’ progress in English and in maths.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many successful prosecutions have been made for the illegal usage of drones in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Dominic Raab
There were 3 convictions for the illegal usage of drones in England and Wales in 2016, the latest year for which data is available. One in each of June, October and December.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the practicality of installing Faraday cages in or around Britain's prisons in order to block illegal mobile telephone usage by prisoners; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The illicit use of mobile phones undermines the safety and security of prisons. We are taking urgent and decisive action as the number of mobile phones and SIM cards seized continues to be too high.
We have invested £2million into detection equipment, including hand-held detectors and portable detection devices. We are also working with mobile network operators to deliver ground-breaking technology, which will stop mobiles smuggled into prisons from working.
Faraday cages block all radio signals from entering and exiting the spaces around which they are placed, which would compromise radio contact between prison staff, as well as other critical infrastructure.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether it is his policy to support the proposals made by the Law Commission to allow a will or other testamentary disposition to be created by text message or by another similarly informal route; and what assessment he has made of the potential of such a course of action to lead to increased fraud and litigation.
Answered by Phillip Lee
The Law Commission has not made proposals to allow wills and other testamentary dispositions to be created by text message or similar informal routes. The Law Commission is, however, currently considering the law of Wills, including how the law can provide for the making of electronic wills, whilst ensuring testators are protected against risks of fraud and exploitation. As part of this project, the Commission published a consultation paper Making a Will (Consultation Paper 231) on 13 July inviting views on a wide range of issues relating to the law of wills. The paper is available at https://www.lawcom.gov.uk/project/wills/. The consultation period closes on 10 November.
The Government will carefully consider any recommendations made by the Commission, but, at present, has no plans to change the legal requirements for creating a valid will or other testamentary disposition. No assessment of the potential for fraud and litigation arising from a relaxation of those requirements has, therefore, been made.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress has been made on tackling the abuse of personal injury whiplash claims relating to incidents involving motor vehicles.
Answered by Oliver Heald
On 23 February 2017 we published details of reforms to disincentivise minor, exaggerated and fraudulent personal injury whiplash claims. The Government’s aim is to reduce the high number and cost of such claims.
Measures include a fixed tariff of compensation for whiplash claims with an injury duration of up to two years and a prohibition on offers to settle claims without medical evidence. These will be taken forward in the Prisons and Courts Bill
We will also, through secondary legislation, increase the small claims limit for road traffic accident related personal injury claims to £5,000 and increase the small claims limit for all other personal injury claims to £2,000.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress his Department has made on implementing the recommendations of the whiplash reform programme.
Answered by Dominic Raab
Further reforms were announced in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement in November. Those reforms will remove the right to compensation for pain, suffering and loss of amenity from minor whiplash injuries, and reduce legal costs by raising the small claims limit for personal injury claims to £5,000. The government will consult on the detail of these reforms in due course, with a view to implementing them as soon as the necessary legislation is in place.
Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what rules govern the removal of buried bodies to new locations from their lawful place of burial; and how many bodies are currently scheduled to be so moved.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Under section 25 of the Burial Act 1857 (as amended) buried human remains can only be exhumed on the authority of the Secretary of State or under a faculty from the Church of England (in the case of exhumations from consecrated ground). My department receives approximately 25 applications a week to exhume single sets of buried human remains and approximately 8 applications a week to exhume remains for archaeological or development purposes.