Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the recommendations in the report by the Traveller Movement entitled Fair Sentencing for Romani (Gypsy), Roma and Irish Traveller People, published in December 2023.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
HMPPS has been working closely with The Traveller Movement since the publication of ‘Pre-Sentencing Report Toolkit Fair Sentencing for Romani (Gypsy), Roma and Irish Traveller People’.
We are working through the report together to see how the some of the findings can better support our work.
As part of the HMPPS Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) Strategy, an Aide Memoir: ‘Preparing pre-sentence reports for ethnic minority people’ was published in December 2023, giving specific guidance and information regarding GRT community members. We will add to this as appropriate through the above-mentioned collaboration. We will also carefully consider the findings of the report regarding future policy reviews and updates.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment his Department has made of the efficacy of its data collection systems in regard to victims.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
There are two main services for victims, the Domestic Abuse Safety Officer Service and the Victim Contact Scheme.
The Probation Service runs the Victim Contact Scheme (VCS) for victims of offenders convicted of serious violent or sexual offences, who are sentenced to twelve months or more imprisonment. It has carried out changes in 2021 to ensure efficacy of its systems in relation to data collection to support the Victims’ Code of Practice.
There is also ongoing work to develop a set of national performance measures which can be used to measure the impact of the scheme and inform future development and decision making.
A change to the referral process in 2021, outlined in the Victims’ Code of Practice, now directs that victim’s contact details are automatically sent to Probation Service Victim Contact Units. These details are then recorded on the Probation Service Victim Contact Management System. This ensures timely offers of the VCS to victims, allowing them the choice of whether or not to engage in the scheme. To ensure the receipt of referrals, Probation staff also run reports from court and probation systems to ensure the receipt of qualifying cases. Figures from the Victim Satisfaction Survey linked to the scheme continues to show positive satisfaction of above 80% from victims who engage in the scheme.
To date, there has been no evaluation of the effectiveness of the Domestic Abuse Safety Officer service. This is a service that is offered to all victims and new partners of people attending Probation Service-run domestic abuse rehabilitation programmes. In July 2023, a national case management database was launched. This is a robust system, which enabled efficient collation, monitoring, and analysis of victim data. There is ongoing work to develop a set of national performance measures which can be used to measure the impact of the scheme and inform future development and decision making.
Furthermore, in September 2023, the new digital service to apply for criminal injuries compensation was made available to 100% of applicants. The number of questions asked as part of applying for compensation was reduced where possible - by 20-30% on some application journeys - compared to the older service we replaced.
This approach was supported by user research and trauma-informed practice, to ensure the data we are collecting is proportionate and required to enable the decision-making process - for example, we removed the mandatory need for victims to describe the nature of the incident as part of the application process, to reduce the risk of re-traumatisation.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent steps his Department has taken to improve communication with victims on (a) individual court cases, (b) sentencing and (c) custodial circumstances of offenders who perpetrated crime against them.
Answered by Laura Farris - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Ministry of Justice) (jointly with Home Office)
The Victims’ Code sets out the services victims are entitled to receive in England and Wales from criminal justice agencies, including the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, Courts, and Probation Services. This includes being provided with information by the police’s Witness Care Unit about the progress of their case, including the date and time of any hearings and the outcomes. If there is a conviction, the Witness Care Unit will tell victims about the sentence. Any questions a victim has about the sentence will be passed to the Crown Prosecution Service. Bereaved families of victims of homicide can also meet with the crown prosecutor.
Victims who are eligible to join the Victim Contact Scheme, which are victims in cases where the offender receives a sentence of 12 months or more for a for a specified violent or sexual offence, will be given information about the prisoner by His Majesty’s Prisons and Probation Service’s Victim Liaison Officers, such as whether they are eligible to move to open conditions and when they are going to be released.
More widely, the Victims and Prisoners Bill has measures to improve how the services under the Victims’ Code are delivered, by improving data collection and sharing, strengthening local and national oversight of performance, and increasing the transparency of how the criminal justice system delivers for victims. We will publicly consult on the draft for the new Victims' Code after the Bill has completed its passage through Parliament. As part of that consultation, we are open to whether further updates may be useful, including to how communication with victims might be improved.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of the introduction of unique identifiers for people in the justice system.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
We have not made a recent assessment of the impact of introducing unique identifiers for people in the justice system.
