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Written Question
Prisoners' Release: Reoffenders
Wednesday 9th November 2022

Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders were recalled from licence to prison in each year since 2010.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The number of recalls(1) from licence to prison in each year since 2010 is set out in the table below.

(1) The table includes instances of offenders recalled multiple times. Recording of data over time did not always contain unique identifiers, making identification of unique offenders in historical datasets not possible without significant manual checks

Year

Number of Recalls

2010

15,475

2011

16,297

2012

16,581

2013

17,332

2014

17,649

2015

21,467

2016

21,559

2017

21,915

2018

24,268

2019

26,503

2020

24,437

2021

22,105

2022

11,270*

* Covers only the first two quarters of 2022.

The Government is focused on public protection.  Offenders on licence can be recalled to prison at any time if they breach their licence conditions.

We routinely publish recall data at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly.


Written Question
Prisons: Terrorism
Tuesday 26th October 2021

Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to publish the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation's report on terrorism in prisons.

Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care

The Government has received the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation’s report on Counter Terrorism in Prisons and it will be published in due course.


Written Question
Probation
Monday 19th April 2021

Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to increase the number of Probation Service user contact centres in (a) Liverpool City Region, (b) the North West and (c) England.

Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

Public Protection remains the number one priority in the probation system. With this in mind we continue to manage our high risk and complex cases face to face, as far as possible. Last summer, the Probation Roadmap to Recovery was published, which has since been revised to align with the Prime Minister’s National Roadmap. It sets out the aims for delivery in the coming weeks and months and outlines when we will lift national pauses, rather than mandate when services will be re-introduced.

A four-year estates strategy will see £131m of funding allocated to the refurbishment of existing sites and creation of 65 new sites across England and Wales. As part of the Probation Reform Programme 191 sites which are currently used by Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) will be transferred to the National Probation Service.

As part of the Probation Reform Programme, the estates strategy for Liverpool City region and the North West has been reviewed. The probation contact centre in St Helens closed in March 2021 as a result of the Probation Reform Programme estates strategy review. Staff and supervised individuals subsequently moved to Probation contact centres in Knowsley and Prescot. Changes to the estate have not affected the existing partnerships arrangements that are in place between the National Probation Service and key stakeholders/partners in St Helens. Currently there are no plans to increase the number of Probation contact centres in the region, however, we continue to source local premises for specific needs as required.

Funding for the Probation regions for 2021/22 is yet to be finalised. Given the changes to the nature and scope of Probation Service provision since 2010 it is not possible to provide meaningful figures covering the period requested without incurring disproportionate costs.

Data on the number of service users from 2014 to 2019 is provided on the attached table. It is not possible to provide probation caseload figures for the Liverpool City region specifically prior to 2014 as this would involve re-extracting data which would now be incomplete due to deletions in line with Data Protection Act rules applied on the recording system at the time; the cost of undertaking this exercise would therefore be disproportionate.

The number of offenders supervised by each National Probation Service region, division and CRC is regularly published as part of the Offender Management Quarterly series of statistics and can be found via the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly


Written Question
Probation: Finance
Monday 19th April 2021

Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what funding his Department has allocated to maintain probation services for each National Probation Service region from April 2021 onwards.

Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

Public Protection remains the number one priority in the probation system. With this in mind we continue to manage our high risk and complex cases face to face, as far as possible. Last summer, the Probation Roadmap to Recovery was published, which has since been revised to align with the Prime Minister’s National Roadmap. It sets out the aims for delivery in the coming weeks and months and outlines when we will lift national pauses, rather than mandate when services will be re-introduced.

A four-year estates strategy will see £131m of funding allocated to the refurbishment of existing sites and creation of 65 new sites across England and Wales. As part of the Probation Reform Programme 191 sites which are currently used by Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) will be transferred to the National Probation Service.

