Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions his Department had with (a) probation officers, (b) senior probation officers and (c) trade union officials representing probation officers before announcing the extension of the end of custody supervised license scheme.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The End of Custody Supervised License (ECSL) Scheme is a targeted measure that will operate in certain areas for a limited period of time where we are moving a prisoner’s release date earlier. We are committed to continue working with the police, prisons, and probation leaders to make further adjustments as required.
Prior to the announcement in Parliament of the extension of ECSL on 11 March, Senior Regional Prison and Probation leaders and Trade Unions were advised of the decision to extend ECSL, to prepare to implement the ECSL changes effectively.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many weapon finds there were in prisons in England and Wales in each year sine 2018.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The number of incidents of weapon finds in prisons in England and Wales is published in the HMPPS Annual Digest through the Finds Incidents Data Tool.
The figures include incidents occurring within escort areas. These figures represent the number of incidents where weapons were found - multiple weapons can be found and recorded as one incident.
Weapons drive violence, undermine safety and security and have no place in our prisons.
Our £100 million Security Investment Programme, aimed at reducing crime in prisons, including reducing the smuggling of illicit items such as weapons, was completed in March 2022. This investment delivered 75 additional X-ray body scanners resulting in full coverage across the closed adult male estate. As of October 2023, we have recorded 46,925 positive indications, helping to tackle the smuggling of weapons and other illicit items into prisons. The investment also funded Enhanced Gate Security at 42 high-risk sites, enhancing our routine searching of staff and visitors. 84 X-ray baggage scanners have also been installed at 49 sites to further strengthen our ability to detect the smuggling of illicit items including weapons.
In January this year, we introduced Restricted Fly Zones around prisons to disrupt illegal drone use. This strengthens our ability to intercept illicit items, such as weapons, being smuggled via drones, and enables the police to fine or prosecute those seeking to undermine prison security.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people in prison are accommodated (a) alone in a cell intended to accommodate one person, (b) alone in a cell intended to accommodate two persons, (c) in a cell or dormitory intended to accommodate more than one person and (d) with another person in a cell intended for one person as of 26 February 2024.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The requested information has been provided in table form below. Please note that the sum of these populations does not match the recorded total population on the day. This is because some of the prisoners in (b) are also counted in (c). A prisoner could be the sole occupant in cell for 2 people and would be included in (b) and the same prisoner in the same cell would also be included in (c).
Categories | Number |
(a) alone in a cell intended to accommodate one person | 51701 |
(b) alone in a cell intended to accommodate two persons | 882 |
(c) in a cell or dormitory intended to accommodate more than one person | 13857 |
(d) with another person in a cell intended for one person | 22095 |
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The determination of the maximum crowded capacity of a particular establishment is a matter of operational judgement, considering risks to safety and stability. In times of severe population pressure, establishments will be expected to hold as many prisoners as they can safely accommodate, but it is equally clear that that number should be determined by the operational managers responsible for managing the prison, not by a central process or by wider supply and demand issues.
We are delivering 20,000 additional modern uncrowded prison places, the largest prison build programme since the Victorian era, ensuring the right conditions are in place to rehabilitate prisoners, helping to cut crime and protect the public. We have already delivered c.5,900 places including through our two new 1,700-place prisons, HMP Five Wells and HMP Fosse Way and we are on track to have delivered around 10,000 places in total by the end of 2025.
We are also investing in our prisons to make them safer for both prisoners and staff by taking a preventative approach to safety, making key changes to the physical environment and testing new technology. We will continue to invest in critical prison maintenance and renewal to ensure that we keep as much capacity as possible in use and fit for purpose.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of including distance learning undertaken by prisoners as purposeful activity.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
All prisons have systems in place for the day-to-day management of regime delivery. Each prison has a regime management plan that clearly sets out the full range of prisoner activities and services delivered within the prison, morning and afternoon, from Monday to Friday.
All types of education, including distance learning, are factored into a prison’s regime management plan as part of the purposeful activity that prisoners undertake.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 4 March 2024 to Question 15927 on Prisons: Civil Disorder, whether there is a minimum staffing requirement for Tornado teams.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Operation Tornado is a national mutual aid plan by which prisons support one another in the event of a serious incident or occurrence requiring a reinforcement of staff. Operation Tornado is employed by HMPPS for three main reasons:
There is no minimum staffing requirement for Tornado teams. HMPPS monitors the number of staff available for deployment and offer training spaces to ensure resilience to respond to serious incidents.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on how many occasions the Gold Command suite was opened for a prison incident in each year since 1 January 2010; and for which (a) prisons and (b) incidents it was opened.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
HMPPS has adopted the Gold, Silver, Bronze command system to manage incidents across all establishments. Some incidents will trigger the automatic opening of the Gold Command suite. The Gold Commander is the strategic lead for the management of the incident. Gold determines strategic objectives, sets tactical parameters, and approves the Silver Commander’s tactical plans. Incidents involving Gold Command suite opening have declined significantly since their peak in 2015.
