Asked by: Gary Streeter (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the report entitled Mental capacity small payments scheme: Government response, published on 28 February 2023, whether his Department plans to publish its plan for improving the Court of Protection Property and Affairs order process.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Whilst there are no plans to publish anything further on this, the ongoing improvements of the online property and affairs applications process at the Court of Protection are iterative and include ongoing development of the online applications process, user testing, reviewing and revising the court forms and supporting guidance and clearer information on Gov.UK. Forms required for paper applications are also under review and revision.
Initial improvements were rolled out for all court users in February 2023, resulting in application waiting times being reduced from 24 weeks to 8 weeks.
Asked by: Gary Streeter (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what safeguarding guidance the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service follows when it assists victims of domestic abuse.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Cafcass’ domestic abuse practice guidance consists of a practice pathway and a guidance document that provides social work practitioners with a structured approach to risk assessment of domestic abuse in the family court. This was updated in May 2021 alongside a programme of training in its use for all practice staff. The materials can be accessed here: Resources for assessing domestic abuse - Cafcass - Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service.
The practice pathway guidance provides practitioners with a range of assessment tools to use when domestic abuse is part of a family’s circumstances. The aim of this guidance is to ensure that the safety and wellbeing of the child at the centre of proceedings; to promote the best interests of the child and offer a safe recommendation to the court; to work in a trauma focused, respectful and responsive manner; to assess the impact on the child of their lived experience of domestic abuse and to look for strengths in the family and community to promote safety.
Asked by: Gary Streeter (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to review the retirement age for prison officers.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
We highly value our hardworking prison staff and offer access to medical professionals and an employee assistance programme to ensure continued physical and mental wellbeing. There are currently no plans to review the retirement age of prison officers.
Asked by: Gary Streeter (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the trends in the number of assaults on prison officers since the publication of the Hutton report on Public Service Pensions in 2011.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The level of violence in prisons is high and any assault against our hardworking prison staff is unacceptable. We are addressing this by giving all staff the tools and training they need to help reduce violence.
While violence fell in 2012, the year after the Hutton report, this steadily rose until 2019, but has now begin to level off – with a decrease by 15% in the last four quarters.
The causes of violence are complicated. The increase in the use of psychoactive substances in prisons since 2013 has been a significant factor in the previous increase in violence.
We have made significant investment to boost staff numbers and recruited more than 4,000 additional prison officers between October 2016 and December 2019. This has given us the capacity to implement the key worker role, allowing staff dedicated time to provide support to individual prisoners, helping us to deal with emerging threats and improve safety.
We work closely with the police and Crown Prosecution Service to bring those guilty of assaulting staff to justice. Additionally, as outlined in our Sentencing White Paper we will double the maximum sentence for assaulting an emergency worker from 12 months to two years.
We are also giving officers PAVA pepper spray and body-worn cameras to make their jobs safer and are spending £100 million to bolster prison security, clamping down on the weapons, drugs and mobile phones that fuel violence and crime behind bars. This will fund tough new measures including x-ray body scanners, baggage scanners and phone-blocking technology.
Asked by: Gary Streeter (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to protect prison officers from the harmful effects of psychoactive substances used by prisoners.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
We take a zero tolerance approach to drugs in prisons. Psychoactive substances present a variety of risks to our establishments, not just to the individuals taking them but also to other prisoners and staff.
We are committed to improving safety across the prison estate and are already taking action on the supply and use of dangerous psychoactive substances by prisoners. We have developed an innovative new drug testing programme, trained over 300 drug detection dogs to specifically detect psychoactive substances and introduced new legislation, which makes it a criminal offence to possess any psychoactive substance in a custodial institution.
All prisons have robust risk assessments and control measures in place, including local first aid and healthcare provisions. If staff suspect they have been exposed to drugs or psychoactive substances, there are a range of support mechanisms available to them. This includes confidential counselling, occupational health services and care-teams in prisons. Following any suspected exposure, staff are also advised to visit the nearest Accident & Emergency Department so that their symptoms can be treated and the appropriate medical advice can be received.
Asked by: Gary Streeter (Conservative - South West Devon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the efficacy of measures to prevent drugs being smuggled into HM Prison Dartmoor.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
HM Prison Service operates an audit assurance mechanism to monitor prison security performance against national standards. On a yearly basis Internal Audit and Assurance Group visit each establishment to measure the effectiveness of local policies and procedures and award a rating according to the level of assurance gained.
HMP Dartmoor received a security audit between the 24th and the 28th February 2014. The establishment was awarded the maximum possible green rating for all security modules assessed. Across recent audits HMP Dartmoor has received a green rating for all modules measuring the effectiveness of measures for preventing the conveyance of illicit articles.