Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the status of legal services in the future UK-EU relationship.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
These questions have been passed to the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice as the Minister responsible for legal services.
Government has a shared vision for a broad, deep and flexible partnership with the EU, including ambitious arrangements for services and investment, outlined in the Political Declaration. The Ministry of Justice is working closely with the rest of government on planning for negotiations.
Ministers and officials have extensive, frequent and varied engagement with representatives from the legal services sector on a range of issues, including UK and EU relations and future trade. Part of this engagement includes sponsoring the Brexit Law Committee.
The UK is a magnet for talent and home to innovative and successful new companies, and the Government is committed to ensuring that UK legal services, courts, and English law remain world-leading, and a competitive choice for business. This includes supporting the growth of the UK lawtech sector. To this end the Ministry of Justice launched and sponsors the industry-led LawTech Delivery Panel, and recently awarded a £2m grant to Tech Nation to drive innovation in the legal sector and create an environment that allows the UK’s lawtech sector to thrive.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners that were recalled to prison to serve a sentence of imprisonment for public protection have taken their own life since 2010.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
I regret that it is not yet possible to answer this question, because we have recently found that some indeterminate sentences for public protection may have been wrongly recorded as determinate. This may require amendments to the published data. I will write to the Hon Member with updated figures when they are available, and ensure that the next issue of data includes corrected figures.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have taken their own life whilst serving a sentence of imprisonment for public protection in each year since 2010.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The most recent published data about self-inflicted deaths in custody includes figures up to the end of the 2018, broken down by type of sentence. It is in table 1.11 of Deaths in prison custody 1978 to 2018, which can be seen at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/safety-in-custody-quarterly-update-to-september-2018. However, we have recently identified possible errors in the published data. I will write to the Hon Member with updated figures when they are available, and ensure that the next issue of data includes corrected figures.
Every death in custody is a tragedy, and we are committed to learning lessons from these deaths wherever possible. Most of the deaths were from natural causes but some were self-inflicted, and the Government is taking unprecedented action to improve safety in prisons, including redoubling our efforts to prevent such deaths. We have recruited over 4,700 more prison officers since October 2016, and we now have the greatest number in post since early 2012. This is allowing us to implement the key worker role, providing staff dedicated time to support individual prisoners.
We are improving support for prisoners in their early days in custody and developing a new version of the multi-disciplinary ACCT case management process for those at risk of suicide. We have rolled out a revised and improved Suicide and Self-Harm Prevention course. This is being completed by all new staff and as refresher training by all existing staff. Nearly 25,000 staff have already begun this training and over 14,000 have completed all six modules.
While we are focused on giving all prisoners serving IPP sentences opportunities to progress towards release, public protection must remain our priority. A range of initiatives are in place, as part of the joint action plan, co-owned by HM Prison and Probation Service and the Parole Board, which are having a positive impact on the progression of those serving an IPP sentence.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners serving a sentence of imprisonment for public protection have served (a) all and (b) part of their sentence at (i) Ashworth, (ii) Broadmoor and (iii) Rampton High Security Psychiatric Hospitals in each of the year since 2010.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
It is not possible to provide the information requested, as it could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
The number of transferred prisoners serving a sentence of imprisonment for public protection who were detained under sections 47/49 of the Mental Health Act 1983 at each of the High Secure Hospitals as at 31 December 2013 to 31 December 2018 is set out below.
IPPs detained under the MHA as of 31st Dec | Ashworth | Broadmoor | Rampton |
2013 | 21 | 16 | 20 |
2014 | 20 | 13 | 27 |
2015 | 20 | 12 | 28 |
2016 | 21 | 12 | 23 |
2017 | 20 | 16 | 31 |
2018 | 19 | 16 | 26 |
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the reform of legal aid on average annual earnings of legal aid solicitors.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
On 7 February 2019, the Government published the Post Implementation Review (PIR) of Part 1 of The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/post-implementation-review-of-part-1-of-laspo
The review did not look at the earnings of individual solicitors, but reported instead on the impact on legal aid providers, including solicitors firms and individual barristers.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the financial impact on defendants of the introduction of an upper limit on disposable income for people claiming legal aid for Crown Court representation.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
On 7 February 2019, the Government published the Post Implementation Review (PIR) of Part 1 of The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 which included an assessment of the impact of the £37,500 disposable income threshold introduced at the Crown Court: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/post-implementation-review-of-part-1-of-laspo |
Alongside the PIR, the Government also published its Legal Support Action Plan in which it announced a comprehensive review of the wider legal aid eligibility regime; this will include the Crown Court thresholds. The review is expected to conclude by Summer 2020 after which we will publish a full consultation paper setting out our future policy proposals in this area. We will seek to implement any final recommendations as soon as practicable following public consultation.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many contracts his Department has awarded to Serco since July 2013; and what the value is of those contracts.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Ministry of Justice has awarded no contracts to Serco since July 2013.