As part of the Probation Reform Programme, the estates strategy for Liverpool City region and the North West has been reviewed. The probation contact centre in St Helens closed in March 2021 as a result of the Probation Reform Programme estates strategy review. Staff and supervised individuals subsequently moved to Probation contact centres in Knowsley and Prescot. Changes to the estate have not affected the existing partnerships arrangements that are in place between the National Probation Service and key stakeholders/partners in St Helens. Currently there are no plans to increase the number of Probation contact centres in the region, however, we continue to source local premises for specific needs as required.

Funding for the Probation regions for 2021/22 is yet to be finalised. Given the changes to the nature and scope of Probation Service provision since 2010 it is not possible to provide meaningful figures covering the period requested without incurring disproportionate costs.

Data on the number of service users from 2014 to 2019 is provided on the attached table. It is not possible to provide probation caseload figures for the Liverpool City region specifically prior to 2014 as this would involve re-extracting data which would now be incomplete due to deletions in line with Data Protection Act rules applied on the recording system at the time; the cost of undertaking this exercise would therefore be disproportionate.

The number of offenders supervised by each National Probation Service region, division and CRC is regularly published as part of the Offender Management Quarterly series of statistics and can be found via the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly


Written Question
Probation: North West
Monday 19th April 2021

Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much funding his Department has allocated to maintain probation services in (a) Liverpool City Region and (b) the North West in each year since 2010.

Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

Public Protection remains the number one priority in the probation system. With this in mind we continue to manage our high risk and complex cases face to face, as far as possible. Last summer, the Probation Roadmap to Recovery was published, which has since been revised to align with the Prime Minister’s National Roadmap. It sets out the aims for delivery in the coming weeks and months and outlines when we will lift national pauses, rather than mandate when services will be re-introduced.

A four-year estates strategy will see £131m of funding allocated to the refurbishment of existing sites and creation of 65 new sites across England and Wales. As part of the Probation Reform Programme 191 sites which are currently used by Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) will be transferred to the National Probation Service.

As part of the Probation Reform Programme, the estates strategy for Liverpool City region and the North West has been reviewed. The probation contact centre in St Helens closed in March 2021 as a result of the Probation Reform Programme estates strategy review. Staff and supervised individuals subsequently moved to Probation contact centres in Knowsley and Prescot. Changes to the estate have not affected the existing partnerships arrangements that are in place between the National Probation Service and key stakeholders/partners in St Helens. Currently there are no plans to increase the number of Probation contact centres in the region, however, we continue to source local premises for specific needs as required.

Funding for the Probation regions for 2021/22 is yet to be finalised. Given the changes to the nature and scope of Probation Service provision since 2010 it is not possible to provide meaningful figures covering the period requested without incurring disproportionate costs.

Data on the number of service users from 2014 to 2019 is provided on the attached table. It is not possible to provide probation caseload figures for the Liverpool City region specifically prior to 2014 as this would involve re-extracting data which would now be incomplete due to deletions in line with Data Protection Act rules applied on the recording system at the time; the cost of undertaking this exercise would therefore be disproportionate.

The number of offenders supervised by each National Probation Service region, division and CRC is regularly published as part of the Offender Management Quarterly series of statistics and can be found via the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly


Written Question
Probation: North West
Monday 19th April 2021

Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many service users of the National Probation Service there have been in (a) Liverpool City Region and (b) the North West in each year since 2010.

Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

Public Protection remains the number one priority in the probation system. With this in mind we continue to manage our high risk and complex cases face to face, as far as possible. Last summer, the Probation Roadmap to Recovery was published, which has since been revised to align with the Prime Minister’s National Roadmap. It sets out the aims for delivery in the coming weeks and months and outlines when we will lift national pauses, rather than mandate when services will be re-introduced.

A four-year estates strategy will see £131m of funding allocated to the refurbishment of existing sites and creation of 65 new sites across England and Wales. As part of the Probation Reform Programme 191 sites which are currently used by Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) will be transferred to the National Probation Service.

