Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has conducted research into the potential merits of retrospectively abolishing Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
It is right that the Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence was abolished. The Justice Committee and various organisations have considered a resentencing exercise but none have identified an approach that would not pose too great a risk to the public.
Whilst this Government does want to make progress in relation to IPP prisoners, we cannot take any steps that would put victims or the public at risk.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has conducted research into the potential impacts on long-term rehabilitation of Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Section 67 of the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 requires the Secretary of State to prepare and publish an annual report about the steps taken to support the rehabilitation of IPP and Detention for Public Protection (DPP) offenders and their progress towards release from prison or licence termination and lay the report before Parliament.
Although there has not been research conducted in this area the Government published its latest IPP Annual Report on 17 July 2025, which included a commitment for HMPPS Psychology Services to complete a review of the Never Released IPP cohort. The review aims to ensure the current barriers to IPP progression are considered and services reviewed relating to these findings to support IPP progression. We will report on the outcome of this review in our next Annual Report, which is due to be published this summer.
The 2025 Annual Report also contained a refreshed version of the IPP Action Plan, which includes measurable targets to ensure transparency and accountability.
Through the IPP Action Plan we have significantly improved support for those serving the IPP sentence, with greater access to rehabilitation and mental health support.
Changes we have made in the Sentencing Act 2026 will provide IPP offenders with an earlier opportunity for licence termination, whilst allowing suitable time for support and rehabilitation in the community and ensuring victims and the public are best protected from harm.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if his Department will consider the potential merits of retrospectively abolishing Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
It is right that the Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence was abolished. Public protection will always be the top priority and abolishing the IPP sentence retrospectively would result in prisoners being released whom the independent Parole Board has determined are too dangerous. This would pose an unacceptable risk of harm to victims and the public.
We are determined to support those serving IPP sentences, but not in a way that undermines public protection. This is why the Government made changes in the Sentencing Act 2026 to provide IPP offenders with an earlier opportunity for licence termination, whilst allowing suitable time for support and rehabilitation in the community and ensuring victims and the public are best protected from harm
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what support her Department provides to victims of violent crimes who have been waiting more than twelve months for a decision on their Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority claim.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2012 (the 2012 Scheme) does not prescribe a time limit for applications to be decided.
The majority of applications are decided within 12 months. Each case must be considered on its own facts and assessed based on the information available. In almost all cases, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) needs to get information from third parties such as the police and medical authorities to help assess applications.
Some applications will by necessity take longer to decide. This could be where information is not available due to ongoing court proceedings, CICA needs time to assess the long-term impacts of complex injuries (e.g. brain injuries), or where there is an application for loss of earnings where the 2012 Scheme requires at least 28 weeks of loss.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if her Department will support the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority to reduce claim processing times.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2012 (the 2012 Scheme) does not prescribe a time limit for applications to be decided.
The majority of applications are decided within 12 months. Each case must be considered on its own facts and assessed based on the information available. In almost all cases, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) needs to get information from third parties such as the police and medical authorities to help assess applications.
Some applications will by necessity take longer to decide. This could be where information is not available due to ongoing court proceedings, CICA needs time to assess the long-term impacts of complex injuries (e.g. brain injuries), or where there is an application for loss of earnings where the 2012 Scheme requires at least 28 weeks of loss.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average processing time was for probate applications in the past 12 months.
Answered by Mike Freer
HMCTS is focused on increasing outputs to reduce overall timeliness and the outstanding caseload on all types of applications. HMCTS has increased staffing levels, streamlined internal processes and continued to invest in further improving the digital service.
More recent Management Information published by HMCTS shows the average mean length of time taken for a grant of probate (following receipt of the documents required) reduced by 3 weeks in March 2024 compared to February 2024. The average timeliness for cases completing in March was 9 weeks.
Official statistics show that the average time (median) from application submission to grant issue for all grant types was 11.0 weeks in 2023 (mean average time was 13.9 weeks). From the document receipt to grant issue the median average time was 8.7 weeks (mean average time 12.0).
Despite the probate service receiving record levels of applications during 2023 the open workable caseload (cases not waiting for more information from the applicant) has reduced by 30,500 cases since August 2023 and currently stands at 37, 406 in March 2024.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce the backlog in processing probate applications.
Answered by Mike Freer
HMCTS is focused on increasing outputs to reduce overall timeliness and the outstanding caseload on all types of applications. HMCTS has increased staffing levels, streamlined internal processes and continued to invest in further improving the digital service.
More recent Management Information published by HMCTS shows the average mean length of time taken for a grant of probate (following receipt of the documents required) reduced by 3 weeks in March 2024 compared to February 2024. The average timeliness for cases completing in March was 9 weeks.
Official statistics show that the average time (median) from application submission to grant issue for all grant types was 11.0 weeks in 2023 (mean average time was 13.9 weeks). From the document receipt to grant issue the median average time was 8.7 weeks (mean average time 12.0).
Despite the probate service receiving record levels of applications during 2023 the open workable caseload (cases not waiting for more information from the applicant) has reduced by 30,500 cases since August 2023 and currently stands at 37, 406 in March 2024.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make a comparative assessment of reoffending rates in (a) the UK, (b) West Yorkshire, (c) Denmark and (d) other countries.
Answered by Damian Hinds
This Government is tackling the causes of reoffending to keep our communities safe.
The overall proven reoffending rate for England and Wales was 24.4% in 2020/21, down from 31.6% in 2010/11, when we took over from the last Labour government. The overall proven reoffending rate for West Yorkshire in 2020/21 was 27.2%, down from 31.8% in 2010/11.
Reoffending rates are not calculated for the whole of the UK – the rates for Scotland and Northern Ireland can be obtained separately from their respective government departments.
Care should be taken when comparing reoffending rates both within the UK and internationally because the means of calculation between countries can vary and therefore data is not directly comparable.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the conviction rate was for child abuse offences for (a) white British and (b) British Pakistani people in each of the last five years.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Ministry of Justice publishes information on prosecutions, convictions and sentence outcomes in the Outcomes by Offence data tool: December 2022 including offences as set out in the Offence Group Classification. This includes filters for defendant demographics such as ethnicity and age.
However, child abuse offences are not specifically defined in legislation and could include a wide range of offences relating to physical, emotional, or neglectful abuse. Whether an offence was committed against a child may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would be of disproportionate costs.
Further, although the Outcomes by Offence data tool: December 2022 can be filtered to detailed ethnicity based on the 18+1 ethnicity classification, it is not possible to disaggregate defendants of British Pakistani ethnicity from British Asian ethnicity in the data.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he will take to tackle delays to the processing of documents for Lasting Power of Attorney applications.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) is working to reduce the length of time that customers are currently waiting for their Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs) to be registered. In order to tackle the backlog of applications that arose during the pandemic and meet the increased demand for services, OPG have hired extra staff and teams are working overtime and across multiple shift patterns to ensure customers receive their LPAs as quickly as possible. OPG have also introduced process efficiencies and continue to make sure they are doing all they can to improve the application journey for customers. The number of LPAs being registered each month is now back to pre-pandemic levels.