Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the press release of 20 July 2021, Lord Chancellor sets out reform vision for justice, what steps he has taken to consult criminal justice sector organisations in relation to a forthcoming prisons white paper; and what further consultation he plans to undertake (a) in advance of and (b) following the publication of that white paper.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
In July 2021 we announced our intention to publish a Prisons White Paper before the end of the year. Officials in MoJ and HMPPS led roundtables in July with criminal justice sector organisations to seek views on future reforms to the prison system, and stakeholders were invited to provide written feedback following the roundtables. A Ministerial roundtable chaired by the Minister for Prisons was held in November on potential policy proposals for the White Paper.
We are committed to continued stakeholder engagement. The White Paper includes consultation questions inviting views from stakeholders to which we will issue a response. We will also hold additional engagement with criminal justice sector organisations following publication.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 26 November 2021 to Question 77407 on Compulsorily Detained Psychiatric Patients: Coronavirus, what his timetable is for the work underway to explore (a) the use of prison as a place of safety, (b) whether it is used solely in respect of concerns over mental health, or in conjunction with other factors such as the offending history of the individual, (c) how that information is recorded and (d) the extent to which that information can be quantified.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
My department are working with officials in the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England and Improvement to improve our understanding of, and develop solutions to these operational challenges. In January 2022, we will be publishing an action plan in response to the recommendations in the Joint Thematic Inspection of the Criminal Justice Journey of Individuals with Mental Health Needs and Disorders. This includes a recommendation to end the use of prison as a place of safety and ensure that alternatives to prison are available for sentencers in line with the Mental Health Act White Paper.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department will publish on (a) finance, benefits and debt and (b) dependency and recovery service commissioning across probation regions for (i) 2021/2 and (ii) future years.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We assessed the regional needs and existing provision in the areas of accommodation; education, training and employment (ETE); finance benefit and debt (FBD); dependency and recovery (D&R); personal wellbeing; and holistic women’s services to identify the minimum viable services required for 26 June 2021, to support the unified Probation Service. FBD and D&R could be better met than other services through a combination of access to universal services, probation officer support and individual support through the personal wellbeing service so these were not included within the initial commissioning for June 2021.
All Probation regions are looking to commission services related to finance, benefits and debt and we expect these services to be in place by July 2022. All regions are also looking to commission services for dependency and recovery. Some of these will be co-commissioned with local partners so there will be a range of start dates, but the majority are also expected by July 2022.
We continue to monitor the timescales and plans to commission and mobilise specialist FBD and D&R services. Budgets have been allocated for these services and contract values will be monitored once the contracts have been procured. The level of voluntary sector and small local organisation participation and the outcomes related to FBD or D&R will be monitored once the procurement has taken place.
In the meantime, we continue to engage with charities and voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations to encourage them to apply to the Dynamic Framework and to prepare for these and other competitions. Around two-thirds of the £195 million funding already awarded, for the 110 contracts for accommodation, ETE, personal wellbeing and women’s services that began providing services on 26 June 2021, is to registered charities or VCSEs.
We plan to have commissioned finance, benefits and debt and dependency and recovery services by summer 2022. We will then publish the contract award details including values for future years.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of (a) finance, benefits and debt and (b) dependency and recovery support provided since 26 June 2021; and what steps he is taking to monitor (i) commissioning (A) timescales, (B) values and (C) outcomes and (ii) the level of (1) voluntary sector and (2) small local organisation participation for those service categories, across probation regions.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We assessed the regional needs and existing provision in the areas of accommodation; education, training and employment (ETE); finance benefit and debt (FBD); dependency and recovery (D&R); personal wellbeing; and holistic women’s services to identify the minimum viable services required for 26 June 2021, to support the unified Probation Service. FBD and D&R could be better met than other services through a combination of access to universal services, probation officer support and individual support through the personal wellbeing service so these were not included within the initial commissioning for June 2021.
All Probation regions are looking to commission services related to finance, benefits and debt and we expect these services to be in place by July 2022. All regions are also looking to commission services for dependency and recovery. Some of these will be co-commissioned with local partners so there will be a range of start dates, but the majority are also expected by July 2022.
