Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to improve (a) data and (b) evidence collection in response to her Department's report entitled Intergenerational offending: A narrative review of the literature, published on 5 June 2025.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
Official Statistics on the scale of parental imprisonment were published in July 2024 and can be found at: Official Statistics in Development: Estimates of children with a parent in prison - GOV.UK.
Further work is ongoing to refine these estimates. Additionally, analysis has started with the aim of providing more in-depth understanding of the impact of parental imprisonment on children, looking at factors such as demographics and education. This work will provide valuable insights, with the intention of driving meaningful change in policy and support for affected children.
The Areas of Research Interest publication reflects our ambition to improve the evidence base on intergenerational offending. This is used as the basis for ongoing conversations, collaboration and challenge with experts in academia, research organisations and funding bodies, and can be found at: Areas of Research Interest.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to support children with a parent in prison.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
Having a parent in prison is considered an adverse childhood experience and can have a significant impact on a child’s life chances. This Government has committed to ensuring these children are identified and offered the support they need to thrive.
We are working closely with the Department for Education to determine how to effectively identify and support these children. We understand the importance of driving forward this agenda and officials from both Departments are working with a wide range of stakeholders, including sector experts and those with lived experience, to support the development of policy proposals.
Prisons across England and Wales already offer a range of services to maintain family relationships including social visits, family days, prison voicemail and collaborations with organisations such as the award-winning charity led initiative Storybook Mums and Dads, enabling parents in prison to record bedtime stories for their children.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the document entitled Draft terms of reference for the Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group, what updates his Department has provided on relevant developments in its area of work to that group since 2019.
Answered by Mike Freer
Ministers and officials have regular discussions with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities over a range of issues. More broadly, I refer the hon. Member to the answer of 01 March 2024, Official Report, PQ 16019 on tackling anti-Muslim hatred.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the report entitled Celebrating Marriage: A New Weddings Law published by the Law Commission on 18 July 2022, HC 557, what steps the Government is taking to implement the changes proposed to (a) the conduct of legally binding weddings by (i) non-religious belief organisations and (ii) independent celebrants, (b) the locations in which people can get married and (c) other aspects of weddings law; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Mike Freer
The Law Commission report contains 57 recommendations for legislative reform. We are taking the time to fully consider the report’s recommendations.
Marriage will always be one of our most important institutions, and we have a duty to consider the implications of any changes to the law in this area very carefully. We will publish a response to the report in due course.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the mechanism for the allocation of specialised Independent Domestic Violence Advisors focused on the abuse of older people and the way it relates to (a) the level of older person-focused abuse and (b) the relative proportion of older people in the local population.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is using additional ringfenced funding to increase the number of Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs) and Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs) it funds by 300 to over 1,000 by 2024/2025. For 2022/23, we are providing £34 million of ringfenced funding for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to locally commission IDVAs and ISVAs. It is the responsibility of the PCCs to decide how to target recruitment of specialist IDVAs, including those that support elderly victims, based on their assessment of local need.
In addition, the Government is committed to further building capacity in specialist service provision and has launched a £6m Violence Against Women and Girls Support and Specialist Services Fund. The fund is led by the Home Office with a £3m contribution from MoJ for ‘by and for’ services, open to both national and local organisations. ‘By and for’ services are specialist services that are led, designed, and delivered by and for the users and communities they aim to serve. One of the fund’s ambitions is to increase the number of ‘by and for’ IDVAs and ISVAs.
The MoJ continually reviews the most effective mechanism for allocating funding for IDVAs and ISVAs.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what support his Department provides (a) nationally and (b) regionally to Independent Domestic Violence Advisors to help support older people who have been subject to domestic abuse.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is using additional ringfenced funding to increase the number of Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs) and Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs) it funds by 300 to over 1,000 by 2024/2025. For 2022/23, we are providing £34 million of ringfenced funding for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to locally commission IDVAs and ISVAs. It is the responsibility of the PCCs to decide how to target recruitment of specialist IDVAs, including those that support elderly victims, based on their assessment of local need.
In addition, the Government is committed to further building capacity in specialist service provision and has launched a £6m Violence Against Women and Girls Support and Specialist Services Fund. The fund is led by the Home Office with a £3m contribution from MoJ for ‘by and for’ services, open to both national and local organisations. ‘By and for’ services are specialist services that are led, designed, and delivered by and for the users and communities they aim to serve. One of the fund’s ambitions is to increase the number of ‘by and for’ IDVAs and ISVAs.
The MoJ continually reviews the most effective mechanism for allocating funding for IDVAs and ISVAs.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an estimate of the number of Independent Domestic Violence Advisors who specialise in dealing with cases of domestic abuse experienced by elderly people.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is using additional ringfenced funding to increase the number of Independent Domestic Violence Advisers (IDVAs) and Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs) it funds by 300 to over 1,000 by 2024/2025. For 2022/23, we are providing £34 million of ringfenced funding for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to locally commission IDVAs and ISVAs. It is the responsibility of the PCCs to decide how to target recruitment of specialist IDVAs, including those that support elderly victims, based on their assessment of local need.
In addition, the Government is committed to further building capacity in specialist service provision and has launched a £6m Violence Against Women and Girls Support and Specialist Services Fund. The fund is led by the Home Office with a £3m contribution from MoJ for ‘by and for’ services, open to both national and local organisations. ‘By and for’ services are specialist services that are led, designed, and delivered by and for the users and communities they aim to serve. One of the fund’s ambitions is to increase the number of ‘by and for’ IDVAs and ISVAs.
The MoJ continually reviews the most effective mechanism for allocating funding for IDVAs and ISVAs.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to Racial Bias and the Bench, published by the University of Manchester in November 2022, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of (a) including a section on anti-Black racism in the Equal Treatment Bench Book and (b) increasing the number of editors of that Book from Black communities.
Answered by Mike Freer
To preserve the independence of the judiciary, the Lord Chief Justice, the Senior President of the Tribunals, and the Chief Coroner have statutory responsibility for judicial training, under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, and Coroners and Justice Act 2009 respectively, exercised through the Judicial College, which produces the Equal Treatment Bench Book.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will set out a timetable for the review into the policy framework for trans prisoners.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Our review of the policy framework has completed, and we will be publishing an updated policy framework shortly, which will set out the new guidance in detail and how it will be implemented by HMPPS. The implementation of this new policy will take effect soon after we have published the revised framework.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases of racial discrimination against schools were taken in Country Courts in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022.
Answered by Mike Freer
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. The MOJ does not centrally record information on the grounds for damages claims and as such the information could only be obtained by a manual review of the case files.