However, we have started work to create a single 'Core Person record’ for use across HMPPS. This will begin to remove the multiple records we hold for those in our care, and reduce the amount of manual data matching required. Additionally, our award-winning probabilistic matching tool ‘splink’, has underpinned the linking of data across the justice system, including assessing the substance misuse pathways between justice and health, electronic monitoring curfew and probation case management, which has allowed us to identify individuals as they interact with our interventions and services. This has significantly overcome challenges of not having a unique identifier and has supported policy makers and operational staff in their work to reduce offending and strengthen public protection.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of conditional cautions in relation to hate crime.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
National guidance issued by the Director of Public Prosecutions for Adult Conditional Cautions states that they are not considered suitable for offences involving hate crime. However, there are rare cases when, because of the nature of the crime or the circumstances of the offender, exceptionally a Conditional Caution could be considered. Any such case considered suitable by the police for a Conditional Caution must be referred to a prosecutor and cannot be issued without the expressed authorisation of the Crown Prosecution Service.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to implement the framework for out-of-court disposals introduced in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government is committed to delivering a strengthened and consistent Out of Court Disposals framework in England and Wales through the reformed two-tier cautions framework set out in the Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Act 2022. We are continuing to work towards implementing it effectively.
Our draft Code of Practice, covering the use, administration, and scrutiny of the revised framework of the Diversionary and Community Cautions, was put to public consultation from 2 August to 13 October 2023. We are analysing the responses received to inform any necessary revisions to the draft Code of Practice and we will publish a Government response to the consultation in due course. We will confirm the implementation timeline for the revised framework once this process is complete.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his oral statement of 16 October 2023 on Prison Capacity, Official Report column 59, what assessment he has made of the potential impact on victims of less serious offenders being moved out of prison onto licence earlier than their automatic release date.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Protecting the public is our number one priority – and so it is right that we take the tough and decisive action so we can keep putting the most serious offenders behind bars and for longer, as the public would rightly expect.
We understand that information is deeply important for victims which is why those who have been victims of crime can get information and updates about developments relating to their case where they are eligible for the Victim Contact Scheme (VCS).
There is a duty to inform victims signed up to the VCS before an offender is moved out of prison onto licence and to seek their views on whether they would like to see particular licence conditions included, such as an exclusion zone or non-contact conditions. That duty will apply equally under this scheme and offenders will not be moved onto licence on ECSL unless and until that victim contact has been completed.
Offenders will also have a supervision plan put together by probation, including strict licence conditions, to ensure that they can be safely managed in the community. As my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Justice, set out in his speech to parliament, this scheme will simply bring forward that removal onto licence by no more than 18 days. And if they fail to comply or behave in a way that puts the public at risk, they can be immediately brought back to prison for the remainder of their sentence.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his oral statement of 16 October 2023 on Prison Capacity, Official Report column 59, what criteria his Department will use to decide which less serious offenders will be moved out of prison on licence up to 18 days before their automatic release date.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Only lower-level offenders serving a Standard Determinate Sentence and due for automatic release on licence at the half-way point will be considered for removal onto licence under these arrangements. More serious and higher risk offenders whose release is a matter for the Parole Board to assess will not be in scope.
Those serving a sentence for any kind of sexual offence, terror offence or any violent offence with a sentence of more than four years will also automatically be ruled out. Offenders eligible for End of Custody Supervised Licence will be subject to strict licence conditions, as identified by probation in their release management plan.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his oral statement of 16 October 2023 on Prison Capacity, Official Report column 61, when he plans to report to the House on the curtailing of the licence period for offenders held on Imprisonment for Public Protection sentences.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Justice, advised in his statement to this House on 16 October that he would be looking at options to curtail the licence period to restore greater proportionality to Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences in line with recommendation 8 of the report by the Justice Select Committee report. He will revert to Parliament on this as soon as parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department seeks references for candidates appointed to public positions which fall under the remit of the Commissioner for Public Appointments.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
References are sought for candidates shortlisted for interview for a range of roles falling under the remit of the Commissioner for Public Appointments.