Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners serving sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection in category A prisons are categorized as C category prisoners.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
There are 108 prisoners serving sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection are in Category A prisons.
There are * prisoners serving sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection in Category A prisons which are categorised as C category prisoners. (*) has been used to suppress values of one or two. This is to prevent the disclosure of individual information.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners serving sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection are in category A prisons.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
There are 108 prisoners serving sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection are in Category A prisons.
There are * prisoners serving sentences of Imprisonment for Public Protection in Category A prisons which are categorised as C category prisoners. (*) has been used to suppress values of one or two. This is to prevent the disclosure of individual information.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2023 to Question 193050 on Prisons: Crimes of Violence, what weighting is given to the rate of (a) prisoner-on-prisoner assaults and (b) assaults on staff relative to other KPIs when assigning annual prison performance ratings.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
For the performance year 2022/23, we will publish the Annual Prisons Performance Ratings on 27 July 2023. This publication will provide the weightings given to a wide range of KPIs used by the framework that enables us to monitor the performance of the prison system, including prisoner on prisoner assaults and assaults on staff. The weightings will be published in the publication guidance documentation.
Performance targets were not set for individual prisons for 2021-22 because prisons were still recovering from the pandemic, however, HMPPS still monitored performance in order to drive continuous improvement.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2023 to Question 193050 on Prisons: Crimes of Violence, if he will provide the 2021-22 Prisons Performance Framework target levels for each prison for the KPIs of (a) prisoner-on-prisoner assaults and (b) assaults on staff.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
For the performance year 2022/23, we will publish the Annual Prisons Performance Ratings on 27 July 2023. This publication will provide the weightings given to a wide range of KPIs used by the framework that enables us to monitor the performance of the prison system, including prisoner on prisoner assaults and assaults on staff. The weightings will be published in the publication guidance documentation.
Performance targets were not set for individual prisons for 2021-22 because prisons were still recovering from the pandemic, however, HMPPS still monitored performance in order to drive continuous improvement.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister of State on 4 July 2023, Official Report, Col. 760, if he will list the key performance indicators used to measure violence in prisons; and whether his Department plans to introduce any sanctions for prison operators failing to meet these targets.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Prison governors and senior leaders use a variety of measures to understand violence within prisons. The 2021/2022 Prisons Performance Framework (PPT) rated the performance of all public and private sector prisons in England and Wales. It contains two violence Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which prisons are assessed against. These are:
These are available on gov.uk at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/prison-performance-ratings-2021-to-2022. The prison performance ratings for 2022/2023 will be published on 27 July 2023.
HMPPS monitors performance against these KPIs on an ongoing basis and takes action if this is deemed necessary.
Private prison contracts are managed by operational contract managers who assure delivery against performance and contract measures.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing funding for computers, phone calls and other technical support to allow women in prison to engage with local authorities.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
As set out in the Prisons Strategy White Paper, we recognise that prisoner-facing technology can be transformative, including in supporting women with their rehabilitation and preparation for resettlement. To date, we have invested widely in prisoner communication, including rolling out video calling technology in July 2020 and email-reply systems in Autumn 2020 in all women’s prisons. We also completed the roll out of in-cell telephony in all closed women's prisons in June 2021. In addition, as part of family contracts, all women’s prisons have Family Engagement Workers who will work with and facilitate engagement with local authorities. In the longer-term, we aim to pilot employing social workers in women’s prisons.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will review sentencing for women including potential alternatives to short-term sentences for non-violent offences.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
We remain committed to the vision in the Female Offender Strategy, which set out our priorities to achieve better outcomes for female offenders, including fewer women coming into the criminal justice system and fewer women in custody (especially on short-term sentences) and a greater proportion of women managed in the community successfully.
Since publication in June 2018, the number of women entering the criminal justice system has fallen by 30%. We are investing millions of pounds over the next 3 years into community services such as women’s centres, drug rehabilitation and accommodation support so fewer women end up in prison.
We also have several initiatives underway to improve community sentencing options to tackle low-level offending, divert women from custody, and reduce reoffending. This includes several pilots such as the Residential women’s centre pilot, with the first in Wales, Problem-Solving Courts for women, and a Pre-Sentence Report pilot that is targeting fuller reports for women.
Of course, where female offenders are found guilty of committing criminal offences, it is for our independent judiciary to determine the appropriate sentence in the usual way.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make it his policy to agree and implement a Women’s Prison Release Protocol with co-signatories to the London Blueprint for Women in contact with the Criminal Justice System.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
My officials engage regularly with the Mayor’s Office for Crime and Policing, including attending the Blueprint Delivery Group. As set out in the Concordat we encourage the creation of Whole System Approaches that will improve partnership working locally.
In the Prisons Strategy White Paper, we committed to developing a resettlement passport, which will bring together the key information and services that an individual needs for successful resettlement into society. The passport will be a practical and personalised tool that organises, plans and records the information and services needed to support prison leavers’ resettlement, alongside providing information to professionals working with them. We recognise the needs of women differ and resettlement passports will help prisons move further towards a more personalised and integrated approach based on the individual needs of the offender. We will engage with stakeholders throughout the development and implementation of the passport to ensure it is effective and fit for purpose.