Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent discussions he has had and with whom on the standard of proof required for a conclusion of suicide in a coroner's court; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Edward Argar
Coroners are independent judicial office holders and, as such, it would be inappropriate to speculate on issues directly relating to the conclusions they record. The Ministry of Justice collects annual data, from each coroner area, on the number of inquest conclusions recorded. The most recent data are available at: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/706047/coroners-statistics-2017-csvs.zip.
Since the High Court judgment in R (Maughan) v Her Majesty’s Senior Coroner for Oxfordshire of July last year, coroners have applied the civil standard of proof in suicide conclusions, but this will shortly be considered by the Court of Appeal. I have not had any recent discussions on the standard of proof issue as it would be inappropriate for me to do so while the matter is before the courts.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an estimate of the number of suicides which have not been recorded as such due to the standard of proof required by a coroner's court in each of the last three years for which information is available.
Answered by Edward Argar
Coroners are independent judicial office holders and, as such, it would be inappropriate to speculate on issues directly relating to the conclusions they record. The Ministry of Justice collects annual data, from each coroner area, on the number of inquest conclusions recorded. The most recent data are available at: www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/706047/coroners-statistics-2017-csvs.zip.
Since the High Court judgment in R (Maughan) v Her Majesty’s Senior Coroner for Oxfordshire of July last year, coroners have applied the civil standard of proof in suicide conclusions, but this will shortly be considered by the Court of Appeal. I have not had any recent discussions on the standard of proof issue as it would be inappropriate for me to do so while the matter is before the courts.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people (a) attempted and (b) succeeded in taking their own lives in each prison in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The Government publishes quarterly statistics on deaths in prison custody and a more detailed annual breakdown, and both are available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/safety-in-custody-quarterly-update-to-june-2018
The number of self-harm incidents in each prison can be seen in table 1.13 of Self-Harm in Prison Custody 2004 to 2017, and the number of self-inflicted deaths in each prison is in table 1.16 in Deaths in Prison Custody 1978 to 2017.
It should be noted that the statistics refer to self-harm (defined as “any act where a prisoner deliberately harms themselves, irrespective of the method, intent or severity of any injury”), and not to attempted suicide. Although incidents of self-harm may include attempts at suicide, it is hard to determine intent accurately enough for them to be recorded as such. For similar reasons the term “self-inflicted deaths” is used to include any death of a person who has apparently taken their own life, irrespective of intent. This includes not only suicides but also accidental deaths as a result of the person’s own actions.
The Government takes very seriously its responsibility to keep prisoners safe, and we are committed to reducing the number of self-inflicted deaths and the incidence of self-harm across the estate. This is why we have established a prison safety programme through which we are taking forward a comprehensive set of actions to improve safety in custody. They include:
investing in over 4,300 additional staff in order to deliver consistent, purposeful regimes;
improving staff knowledge and understanding of the factors known to increase risk of self-harm, to help them to identify and respond appropriately to prisoners at risk. Our revised introduction to suicide and self-harm prevention training has already reached over 24,000 staff;
renewing our partnership with Samaritans by confirming a further three years’ funding for their valuable Listeners Scheme, and working with them to share learning from the ‘Coping with Life in Prisons’ project, a successful pilot initiative in which Samaritans-trained ex-prisoners delivered emotional resilience training to groups of newly-arrived prisoners; and
improving the multi-disciplinary ACCT case management process for those identified as at risk of self-harm or suicide.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on the number of (a) prosecutions for firework offences and (b) firework-related attacks on emergency workers in the last five years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
Court data held on prosecutions summarises into specific offence categories. There is not a combined group of fireworks offences, but there are some individual detailed offences that relate specifically to fireworks for which data is available. For example, ‘Possessing fireworks etc. in, or when entering, a designated sports ground’ and ‘Throwing or firing any fireworks in or into a street’. Numbers of prosecutions and convictions for these offences are published here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/738814/HO-Code-Tool-2017.xlsx
It is not possible to identify how many prosecutions involved firework-related attacks on emergency workers in the last five years within Ministry of Justice centrally held information. Detailed information on whether a firework-related attack on emergency workers was involved in the commission of an offence may be held on court record but to be able to identify these cases we would have to access individual court records which would be of disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effect on (a) access to justice and (b) waiting times for hearings of the removal of civil matters from Warrington courts.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
HM Courts & Tribunals Service keeps the performance of courts and tribunals under constant review.
We are committed to making sure that our court and tribunal services can be accessed by those that need to do so. Our assessment is that effective access to justice has been maintained following the relocation of civil hearings from Warrington to St Helens.
