Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to Written Question 11190, what steps his department plans to take to reduce the remand population over the next calendar year.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We continue to work closely with partners from across the criminal justice system to manage the growth in the prison remand population. The Sentencing Bill, currently being considered before parliament, introduces a package of amendments to the Bail Act 1976, which, alongside the presumption to suspend short sentences of 12 months or less, will help to address the unsustainable growth in the prison remand population.
This package of amendments includes changing the “no real prospect” test in the Bail Act 1976 so that fewer exceptions to bail will apply where the court considers that a sentence of immediate custody is unlikely. We are also adding to the factors that the courts must consider when deciding whether to refuse or grant bail to include consideration of whether the defendant is pregnant, a primary caregiver, or a victim of domestic abuse.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 5 November 2024 to Question 11190, what progress he has made on tackling remand numbers.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
We continue to work closely with partners from across the criminal justice system to manage the growth in the prison remand population. The Sentencing Bill, currently being considered before parliament, introduces a package of amendments to the Bail Act 1976, which, alongside the presumption to suspend short sentences of 12 months or less, will help to address the unsustainable growth in the prison remand population.
This package of amendments includes changing the “no real prospect” test in the Bail Act 1976 so that fewer exceptions to bail will apply where the court considers that a sentence of immediate custody is unlikely. We are also adding to the factors that the courts must consider when deciding whether to refuse or grant bail to include consideration of whether the defendant is pregnant, a primary caregiver, or a victim of domestic abuse.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what consideration his department has given to making remand prisoners eligible for a) educational programmes and b) offender behaviour programmes.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice is committed to ensuring that individuals held on custody, including those on remand, have access to appropriate rehabilitative and educational support while in prison.
Remand prisoners are eligible to access core education provision within prisons. This may include literacy, numeracy, English for Speakers of Other Languages, basic digital skills, as well as library services. On arrival, all prisoners undergo initial screening for learning needs and receive an individual Learning and Work Plan to support progression. Governors must ensure that education is available to all prisoners who can benefit, in line with Prison Rule 32, and prisoners on remand are given the choice to participate in these opportunities. While remand prisoners cannot access advanced learning funded through student loans or the Prisoner Education Trust, they are encouraged to participate in the core educational offer within their prison setting.
Accredited offending behaviour programmes are generally reserved for sentenced individuals, as remand periods and uncertain outcomes make it impractical to deliver these interventions before sentencing. We are focused on expanding appropriate rehabilitative provision for people on remand; probation pre-release teams support all people in prison, including on remand, with pre-release planning. The scope of the Commissioned Rehabilitative Services has been extended to include remand prisoners, offering practical support such as accommodation and for women, additional services addressing finance, family and social inclusion.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if his department will provide the average number of visitation days, per prisoner, for a) all prisoners and b) disabled prisoners.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
This information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
However, a report about Social Contact in Prison published 11 December provides information about visit frequencies. The report notes that in the 12 months prior to June 2024, almost two thirds of prisoners (63%) had at least one face-to-face visit. 31% of prisoners received remote contact only and 5% of prisoners appeared to have had no contact.
The report can be accessed via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/social-contact-in-prison-april-2019-to-june-2024.
We know that visits are crucial to sustaining relationships with close relatives, partners and friends, and help prisoners maintain links with the community. HMPPS aims to encourage and assist the maintenance of relationships between prisoners and their families to support their social rehabilitation. The Help With Prison Visits scheme (HWPV) supports visitors on low incomes by providing a contribution towards visits costs for close relatives, partners or sole visitors.
All visits areas must be accessible for all, including disabled prisoners and visitors.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his department will work with the Department for Education to legislate to allow prisoners to obtain a student loan more than 6 years from their earliest release date.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice is committed to enabling prisoners to access higher education while in custody and, alongside HMPPS, works with partners such as the Prisoners Education Trust and the Open University to widen access to higher education for prisoners.
The Ministry of Justice and the Department for Education will continue to consider access to student finance for prisoners.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what action his department is taking to ensure prison estate maintenance providers are accountable for their performance.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The value and performance of the Department’s private-sector service providers is reviewed through routine contract and performance management and, in addition, ministers meet regularly with each provider’s Chief Executive Officers to hold them personally to account for their performance.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his department has made of the potential impact of a) being a peer mentor, or b) having a peer mentor, on reoffending rates.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Reducing reoffending is a top priority for this Government. Our approach is led by evidence on what works to support offenders in turning away from crime, focusing on addressing the underlying needs linked to offending behaviour, including housing, employment and education, substance misuse treatment, family ties and improving personal skills and behaviours.
Peer mentoring already plays an important role in supporting rehabilitation within prison and probation services. It is used in various ways, including providing lived experience insights into probation requirements and direct one-to-one mentoring. Some peer-led services are also delivered by external organisations, further supporting rehabilitation efforts. Overall, there is national variation in delivery of peer-led services.