As part of the Probation Reform Programme, the estates strategy for Liverpool City region and the North West has been reviewed. The probation contact centre in St Helens closed in March 2021 as a result of the Probation Reform Programme estates strategy review. Staff and supervised individuals subsequently moved to Probation contact centres in Knowsley and Prescot. Changes to the estate have not affected the existing partnerships arrangements that are in place between the National Probation Service and key stakeholders/partners in St Helens. Currently there are no plans to increase the number of Probation contact centres in the region, however, we continue to source local premises for specific needs as required.

Funding for the Probation regions for 2021/22 is yet to be finalised. Given the changes to the nature and scope of Probation Service provision since 2010 it is not possible to provide meaningful figures covering the period requested without incurring disproportionate costs.

Data on the number of service users from 2014 to 2019 is provided on the attached table. It is not possible to provide probation caseload figures for the Liverpool City region specifically prior to 2014 as this would involve re-extracting data which would now be incomplete due to deletions in line with Data Protection Act rules applied on the recording system at the time; the cost of undertaking this exercise would therefore be disproportionate.

The number of offenders supervised by each National Probation Service region, division and CRC is regularly published as part of the Offender Management Quarterly series of statistics and can be found via the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly


Written Question
Probation: St Helens
Monday 19th April 2021

Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has for the provision of services under the National Probation Service in the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens.

Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

Public Protection remains the number one priority in the probation system. With this in mind we continue to manage our high risk and complex cases face to face, as far as possible. Last summer, the Probation Roadmap to Recovery was published, which has since been revised to align with the Prime Minister’s National Roadmap. It sets out the aims for delivery in the coming weeks and months and outlines when we will lift national pauses, rather than mandate when services will be re-introduced.

A four-year estates strategy will see £131m of funding allocated to the refurbishment of existing sites and creation of 65 new sites across England and Wales. As part of the Probation Reform Programme 191 sites which are currently used by Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) will be transferred to the National Probation Service.

As part of the Probation Reform Programme, the estates strategy for Liverpool City region and the North West has been reviewed. The probation contact centre in St Helens closed in March 2021 as a result of the Probation Reform Programme estates strategy review. Staff and supervised individuals subsequently moved to Probation contact centres in Knowsley and Prescot. Changes to the estate have not affected the existing partnerships arrangements that are in place between the National Probation Service and key stakeholders/partners in St Helens. Currently there are no plans to increase the number of Probation contact centres in the region, however, we continue to source local premises for specific needs as required.

Funding for the Probation regions for 2021/22 is yet to be finalised. Given the changes to the nature and scope of Probation Service provision since 2010 it is not possible to provide meaningful figures covering the period requested without incurring disproportionate costs.

Data on the number of service users from 2014 to 2019 is provided on the attached table. It is not possible to provide probation caseload figures for the Liverpool City region specifically prior to 2014 as this would involve re-extracting data which would now be incomplete due to deletions in line with Data Protection Act rules applied on the recording system at the time; the cost of undertaking this exercise would therefore be disproportionate.

The number of offenders supervised by each National Probation Service region, division and CRC is regularly published as part of the Offender Management Quarterly series of statistics and can be found via the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly


Written Question
Prison Officers: Pay
Wednesday 24th February 2021

Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent discussions he has had with recognised trade unions on the effect on prison officer morale of his Department’s decision not to implement Recommendation 3 as outlined in the Prison Service Pay Review Body’s Nineteenth Report on England and Wales 2020.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

I am grateful to recognised trade unions for continued engagement and collaboration on issues relevant to the prison workforce. It is vital, particularly in the current circumstances, that we continue to work together.

In addition to ongoing engagement between my officials and the recognised trade unions on prison pay, the Lord Chancellor met with our colleagues at the Prison Officers Association on 28th January to discuss the 2020-21 pay award. Staff morale - amongst other relevant matters such as government affordability, adequate investment into safety and security, professionalisation and leadership, and staff wellbeing - has of course been fundamental to those discussions throughout.

I recognise the decision to reject ‘recommendation 3’ will have been disappointing for our staff, however the decision taken is not a comment on the value of staff and their hard work.

