Asked by: Jared O'Mara (Independent - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what strategy his Department has to tackle the use of synthetic cannabinoids in prisons.
Answered by Rory Stewart
We have formed a Drugs Taskforce working with law enforcement and health partners across government to reduce substance misuse including psychoactive substances (PS) in prisons. The Taskforce is developing a Prison Drugs Strategy for publication this autumn which supports and complements the National Drugs Strategy published by the Home Office in 2017. Our approach is centred around the same three objectives: restricting supply, reducing demand and building recovery. We are supporting prisons in reducing all types of drug use, with a particular focus on PS and the unique challenges they bring. In September 2016, we became the first prison service in the world to introduce innovative mandatory drug tests for psychoactive substances, a significant step in tackling the supply and use of them. We have made it a criminal offence to possess psychoactive substances in prison and trained more than 300 sniffer dogs specifically to detect these drugs. We will shortly be providing guidance on how to counter the evolving methods used by suppliers such as impregnated paper. The creation of a new specialist Financial Crime Unit to identify and disrupt the organised crime gangs fuelling drug dealing in prisons was announced by the Secretary of State for Justice at the Conservative Party Conference. The unit is staffed by members of the Police and Prison Service and is able to freeze bank accounts linked to organised crime and to make arrests. This action will cut the supply of drugs to prisoners and prevent money reaching criminal kingpins. We are supporting Bim Afolami MP’s Private Member’s Bill on substance testing in prisons. This legislation will simplify and strengthen the drug testing framework, allowing us to test for all psychoactive substances, as well as prescription-only and pharmacy medicines, helping to identify where they are being abused. |
Asked by: Jared O'Mara (Independent - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to protect and support prison staff from abuse.
Answered by Rory Stewart
Our prison staff work incredibly hard and we are under no illusions about the challenges they face. We are taking urgent action to make prisons safer, and assaults on our hardworking staff will never be tolerated. That is why we are working with the Police and Crown Prosecution Service to ensure successful prosecutions of those who assault them. It is also why the Government supported the recently passed Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act, which increases sentences for those who attack emergency workers, including prison officers.
We are taking further measures to protect our staff, including investing in 5,600 body-worn cameras and in rigid-bar handcuffs. Early next year we will begin to equip every prison officer in the adult male prison estate with PAVA incapacitant spray. PAVA can help to prevent serious harm to staff and prisoners alike, as well as being a tool to persuade prisoners in the act of violence to stop. It will be deployed only in prisons that have rolled out the key worker scheme, and in which staff have been properly trained.
Asked by: Jared O'Mara (Independent - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to support prisoners who have mental health issues; and whether his Department has plans to expand the provision of such support.
Answered by Rory Stewart
We take mental health issues very seriously and are committed to working closely with health partners to ensure that offenders are able to access the treatment and support required for their mental health needs. Providing the right interventions at the right time is vital to improving outcomes. Liaison & Diversion services place clinical staff at police stations and courts, to provide assessments and referrals to treatment and support. They also provide critical information to decision-makers in the justice system, so that decisions and sentences can be tailored to meet their needs. Liaison and Diversion services continue to be rolled out across England, and were at 82% at the end of March 2018. Full roll out is expected by 2020-21. For those in custody, NHS England are responsible for commissioning and delivering health services in prisons in England. In Wales, healthcare is devolved to the Welsh Government. However, we recognise the importance of the prison environment on enabling better health outcomes. To June 2018, we have recruited an additional 3,653 frontline prison officers who will help improve prison regimes and access to healthcare. This will also 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. We are also working to improve prison staff training around mental health, including providing revised suicide and self-harm prevention training. Over 17,000 prison staff have completed at least one module of the revised suicide and self-harm prevention training. We are currently reviewing the mental health element of the Prison Officer Entry Level Training (POELT) to ensure it provides staff with the knowledge and confidence to recognise and respond appropriately to new or unreported mental health problems, or to recognise when existing problems are deteriorating. We have awarded grant of £500k a year, for the next three years, to the Samaritans to enable the continuation of their excellent Listeners Scheme. |
Asked by: Jared O'Mara (Independent - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what guidance his Department has issued on the provision and supervision of prisoners' family contact.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The Prison Rules 1999 require Governors to actively encourage prisoners to maintain outside contacts and meaningful family ties, where appropriate. This is integral to the prisoner’s right to family life as well as their rehabilitation. Visits are seen as crucial to sustaining relationships with close relatives, partners and friends, where appropriate, and help prisoners maintain links with the community.
The following details the guidance that has been issued to date on the provision and supervision of family contact:
The government is committed to supporting prisoners to establish or maintain relationships with their families and significant others where appropriate. The Lord Farmer, published his report in August, produced on behalf of the Government, which we have warmly welcomed. Work has already commenced on taking forward some of the important recommendations from this review.
Asked by: Jared O'Mara (Independent - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what funds have been made available for support services in Sheffield for women who have left prison in the last 12 months; and what funds she plans to make available for that purpose in the next 12 months?
Answered by Phillip Lee
We are developing a strategy for female offenders to improve outcomes for women in the community and in custody. This will also consider how we can improve early intervention and diversion to avoid vulnerable women entering the criminal justice system.
Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) are contractually required to provide services for female offenders that they are managing in the community, and to deliver resettlement services to offenders both before and following release from prison. As part of our reforms to probation, we have given providers the flexibility to innovate and do what works to reduce reoffending, and to tailor rehabilitative support to the particular needs of offenders locally. These services are provided in Sheffield by South Yorkshire CRC.
As part of their supply chain, South Yorkshire CRC have contracted with Changing Lives, a consortium of local organisations, to deliver bespoke interventions for female offenders. The CRC are also working closely with Community Safety Partnerships to improve outcomes for women who have been either a victim of domestic violence or are a sex worker.
We have a robust contract management and assurance process in place for CRCs, and continue to assess their performance through a range of service levels, including their delivery of Through the Gate and how they are addressing the specific needs of female offenders.
Asked by: Jared O'Mara (Independent - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the proportion of women who have been homeless after leaving prison in the last three years.
Answered by Phillip Lee
It is a cross-Government priority to address female offenders’ housing and support needs given the link between homelessness and re-offending.
Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) and the National Probation Service (NPS) are required to facilitate access to housing and support services for the female offenders that they are managing. This includes working together with local partners to help women find and maintain accommodation as part of a package of support tailored to meet their individual needs.
The table below shows the proportion of women under CRC supervision recorded as homeless, based on releases from prison who are. There is no equivalent Settled Accommodation on Release metric for the NPS so data on NPS releases has not been included.
Revised recording to capture data for this metric was not introduced until August 2015, so data prior to this are not available. National coverage of accommodation status was not sufficient to report data until the period Jan-Mar 2016 onwards.
Releases of Female Allocated Persons (of a CRC) From Custody |
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| Jan-Mar 2016 | Apr-Jun 2016 | Jul-Sep 2016 | Oct-Dec 2016 | Jan-Mar 2017 | Apr-Jun 2017 |
Releases | 1,143 | 1,055 | 1,050 | 972 | 1,092 | 1,087 |
Recorded as Homeless1 | 103 | 132 | 126 | 134 | 164 | 227 |
% of Releases recorded as homeless | 9.0% | 12.5% | 12.0% | 13.8% | 15.0% | 20.9% |
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Notes: | ||||||
1Cases where the Accommodation Status recorded on the day of release was: Homeless (any), Squatting or No fixed Abode were counted as homeless. | ||||||
Not all releases have an Accommodation Status recorded; of this dataset, between 16% and 5% of releases in each quarter did not record an accommodation status. | ||||||
The reported proportion homeless increases over the reported period (9% to 21%), however the rate of non-recording has decreased due to HETE initiative (16% to 5%). | ||||||
It cannot be assumed that homelessness has increased. | ||||||
Because recording of Accommodation Statuses at release in London CRC is too low to be reliable, London CRC has been excluded from this dataset. | ||||||
Releases at Licence Expiry (without post-sentence supervision), releases following a period on remand without a custodial sentence, and releases outside of HMPPS authority (e.g. release for deportation, release to an address in Scotland or Northern Ireland) are not in this dataset. | ||||||
This dataset records each release separately; if an offender is released more than once, they will appear more than once in this dataset. | ||||||
Releases of persons who are not Allocated Persons of a CRC (i.e. offenders managed by the NPS) are not included in this dataset. | ||||||
Asked by: Jared O'Mara (Independent - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if the Government will take steps to ensure the continued provision of quality assured chaplaincy services in prisons by maintaining the guidelines set out in PSI 5/2016 and incorporating them into any future policy framework.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
PSI 05/2016 Faith and Pastoral Care of Prisoners is not in the first tranche of PSIs to be deregulated. When it is replaced by a Policy Framework I am confident that Governors will have the guidance they need to ensure the delivery of chaplaincy services that meet the pastoral and faith needs of prisoners. Discussions are already under way to see how the present Assurance and Compliance quality assurance process may be developed to support delivery of chaplaincy services in the future.
Asked by: Jared O'Mara (Independent - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if his Department will include access to chaplaincy in its performance measures for prisons on time spent out of cells engaging in purposeful activity.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The Chaplaincy manually records prisoner attendance at Chaplaincy services. Prisoner attendance at Chaplaincy is normally counted as purposeful activity in the same way as any other intervention that involves time out of cells.
Asked by: Jared O'Mara (Independent - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many convicted criminals have been imprisoned in the UK after trial by the International Criminal Tribunal for crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The United Kingdom has sentence enforcement agreements with a number of international courts and tribunals. Under these arrangements the UK is currently holding one person convicted of war crimes by the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
Previously three prisoners convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) have served all or part of their sentence in the United Kingdom in the last 10 years. A further prisoner convicted by ICTY was held here prior to this period. These four prisoners are no longer detained in the UK.
Asked by: Jared O'Mara (Independent - Sheffield, Hallam)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people convicted of war crimes are detained in the UK; and how many people have been so detained in the last 10 years?
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The United Kingdom has sentence enforcement agreements with a number of international courts and tribunals. Under these arrangements the UK is currently holding one person convicted of war crimes by the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
Previously three prisoners convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) have served all or part of their sentence in the United Kingdom in the last 10 years. A further prisoner convicted by ICTY was held here prior to this period. These four prisoners are no longer detained in the UK.