Serco has however been successful in its bid to be a supplier on the Prison Operator Services Framework which was executed on the 4th July 2019. There is no financial value nor commitment of work to the Framework itself. The first competition on this Framework will be for the contract to provide custodial services at HMP Wellingborough. Serco will be entitled to bid for this contract.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many contracts his Department has awarded to G4S since July 2013; and what the value was of each of those contracts.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The information requested is included in the attached annex.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many applications for decrees nisi there were in 2018 in which the grounds for divorce was two years separation.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
A decree nisi is the provisional decree of divorce pronounced when the court is satisfied that a person has met the legal and procedural requirements to obtain a divorce. The sole ground for divorce is that the marriage has broken down irretrievably. Currently, the law requires a person seeking a divorce to satisfy the court of one of five ‘facts’. One fact requires that the parties of the marriage have lived apart for a continuous period of at least two years immediately preceding the presentation of the petition for divorce, and that the respondent consents to a decree being granted.
In 2018 there were 118,355 divorce petitions, of which 32,297 (27%) cited the two-year separation fact. Following a divorce petition, further applications are required for the decree nisi to be granted and then for it to be made absolute, bringing a legal end to the marriage.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many recorded violent incidents per head of population in young offender institutions there have been in each year for which figures are available.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Incidents of assault by children and young people in Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) is published as part of the annual Youth Justice Statistics, the latest of which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/youth-justice-statistics-2017-to-2018. The following has been taken from supplementary table 8.14:
Incidents of proven assault by children and young people (YOIs) years ending March 2012 to 2018
| Average number of children and young people per month(1) | Average number of proven assaults by children and young people per month | Average number of children and young people involved per month as perpetrators | Proportion of children and young people involved as perpetrators | Number of proven assaults per 100 children and young people in custody per month | Number of proven assaults per children and young people involved | |||||
Year ending March | Young Offender Institutions | ||||||||||
2012 | 2,209 | 143 | 133 | 6% | 6.5 | 1.1 | |||||
2013 | 1,738 | 124 | 120 | 7% | 7.1 | 1.0 | |||||
2014 | 1,163 | 133 | 132 | 11% | 11.4 | 1.0 | |||||
2015 | 1,000 | 117 | 118 | 12% | 11.7 | 1.0 | |||||
2016 | 904 | 137 | 129 | 14% | 15.2 | 1.1 | |||||
2017 | 861 | 82 | 85 | 10% | 9.5 | 1.0 | |||||
2018(2) | 853 | 99 | 113 | 13% | 11.6 | 0.9 | |||||
(1) This is based on the number of children and young people in the month, which is the population in custody at the beginning of the month plus new admissions during the month. This figure includes 18 year olds.
(2) The counting rules for assaults were updated from April 2017 onwards and are therefore not directly comparable with previous years. Please see the Guide to Youth Justice Statistics for more information.
The safety and welfare of young people held in custody is our highest priority and we are committed to improving their safety and life chances. That is why we began a youth justice reform programme in 2017, investing in staff, education and psychology services. We are making progress delivering these reforms, but we are clear that there is still much more to do. We are also expanding frontline staff capacity in public-sector YOIs. At the end of March this year, the Youth Custody Service had 348 more frontline officers than at the start of the reform programme – an increase of 40%.
The Youth Custody Service have started implementing a new evidence-based behaviour management strategy aimed at incentivising good behaviour and building positive relationships. This will sit alongside a new wrap-around approach to mental health provision developed by NHS England.