The removal of civil matters from Warrington has not had an impact on waiting times for hearings for people in the local area.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of waiting times for personal independence payment appeals to be heard in (a) St. Helens, (b) Liverpool and (c) Wigan county courts; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
Latest figures indicate that since PIP was introduced, 3.5 million decisions have been made up to June 2018, and of these 9% have been appealed and 4% have been overturned at tribunals.
The volume of appeals against Personal Independence Payment (PIP) decisions has built up since it was introduced as a new benefit, incrementally over time, from 2013.
Waiting times are monitored continually, and in response to recent increases, we have conducted a national recruitment exercise of judicial office-holders as a result of which, 225 new medical members and 119 disability-qualified members have been appointed to the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) (SSCS). Additionally, 250 fee-paid judges and 100 salaried judges are being recruited across tribunals more widely.
Five of the newly-appointed fee paid judges, 29 medically qualified panel member and 14 disability qualified panel members have been deployed to sit at SSCS tribunal venues serving the St Helens, Wigan and Liverpool areas.
In addition, we have recently launched a new digital service with the aim of enabling speedier processing of appeals and to provide a better service for all parties to the proceedings. This will increase capacity, helping to reduce waiting times for appellants. Information on the new digital service can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-online-service-launched-for-pip-appeals
We are also taking forward initiatives with potential to increase the capacity and performance of the tribunal: for instance, introducing case management “triage” sessions, with the aim of reducing the time taken for appeals to reach final determination. All these measures will increase the capacity of the tribunal, with the aim of reducing waiting times for appellants.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the number of (a) prison officers and (b) qualified mental health practitioners employed at HMP Risley.
Answered by Rory Stewart
HM Prison and Probation workforce statistics detailing staffing by establishment are published quarterly. The latest publication can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/her-majestys-prison-and-probation-service-workforce-quarterly-march-2018
Prison officer numbers are at their highest in five years, which is vital to ensuring prisons are safe, secure and decent. We now have over 3,500 additional staff in post compared to October 2016. The recruitment drive will continue until we reach required levels across the prison estate, ensuring prisons can fulfil their purpose - protecting the public, reducing reoffending and crucially, rehabilitating offenders. Increased staff numbers will enable us to implement the key worker role, giving staff dedicated time to provide one-to-one support to individual prisoners and, for example, identify where mental health support may be needed.
Staffing for prison healthcare services at HMP Risley is a matter for healthcare providers under contract to NHS England. Prison governors work collaboratively with NHS England commissioners to support the commissioning of high quality healthcare services across the prison estate in England.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers currently serving at HMP Risley have (a) less than six months, (b) six to 12 months, (c) 12 months to five years and (iv) more than five years' service as prison officers.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The number of band 3-5 prison officers, on Full Time Equivalent (FTE) basis, as at 30th June 2018 by length of service as a prison officer can be found in table 1 below.
Table 1: Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Band 3-5 officers1 in post at HMP Risley, by length of service2, as 30th June 2018
Length of Service | Number of Band 3-5 officers |
Less than 6 Months | 24 |
6 months up to 1 year | 34 |
1 year up to 5 years | 28 |
5 years or more | 150 |
Total | 236 |
1. These include Band 3-4 / Prison Officer (incl specialists), Band 4 / Supervising Officer and Band 5 / Custodial Managers.
2. Length of service is calculated from the date staff started working in an officer grade.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the effect on local authority support services of reclassifying HMP Risley as a prison for non-UK prisoners; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rory Stewart
As I mentioned in my answer to your previous question (PQ 160083) answered on 11 July, HMP Risley has been identified to become a Foreign National Offender (FNO) establishment which will hold foreign national men of interest to the Home Office.
The transition of HMP Risley to a specialist FNO establishment will play an important part in the work of the Prison Estate Transformation Programme (PETP) to simplify the prison estate and align the supply of places with demand.
There have been no discussions with Warrington Borough Council yet, but early planning for the transition is underway and the PETP is working closely with the Governor to prepare for this change which will include liaising with all stakeholders, including relevant local authorities, to better understand implications of the changes and to assist them in preparing for the changeover.
Asked by: Helen Jones (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions he has had with Warrington Borough Council on the effect on that council's (a) services and (b) budget of reclassifying HMP Risley as a prison for non-UK prisoners.
Answered by Rory Stewart
As I mentioned in my answer to your previous question (PQ 160083) answered on 11 July, HMP Risley has been identified to become a Foreign National Offender (FNO) establishment which will hold foreign national men of interest to the Home Office.
The transition of HMP Risley to a specialist FNO establishment will play an important part in the work of the Prison Estate Transformation Programme (PETP) to simplify the prison estate and align the supply of places with demand.
There have been no discussions with Warrington Borough Council yet, but early planning for the transition is underway and the PETP is working closely with the Governor to prepare for this change which will include liaising with all stakeholders, including relevant local authorities, to better understand implications of the changes and to assist them in preparing for the changeover.