While there is external evidence that peer mentoring can be beneficial, there is currently no centrally collated data on how many people in custody have served as a peer mentor or had access to one over the last 10 years.
A recent study by HMPPS (Ministry of Justice, 2024, Education, Skills, and Work, Peer Mentoring in Men’s Prisons, Ministry of Justice Analytical Series) found that peer mentoring can positively influence inmates' engagement with educational programmes and enhance their skills, as well as improving staff/prisoner relationships.
Every prison has been encouraged to deliver peer mentoring as part of the prison regime. This will help embed peer support across the custodial estate, promoting rehabilitative engagement and enhancing prisoners’ access to mentoring opportunities and supporting.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have a) served as a peer mentor and b) had access to a peer mentor, in each of the last 10 calendar years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Reducing reoffending is a top priority for this Government. Our approach is led by evidence on what works to support offenders in turning away from crime, focusing on addressing the underlying needs linked to offending behaviour, including housing, employment and education, substance misuse treatment, family ties and improving personal skills and behaviours.
Peer mentoring already plays an important role in supporting rehabilitation within prison and probation services. It is used in various ways, including providing lived experience insights into probation requirements and direct one-to-one mentoring. Some peer-led services are also delivered by external organisations, further supporting rehabilitation efforts. Overall, there is national variation in delivery of peer-led services.
While there is external evidence that peer mentoring can be beneficial, there is currently no centrally collated data on how many people in custody have served as a peer mentor or had access to one over the last 10 years.
A recent study by HMPPS (Ministry of Justice, 2024, Education, Skills, and Work, Peer Mentoring in Men’s Prisons, Ministry of Justice Analytical Series) found that peer mentoring can positively influence inmates' engagement with educational programmes and enhance their skills, as well as improving staff/prisoner relationships.
Every prison has been encouraged to deliver peer mentoring as part of the prison regime. This will help embed peer support across the custodial estate, promoting rehabilitative engagement and enhancing prisoners’ access to mentoring opportunities and supporting.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if his department will publish the average time-in-role for prison governors in each of the last 10 calendar years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The latest published HMPPS workforce statistics covers the period up to 30 September 2025 so the latest calendar year available is for 2024. Figures showing the average length of time spent in post for public sector prison governors in England and Wales as at 31 December 2015 to 2024 and 30 September 2025 are given in the table below.
The figures relate to the governing governors’ time in the role they were in on the given date only and exclude previous governor service. In addition, figures do not include deputy governors temporarily covering a governing governor role.
Table 1 - Average (mean) length of service (in years) of governors in the public sector prison role they were in on the given date, as at 31 December 2015 to 2024, and as at 30 September 2025.
Date | Average years (mean) |
31 December 2015 | 2.2 |
31 December 2016 | 2.0 |
31 December 2017 | 2.3 |
31 December 2018 | 2.3 |
31 December 2019 | 2.3 |
31 December 2020 | 2.7 |
31 December 2021 | 2.8 |
31 December 2022 | 3.1 |
31 December 2023 | 2.7 |
31 December 2024 | 2.9 |
30 September 2025 | 2.7 |
Notes:
1. Figures show average length of service of the prison governor role on the given date.
2. Figures relate to governing governors only (band 10-11) and do not include deputy governors temporarily covering the role.
3. The number of governors and prisons change over time, as vacancies arise and as prisons transfer between the public and private sector.
4. Each governor is only included once per given date, though it is possible to temporarily be governor of more than one prison at a time.
5. As with all HR databases, extracts are taken at a fixed point in time and is dependent on staff completing the details correctly. The database itself is dynamic and where updates to the database are made late, subsequent to the taking of the extract, or are incorrect then these updates will not be reflected in figures produced by the extract. For this reason, HR data are unlikely to be precisely accurate and may not match local data.
Asked by: Ben Goldsborough (Labour - South Norfolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his department is taking to increase the autonomy of prison governors.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Government recognises the value of autonomy for governors and the innovation this can drive, whilst also balancing this with the level of central control to achieve consistency between prisons.
In 2023, HMPPS launched a framework for governor empowerment – the Free, Flex, Fixed (FFF) framework of operational policy. This clarifies the extent of governor freedoms and flexibilities to ensure that they are used to their full potential. It also provides an opportunity for governors to challenge areas of fixed policy and is a clear framework for increasing flexibility if agreed centrally.
Some examples of the flexibility set out in the FFF framework are: governors are free to recruit locally for roles other than prison officer and operational support grades; they have flexibility to vary regime beyond the mandated elements; they have freedom to decide how staff time is allocated; and they flexibilities within their local budgets, such as the number of staff at different grades, provided it is within their overall pay budget.
We will continue to review governor autonomy, looking at what we can do to support governors whilst maintaining value for money and national consistency. Regular HMPPS leadership meetings adopt a continuous improvement approach to finding new flexibilities and freedoms for governors. We will continue to update governors so that they are aware of how to access all their freedoms.