Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what training is provided to (a) court staff and (b) members of the judiciary on identifying and supporting court users with a mental health condition.
Answered by Oliver Heald
All Ministry of Justice employees are required to complete a mandatory Equality and Diversity training module which makes specific reference to mental health conditions and supporting vulnerable customers. In addition, Mental Health Awareness courses have also been delivered to employees across the country and frontline court training materials also link into the ‘Every Witness Matters’ handbook to ensure that employees are aware of the potential impact that a mental health condition may have on a court user. Colleagues working in National Business Centres have been provided with specific training on ‘Dealing with Traumatic Calls’.
Under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, responsibility for the training of the judiciary rests with the Lord Chief Justice as Head of the Judiciary. Training on mental health issues is limited to awareness in order to help judges ensure that all court users are treated equally and fairly. Judges are able to access advice and guidance on this through the Equal Treatment Bench Book which is publicly available at: https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/publications/equal-treatment-bench-book/
Data relating specifically to the effectiveness of the training is not held but the department is committed to the continued development of initiatives to ensure employees can support customers who may be suffering from a mental health condition.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessments she has made of the effectiveness of the training provided to (a) court staff and (b) members of the judiciary on identifying and supporting court users with a mental health condition.
Answered by Oliver Heald
All Ministry of Justice employees are required to complete a mandatory Equality and Diversity training module which makes specific reference to mental health conditions and supporting vulnerable customers. In addition, Mental Health Awareness courses have also been delivered to employees across the country and frontline court training materials also link into the ‘Every Witness Matters’ handbook to ensure that employees are aware of the potential impact that a mental health condition may have on a court user. Colleagues working in National Business Centres have been provided with specific training on ‘Dealing with Traumatic Calls’.
Under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, responsibility for the training of the judiciary rests with the Lord Chief Justice as Head of the Judiciary. Training on mental health issues is limited to awareness in order to help judges ensure that all court users are treated equally and fairly. Judges are able to access advice and guidance on this through the Equal Treatment Bench Book which is publicly available at: https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/publications/equal-treatment-bench-book/
Data relating specifically to the effectiveness of the training is not held but the department is committed to the continued development of initiatives to ensure employees can support customers who may be suffering from a mental health condition.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many packages of books delivered to HM Prison Drake Hall were found to contain drugs in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Selous
The trafficking of drugs and other unauthorised items presents a serious threat to security in prisons and the National Offender Management Service employs a range of measures to deter and detect such activity.
There have always been controls on the sending of parcels into prisons; the revised Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) national policy framework, which came into effect on 1 November 2013, has simply ensured greater consistency across the prison estate. We now have simple rules that allow prisoners a parcel of items when they first arrive in prison, and then only further items in exceptional circumstances. The restrictions were introduced to enhance existing security measures and to prevent the IEP policy framework from being undermined.
Prisoners continue to be able to order books from reputable suppliers, which they can receive via the prison shop and they can also borrow books from the prison library.
Incidents of finds of illicit items prior to the introduction of the revised IEP arrangements are recorded on a central incident reporting system. A study of data reported by Drake Hall prison during the period in question indicates that there were no finds of illicit drugs in items sent in.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether all prisoners at HM Prison Drake Hall have access to a library and at what times of the day such access is given.
Answered by Simon Hughes
All prisoners at HM Prison Drake Hall have access to the prison library or its outreach service, in accordance with Prison Service Instruction 45/2011 on the Prison Library Service.
The opening times of the prison library are as shown below.
Day | Time |
Monday to Thursday | 2.00pm to 7.15pm |
Friday | Closed |
Saturday | 9.00am to 3.45pm |
Sunday | 1.00pm to 3.45pm |
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many packages of books delivered to HM Prison Manchester were found to contain drugs in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
Prisons employ a range of measures to detect, disrupt and deter the trafficking of drugs into prisons. This is particularly the case at HMP Manchester which is a High Security prison. Over the last 5 years there have been 53 recorded attempts to smuggle drugs into Manchester by post – all were in letters.
In common with many other prisons, HMP Manchester does not allow books to be sent direct to prisoners in packages because of the ease with which illicit items may be concealed. As such there have been no recorded incidents of drugs been sent in packages of books over the last 5 years. Prisoners may order books through the prison from approved suppliers and can borrow books from the prison library.
Asked by: Andrew Bingham (Conservative - High Peak)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether prisoners at HM Prison Manchester have access to (a) library books on specialist subjects and (b) educational courses.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
Prison library providers ensure that the range of reading and reference material available in each library reflects the needs and diverse nature of the prisoners held. They enable prisoners to receive, subject to the constraints of operating within a custodial environment, a service equivalent to that provided for library users in the community.
The prison library at HMP Manchester holds books on a number of specialist subjects and will consider requests for others where there is a particular need.