Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has plans to (a) review the effectiveness of substance free living units and (b) make an assessment of the potential merits of extending those units across all prison estates.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
As part of the ambitious cross-Government Drug Strategy, we are rolling out a range of interventions to support prisoners off drugs and into recovery. This includes expanding the number of Incentivised Substance-Free Living Units where prisoners commit to remaining free of illicit drugs, with regular drug testing and incentives. We now have over 60 of these wings across the estate, and are aiming to reach up to 100 by March 2025. This will dramatically expand the number of prisoners who have access to these wings. Alongside this we are working to evaluate ISFLs to improve our understanding of the impact they are having and the experience of prisoners on these wings.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate he has made of the size of the backlog of criminal court cases in Bolton.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The number of outstanding cases at the magistrates’ courts and the Crown Court are routinely published as part of the National Statistics release Criminal Court Statistics Quarterly. The latest published data is available to December 2022 and can be found at the following link: Criminal court statistics quarterly: October to December 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). For Crown Court, figures are published specifically for Bolton. For magistrates’ courts, the Greater Manchester Local Justice Area is the closest match available.
The published data for the Crown Court are found here: Crown Court cases received, disposed and outstanding tool, and the published data for the magistrates’ court are found here: Magistrates' courts cases received, disposed and outstanding tool.
Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to recommendations of the report by the University of Manchester entitled Racial Bias and the Bench, published in November 2022, if he will make it his policy to publish (a) the Judicial Executive Board report into judicial bullying and racism and (b) all reports and research commissioned by his Department into the judiciary.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, the Lord Chief Justice (LCJ), as Head of the Judiciary of England and Wales has responsibility for the maintenance of appropriate arrangements for the welfare, training and guidance of the judiciary of England and Wales. The LCJ carries out these responsibilities through the Judicial Executive Board (JEB) and the Judges’ Council. To protect the independence of the judiciary, it is a matter for the judiciary to determine which judiciary commissioned reports are published.