Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effect on UK media freedom policy of the use by Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan of libel actions against UK journalists in English courts.
Answered by Gareth Johnson
The government is committed to a free and independent media. The Ministry of Justice is currently developing reforms regarding the challenges which Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) present to journalists and others involved in freedom of expression relating to the public interest. Our recent Call for Evidence response, published on 20 July, sets out the Government’s intention to tackle SLAPPs.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) psychiatrists and (b) psychologists are employed in prison and young offender institutions.
Answered by Phillip Lee
As at 31 March 2017, there were 655 full-time equivalent psychologists working in prison establishments (including young offender institutions) across England and Wales.
Psychiatrists are employed as part of the NHS health service provision to prisoners, commissioned by NHS England and by the NHS in Wales. Prisons work closely with NHS services to enable access to high quality care in prisons.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of the prisons budget was spent on prisoners' (a) education, (b) healthcare and (c) rehabilitation in 2015-16.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
As part of our prison safety and reform plans, we are giving governors in all prisons more powers and more responsibility. This includes key roles at each stage of the healthcare commissioning cycle, and the ability to decide how to structure their education regime, how it is sequenced and who provides it.
These new responsibilities for prison governors will be accompanied by new accountability, buttressed by a set of performance standards that will hold them to account for the progress prisoners make.
The budget for education and healthcare in 2015-16 was the responsibility of other Government Departments or a devolved function of the Welsh Government.
The Department for Business Innovation and Skills allocated £128.9m for prison education in that year.
The Department for Health allocated spend on offender health in 2015/16 but it is not possible to breakdown how much of this was spent in prisons.
In the case of some Privately Managed Prisons, education and healthcare was delivered by the prison operator and funded as part of the overall contract price. These costs are therefore not all held in the budget overseen by NOMS to deliver services in prisons.
We do not allocate a separate budget for rehabilitation. Offender rehabilitation is an integral part of the prison regime, from offending behaviour programmes to working in prison catering services.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many inquests have taken place related to the death of UK citizens whilst at sea in each year including and since 2010.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 19 October 2015 to Question 11221, how many prosecutions or fixed penalty notifications have occurred for non emergency vehicles displaying static blue lighting in the last three years for which figures are available.
Answered by Mike Penning
This information is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.