Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the press release entitled UK and Albania agree groundbreaking new arrangement on prisoner transfers, published on 24 May 2023, how many prisoners have been transferred under the agreement with Albania since 31 December 2024.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Since 31 December 2024, six Albanian national offenders have been transferred to Albania under the bi-lateral Prison Transfer Agreement. Prisoner transfer is just one scheme where foreign national offenders can be removed early from prison, and it is more suited to those serving longer sentences. The Government pursues removal through all available mechanisms. The latest Home Office data indicate that 1,625 Albanian foreign national offenders were removed from England and Wales in 2024.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 15 July 2025 to Question 65243 on Prisoners' Release, what data her Department holds on trends over time in the average length of time spent on recall for (a) determinate sentenced prisoners and (b) all prisoners.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
The requested information for the average length of time spent on recall for indeterminate prisoners can be found in Table 5_Q_11 of the Department’s Offender Management Statistics Quarterly publication: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/680923bf148a9969d2394f58/licence-recalls-Oct-to-Dec-2024.ods.
The corresponding information for determinate sentenced prisoners is only obtainable at disproportionate cost as it requires data matching between different data systems (namely prison recall information from the Public Protection Unit Database, and prisoner release information from prison-NOMIS).
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 15 July 2025 to Question 65241 on Prisoners on Remand, what data her Department holds on trends in the average length of time spent on remand in that period.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
Information relating to the time spent on custodial remand is not centrally held by the Ministry of Justice. To obtain the data to answer this question would involve a manual interrogation of court records which would result in a disproportionate cost to the Department.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the press release entitled UK and Albania agree groundbreaking new arrangement on prisoner transfers, published on 24 May 2023, how many prisoners have been transferred under the agreement with Albania in the last 12 months.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
Between 17 July and 31 December 2024 (the latest period for which validated figures are available), four Albanian national offenders were transferred to Albania under the bi-lateral Prison Transfer Agreement. Prisoner transfer is just one scheme where foreign national offenders can be removed early from prison and it is more suited to those serving longer sentences. The Government pursues removal through all available mechanisms and during 2024, 1,610 Albanian foreign national offenders were removed from England and Wales, up 7% from the previous year.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of prisoners eligible for release from prison on home detention curfew were released on home detention curfew (a) in the first month of eligibility and (b) at any time in each of the last three years.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
The number of those released on home detention curfew (HDC) within 30 days of their HDC Eligibility Date in the latest published data period (between 01 October and 31 December 2024) in England and Wales was 2,827.
The number of those released on HDC each year is published in the Department’s Offender Management Statistics Quarterly (OMSQ) publication. This information can be found in Table 3_A_14:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/685492a1f812712f84581555/prison-releases-2024.ods
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate she has made of lead times for Parole Board hearings in each year from the earliest year for which data are available to the latest year for which data are available.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
The Parole Board has worked hard to reduce its growing caseload and manage the time it takes from referral to completion of prisoner reviews at both paper and oral hearings.
Timeliness of Parole Board hearings is not routinely published, however, in its annual report for 2023/24, the Board states that it had seen a reduction of 78% in cases waiting over 90 days to be listed for an oral hearing compared to the previous year: Parole Board for England and Wales Annual Report and Accounts 2023-24.
We continue to work closely with the Parole Board to further improve the efficiency and timeliness of prisoners’ parole reviews.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of the addition of modular precast concrete blocks in Category C prisons.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
In December, we published the 10-year capacity strategy outlining our commitment to build 14,000 prison places. We have already delivered c.2,500 places in the prison estate since coming into office, including a new c.1,500 place Category C prison HMP Millsike.
To deliver the 14,000 places, we are using a range of supply types which are compliant with standards and requirements for prison accommodation to be safe, decent and lawful. This includes houseblocks and modular units such as Rapid Deployment Cells. We use Modern Methods of Construction and Design for Manufacture and Assembly to provide efficiency in terms of both timelines and costs; for example, through the use of pre-manufactured components, such as pre-cast concrete, which streamlines on site-assembly.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what (a) assumptions and (b) formulae she uses to model prison place need.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
On 11 December 2024, we published the first annual statement on prison capacity, fulfilling our commitment to increased transparency, holding this government and future governments to account.
The demand projections used in the annual statement are based on population projection Accredited Official Statistics which are published at: Prison Population Projections: 2024 to 2029 - GOV.UK. Further detail on the modelling methodology is contained within the publication, including an overview of the assumptions used.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average time was that remand prisoners spent on remand in each of the last 20 years.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
Information relating to the time spent on custodial remand is not centrally held by the Ministry of Justice. To obtain the data to answer this question would involve a manual interrogation of court records which would incur a disproportionate cost to the Department.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average time was that prisoners released from recall spent on recall in each year for which data are available.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
The requested information for indeterminate prisoners re-released following recall can be found in Table 5_Q_11 of the Department’s Offender Management Statistics Quarterly publication: licence-recalls-Oct-to-Dec-2024.ods.
The corresponding information for determinate sentenced prisoners is only obtainable at disproportionate cost as it requires data matching between different data systems (namely prison recall information from the Public Protection Unit Database, and prisoner release information from prison-NOMIS).