Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to reduce mobile phone use in prisons.
Answered by Edward Argar
It is a crime to possess or operate a mobile phone in prisons, and prisoners caught with devices can face extra time behind bars.
Our £100 million Security Investment Programme, aimed at reducing crime in prisons, completed in March 2022, and included funding to reduce the smuggling of illicit items such as mobile phones into prisons, and our measures are producing results. This investment delivered 75 additional X-ray body scanners resulting in full coverage across the closed adult male estate. As of October 2022, we had recorded 28,626 positive indications, helping to tackle the supply mobile phones into prisons.
We have invested in a variety of mobile phone detection and blocking equipment across the prison estate to reduce mobile phone use. HMPPS also have a specialist digital team who ensure the data from illicit devices (including mobile phones) that are found in possession of prisoners can be subsequently analysed enhancing our ability to evidence criminality.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the (a) adequacy of funding for and (b) effectiveness in the disbursement of that funding for contact centres as a result of the withdrawal of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Services from the disbursement process.
Answered by Gareth Johnson
The Government recognises the important services provided by child contact centres.
Until April this year, the Ministry of Justice provided small value grants, via Cafcass, to support the running of child contact centres. The Ministry of Justice is in the final stages of agreeing the funding arrangements for this year’s grants and information will be made publicly available once this process is complete.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of his proposed reforms to the Human Rights Act on non-religious groups.
Answered by Sarah Dines
As is the case whenever a new government is formed, we are now looking again at the Bill of Rights to ensure that it meets the government’s objectives.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of his proposed reforms to the Human Rights Act on humanist education.
Answered by Sarah Dines
As is the case whenever a new government is formed, we are now looking again at the Bill of Rights to ensure that it meets the government’s objectives.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to section 83 of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, what the status is of report on the extent to which people using contact centres in England are protected from the risk of domestic abuse or other harm as of 16 March 2022.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government is on track to publish a report about the extent to which individuals, when they are using contact centres in England, are protected from the risk of domestic abuse or, in the case of children, other harm. This will be delivered by April 2023 as set out in section 83 of the Domestic Abuse Act.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans his Department has to review imprisonment for public protection sentences.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Government keeps the operation of sentences of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) under constant review. This includes continuing to ensure that IPP prisoners, as well as all prisoners serving indeterminate sentences, have every opportunity to progress towards safe release.
HM Prison and Probation Service are focused on reducing the risk and thereby the successful rehabilitation of IPP prisoners via an action plan which is being taken forward jointly with the Parole Board. This approach is working, with high numbers of unreleased IPP prisoners achieving a release decision each year. All IPP prisoners will have their continued detention reviewed by the independent Parole Board at least once every two years.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of defendants offending while awaiting delayed court dates.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
We do not hold any data on offences committed by offenders.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many multi-hander trials were moved to another court in 2020; and which courts those trials were moved to and from.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Data relating to the volume, and movement, of multi-hander trials are not readily accessible from HM Courts & Tribunals Service IT systems and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost through manual examination of individual case records.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effect of the transfer of multi-hander trials on the length delays to outstanding cases in regions where those multi-hander trials were transferred to.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Listing is a judicial function and the decision as to whether a case is heard within the same region as the alleged offence, or within another region, is a judicial one.
In general terms the more defendants involved in a case the lengthier the trial is likely to be. Due to requirements for social distancing, multi-hander trials are particularly challenging where dock sizes are not able to accommodate the number of persons required to appear. The Crown Court is using a range of solutions to overcome these challenges, such as using multiple courtrooms to hear multi-hander jury trials or transferring the case to another court that can accommodate larger sized trials.
In addition to opening temporary Nightingale courts, we are ensuring we have additional capacity to alleviate the pressure on courts by increasing capacity in existing courtrooms to hear multi-hander trials. Around 70 courtrooms have been approved, subject to survey and value for money decisions, for modifications to increase capacity for listing multi-hander jury trials.
Asked by: Alex Norris (Labour (Co-op) - Nottingham North and Kimberley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of the number of adjournments related to child sexual abuse cases in 2020.
Answered by Alex Chalk
HMCTS do not hold data relating to child sexual abuse adjournments. Cases with serious safeguarding implications continue to be prioritised for listing by the independent judiciary.
Adjournments are not specifically covered in the Criminal Court Statistics. However, data on vacated trials in the first and second quarters of 2020 have been published as part of the National Statistics on criminal courts in June and September 2020 respectively.