I welcome engagement from recognised trade unions with the Prison Service Pay Review Body to best inform recommendations for prison pay going forward.


Written Question
Prisoners: Self-harm
Monday 22nd February 2021

Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has allocated additional funding available to preventative services to help reduce incidences of self-harm in prisons during the covid-19 outbreak; and whether his Department provides specific support to women in prisons at risk of self harm.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

We are under no illusions about the impact of the measures which were put in place to protect lives during the Covid-19 pandemic and we have made prisoners’ wellbeing our priority. We have produced a range of products to support governors in devising and implementing local safety and welfare plans designed to mitigate risks and promote wellbeing. We have developed new guidance for staff on understanding and supporting someone who is self-harming. We have enabled continued family contact through more than 1,600 secure mobile phones and secure video calls. We continue to work closely with the Samaritans who are providing support for Listeners – selected prisoners trained to provide emotional support to their fellow prisoners and who continue to offer their phone service for emotional support.

We are delivering more in-cell activity and are continuing to improve our offer to support prison residents during this period. For example, distraction packs, supplementary food packs and additional educational materials have been provided, as well as £5 PIN credit per prisoner per week.

We recognise that the level of self-harm in the women’s estate is too high and are determined to reduce this. A Women’s Self-Harm Task Force was set up in April 2020 in response to our increasing concerns about the level of self-harm in the Women’s estate. We know that many of the drivers (risks and triggers) and protective factors linked to women’s risk of self-harm in prisons have been impacted by Covid-19 and the restricted regimes that have been put in place to control the spread of infection.

The Task Force has led work to introduce a number of specific interventions to counteract the impact of Covid-19 on self-harm in the Women’s estate. This work has seen the introduction of bespoke well-being checks, increased credit to enable phone calls and increased access to Purple Visits (video calls with family and friends).

We have prioritised the roll out of the revised version of the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) multi-disciplinary case management system used in prisons to support people at risk of suicide and self-harm. We will also be implementing the Offender Management in Custody model in the female estate in April. This will provide each woman in the female estate with a dedicated key worker who will be able to better support them and identify concerns at an early stage so that women can receive the right support at the right time.


Written Question
Prisoners: Self-harm
Monday 22nd February 2021

Asked by: Conor McGinn (Independent - St Helens North)

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions has he had with the Chancellor of Exchequer on the adequacy of current levels of financial support for the prevention of women’s self-harm in prisons.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

We recognise that the level of self-harm in the women’s estate is too high and are determined to reduce this. A Women’s Self-Harm Task Force was set up in April 2020 in response to our increasing concerns about the level of self-harm in the Women’s estate. We know that many of the drivers (risks and triggers) and protective factors linked to women’s risk of self-harm in prisons have been impacted by Covid-19 and the restricted regimes that have been put in place to control the spread of infection.

The Task Force has led work to introduce a number of specific interventions to counteract the impact of Covid-19 on self-harm in the Women’s estate. This work has seen the introduction of bespoke well-being checks, increased credit to enable phone calls and increased access to Purple Visits (video calls with family and friends).

We have prioritised the roll out of the revised version of the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) multi-disciplinary case management system used in prisons to support people at risk of suicide and self-harm. We will also be implementing the Offender Management in Custody model in the female estate in April. This will provide each woman in the female estate with a dedicated key worker who will be able to better support them and identify concerns at an early stage so that women can receive the right support at the right time.

We have also produced a range of products to support Governors in devising and implementing local safety and welfare plans designed to mitigate risks and promote wellbeing. We have developed new guidance for staff on understanding and supporting someone who is self-harming. We continue to make the Samaritans phone service available and are working with the Samaritans to ensure that the Listener peer support scheme continues to function effectively wherever possible.

There has been further investment to support the wellbeing of women offenders in custody, including investment into increased phone credit for women and bespoke well-being checks. Further work has also been done to increase the number of video calls that prisoners have with family and friends.

Crucially, we have also invested £5m in alternatives to prison, including new women’s centres which help people address issues such as alcohol or drug addiction which leads them to crime.