Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to regularly publish data on prison (a) population and (b) changes.
Answered by Edward Argar
Prison population figures are published weekly at Prison population figures: 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). This publication also shows the operational capacity of the prison system as well as the weekly change.
The monthly reports at the same link also provide further population information broken down by prison.
Detailed quarterly statistics on offenders in custody (including offence groups, sentence lengths and nationalities) can be found at Offender management statistics quarterly: October to December 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have been released between 35 and 60 days early under the end of custody supervised licence scheme since October 2023.
Answered by Edward Argar
End of Custody Supervised Licence began in October 2023. Analysis of its use will be based on at least one year’s worth of data, and published in line with the same approach we take for other statistical releases such as deaths of offenders in the community
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have been released 70 days early under the end of custody supervised licence scheme since October 2023.
Answered by Edward Argar
End of Custody Supervised Licence began in October 2023. Analysis of its use will be based on at least one year’s worth of data, and published in line with the same approach we take for other statistical releases such as deaths of offenders in the community
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners were released 18 days early under the end of custody supervised licence scheme since October 2023.
Answered by Edward Argar
End of Custody Supervised Licence began in October 2023. Analysis of its use will be based on at least one year’s worth of data, and published in line with the same approach we take for other statistical releases such as deaths of offenders in the community
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to comply with principle (d) of schedule 1 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Answered by Mike Freer
The MoJ customises its working conditions and processes to meet the needs and capabilities of all its staff. These include, but are not limited to, the physical layout and structure of the workplace, adjustable desks and chairs, providing equipment that is ergonomically designed, easy to use, and suitable for the tasks that workers need to perform, allowing flexibility in work schedules and reducing monotonous tasks, and ensuring that workers are not required to work at an excessively fast pace.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether all (a) buildings and (b) workplaces staff from their Department occupy have a suitable and sufficient risk assessment under Section 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Answered by Mike Freer
The Ministry of Justice has a Health and Safety policy and Occupational Health and Safety Management System in place, which requires suitable and sufficient risk assessments to ensure all occupational health and safety hazards and risks are adequately identified, assessed, controlled and monitored.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of appeals to the Tribunals Service for (a) personal independence payment, (b) employment and support allowance, (c) income support, (d) jobseekers allowance and (e) tax credits were successful in (i) Glasgow South West constituency, (ii) Glasgow, (iii) Scotland and (iv) Great Britain in (A) 2021-22 and (B) 2022-23.
Answered by Mike Freer
Information about appeals to the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) (SSCS) is published at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.
SSCS appeals are listed into the hearing venue nearest to the appellant’s home address. Glasgow Tribunal Centre is the only SSCS venue serving the Glasgow South West constituency. The published data (which can be viewed at the link above) provide information about the outcomes of (a) Personal Independence Payment (PIP), and (b) Employment Support Allowance (ESA), for (i) Glasgow South West constituency (this is covered by the Glasgow data), (ii) Glasgow, (iii) Scotland and (iv) Great Britain in (A) 2021-22 and (B) 2022-23.
The tables below contain the requested information for Glasgow and Scotland for (c) Income Support, (d) Job Seekers Allowance and (e) Tax Credits for 2021 – 22; and 2022-23:
| INCOME SUPPORT | |||||
Glasgow Venue1 | Scotland HMCTS Region1 | |||||
No. Cleared at Hearing | No. Decision in Favour | % Decision in Favour2 | No. Cleared at Hearing | No. Decision in Favour | % Decision in Favour | |
2021_20223 | 15 | 5 | 53% | 30 | 14 | 47% |
2022_20233 | 4 | ~ | ~ | 8 | ~ | ~ |
| JOB SEEKER’S ALLOWANCE | |||||
Glasgow Venue | Scotland HMCTS Region | |||||
No. Cleared at Hearing | No. Decision in Favour | % Decision in Favour | No. Cleared at Hearing | No. Decision in Favour | % Decision in Favour | |
2021_2022 | 9 | ~ | ~ | 26 | 9 | 35% |
2022_2023 | 9 | ~ | ~ | 25 | 5 | 20% |
| TAX CREDITS | |||||
Glasgow Venue | Scotland HMCTS Region | |||||
No. Cleared at Hearing | No. Decision in Favour | % Decision in Favour | No. Cleared at Hearing | No. Decision in Favour | % Decision in Favour | |
2021_2022 | 9 | ~ | ~ | 21 | 13 | 62% |
2022_2023 | 3 | ~ | ~ | 11 | 5 | 45% |
Notes: |
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1. SSCS data is normally registered to the venue nearest to the appellant’s home address. We cannot retrieve data based on the appellant’s actual address but can produce reports detailing the numbers of cases that were dealt with at one of our Regional centres or heard at a specific venue. 2. Proportion based on the number of cases found in favour of the appellant at a tribunal hearing as a percentage of the cases heard at a tribunal hearing. 3. 1st April – 31st March
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Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of civil servants on temporary contracts in his Department are women.
Answered by Mike Freer
The information is already available in the public domain:
Permanent and temporary civil servants by sex, age band and department: 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of SCS2 civil servants on full-time equivalent contracts in his Department are women.
Answered by Mike Freer
As of 30 June 2023, 42% of the SCS 2 cohort within the Ministry of Justice were declared as women.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether an Access to Work scheme has been implemented in their Department.
Answered by Mike Freer
Access to Work is a demand-led, personalised discretionary grant, administered by the Department for Work and Pensions, which contributes to the disability-related extra costs of working faced by disabled people and those with a health condition in the workplace that are beyond standard reasonable adjustments. It does not replace an employer’s duty under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments.
In April 2022, all government departments, including the Ministry of Justice, took over responsibility for providing adjustments that would previously have been funded through Access to Work for civil servants working in their department.
The Ministry of Justice has not replicated the Access to Work Scheme but has increased the scope, volume and funding of its workplace adjustments provision for its staff, including an in-house workplace adjustment service. The department also provides adjustment support for candidates applying for roles based on their individual needs.
The Ministry of Justice provides individual focused support, with similar aims to those of the Department for Work and Pension`s Access to Work Scheme, which is dedicated to fully supporting our people by ensuring they have workplace adjustments they require.