The attached tables provide the information requested.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether all prisoners released under the end of custody supervised license are required to wear an electronic tag.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
All prisoners released under the End of Custody Supervised Licence are subject to a set of standard licence conditions as identified by Probation in their release management plan such as non-contact requirements, exclusion zones or GPS tagging.
These are not requirements in every case as conditions are set for individual prisoners to create the best chance of reducing reoffending and protecting the public.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 4 March 2024 to Question 14123 on Shoplifting: Reoffenders, what the proven re-offending rate was for an index offence of shop lifting (theft from shops) for the (a) January to March 2021 and (b) January to March 2020 cohort.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The proven reoffending rate for offenders with an index offence of shop lifting (theft from shops), who served a custodial sentence for this offence, for the (a) January – March 2021 cohort was 81.8% and (b) January – March 2020 cohort was 78.3%.
The proven reoffending rate for offenders with an index offence of robbery, who served a custodial sentence for this offence, for the (a) January – March 2021 cohort was 23.8% and (b) January – March 2020 cohort was 27.8%.
The overall proven reoffending rate for (a) January – March 2021 was 24.3% and (b) January – March 2020 was 24.7%. Reoffending rates in recent cohorts have been affected to varying degrees by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This Government is committed to reducing reoffending, and reoffending rates have fallen from 31.3% in 2011/12 to 25.2% in 2021/22. We are investing in rehabilitation to stop prison leavers falling back into crime – including tackling drug addiction, increasing the number of offenders in work, and providing basic, short-term accommodation on release. Further, in October last year, the Lord Chancellor announced his intention to legislate for a presumption to suspend short custodial sentences of 12 months or less. The offender would then serve their sentence in the community and courts will retain discretion to impose a sentence of immediate custody where necessary. Our latest quarterly statistics, January – March 2022, suggest that 55.5% of people given a custodial sentence of less than 12 months reoffend within one year. For offenders punished with Suspended Sentence Orders with requirements that are served in the community, the reoffending rate is significantly lower at 24.2%.
On top of this, we are doubling the number of GPS tags available to courts for sentencing, ensuring more burglars and robbers are tagged which ultimately keeps our communities safer.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 4 March 2024 to Question 14123 on Shoplifting: Reoffenders, what the proven re-offending rate was for an index offence of robbery for the (a) January to March 2021 cohort and (b) January to March 2020 cohort.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The proven reoffending rate for offenders with an index offence of shop lifting (theft from shops), who served a custodial sentence for this offence, for the (a) January – March 2021 cohort was 81.8% and (b) January – March 2020 cohort was 78.3%.
The proven reoffending rate for offenders with an index offence of robbery, who served a custodial sentence for this offence, for the (a) January – March 2021 cohort was 23.8% and (b) January – March 2020 cohort was 27.8%.
The overall proven reoffending rate for (a) January – March 2021 was 24.3% and (b) January – March 2020 was 24.7%. Reoffending rates in recent cohorts have been affected to varying degrees by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This Government is committed to reducing reoffending, and reoffending rates have fallen from 31.3% in 2011/12 to 25.2% in 2021/22. We are investing in rehabilitation to stop prison leavers falling back into crime – including tackling drug addiction, increasing the number of offenders in work, and providing basic, short-term accommodation on release. Further, in October last year, the Lord Chancellor announced his intention to legislate for a presumption to suspend short custodial sentences of 12 months or less. The offender would then serve their sentence in the community and courts will retain discretion to impose a sentence of immediate custody where necessary. Our latest quarterly statistics, January – March 2022, suggest that 55.5% of people given a custodial sentence of less than 12 months reoffend within one year. For offenders punished with Suspended Sentence Orders with requirements that are served in the community, the reoffending rate is significantly lower at 24.2%.
On top of this, we are doubling the number of GPS tags available to courts for sentencing, ensuring more burglars and robbers are tagged which ultimately keeps our communities safer.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people charged with an offence relating to domestic violence were released under the home detention curfew in the last 12 months.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Home detention curfew (HDC) is a robust scheme which has been in operation since 1999. Offenders currently serving a sentence for a domestic abuse linked offence are extremely unlikely to be released on HDC. This government has taken steps to ensure that offenders serving sentences for offences linked to domestic abuse – including non-fatal strangulation and stalking – are presumed unsuitable for HDC, due to the seriousness of these offences and the government’s firm stance on them. This means they will only be considered for release under the scheme where there are highly specific and exceptional circumstances.
Offenders who are eligible and suitable for HDC are subject to a robust risk assessment to manage them safely in the community. This will include checks with partners from other agencies, such as the police, to ensure that the offender being released does not put anyone in the community at risk while on HDC. An offender who is a perpetrator of domestic abuse will not be released on HDC to an address where they pose a threat, or released on HDC at all if the risk is unmanageable.
Data is not collated in a central manner and therefore could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost. However, specific offence codes for domestic violence related cases – such as controlling or coercive behaviour – can be identified on an individual basis.