We continue to monitor the timescales and plans to commission and mobilise specialist FBD and D&R services. Budgets have been allocated for these services and contract values will be monitored once the contracts have been procured. The level of voluntary sector and small local organisation participation and the outcomes related to FBD or D&R will be monitored once the procurement has taken place.
In the meantime, we continue to engage with charities and voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations to encourage them to apply to the Dynamic Framework and to prepare for these and other competitions. Around two-thirds of the £195 million funding already awarded, for the 110 contracts for accommodation, ETE, personal wellbeing and women’s services that began providing services on 26 June 2021, is to registered charities or VCSEs.
We plan to have commissioned finance, benefits and debt and dependency and recovery services by summer 2022. We will then publish the contract award details including values for future years.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Prison population projections: 2021 to 2026, published on 25 November 2021, page 12, if he will make an assessment of the reasons, apart from the impact of the covid-19 pandemic, that no effect of the Female Offender Strategy on the population of women in prison has been detected; and whether he has made an assessment of the effect on the population of women in prison over the forecast period of that strategy’s full implementation.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
“Prison population projections: 2021 to 2026”, published on 25 November 2021, noted that the adult female prison population fell from 3,766 at the end of June 2019 to 3,170 at July 2021. However, as also noted in the same publication, no effect of the Female Offender Strategy on the population of women in prison has been detected because “the limited time between the publication of the Female Offender Strategy and the start of the pandemic means it is difficult to disentangle any effects of the strategy. Any future impacts of the Female Offender Strategy have therefore been excluded from the baseline projection.”
There are a number of external influencing factors that will result in fluctuations in the adult female population. We will continue to monitor trends and, where possible, look to assess the impact of interventions driven through the Female Offender Strategy.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Prison population projections: 2021 to 2026, published on 25 November 2021, for what reason the adult female prison population projected in (a) 2022, (b) 2023, (c) 2024 and (d) 2025 is lower than that projected in the publication Prison Population Projections: 2020 to 2026, published on 26 November 2020.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The starting point for the prison population projections published November 2021 (population as at end of July 2021) is lower than previously projected because of the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Additional lockdowns and extended social distancing measures restricted the courts’ ability to process cases which means the criminal justice system has not recovered as quickly as previously forecast. For this reason, the population projections for 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 are not directly comparable between the 2020 and 2021 publications.
The projections published in November 2020 assumed a female population based on historical proportions from the overall population, split by sentence length bands. The latest projections (published in November 2021) were produced with new determinate modelling, which has allowed more gender-specific assumptions around offence types and sentence lengths.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to HM Prison and Probation Service annual staff equalities report: 2020 to 2021, published on 25 November 2021, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the rate of raising grievances in 2020-21 being higher for (a) staff from Black, Asian and other Ethnic Minority Communities compared with White staff, (b) disabled staff compared with non-disabled staff, (c) non-Christian staff compared with Christian staff and (d) Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual staff compared with heterosexual staff.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The reasons for the higher rates of grievance for (a) staff from Black, Asian and other Ethnic Minority Communities compared with White staff, (b) disabled staff compared with non-disabled staff, (c) non-Christian staff compared with Christian staff and (d) Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual staff compared with heterosexual staff in HMPPS are routinely reviewed by our HR team and HMPPS senior leaders.
The extensive work HMPPS has done to encourage staff to report concerns or inappropriate behaviour on the grounds of race, disability, religion or sexuality is likely to be driving the increased grievance rates.
Interventions like the HMPPS’s Tackling Unacceptable Behaviour Unit (TUBU), established in August 2020, are actively demonstrating that there is no place for any form of unacceptable behaviour in HMPPS, and such behaviour is contrary to its core values and will not be tolerated. All allegations of unacceptable behaviour are taken seriously, investigated and, where appropriate, disciplinary action will be taken. Furthermore, work continues to simplify our HR policies and strengthen guidance and supporting information to make sure staff feel safe to “speak up”.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Prison population projections: 2021 to 2026, published on 25 November 2021, whether those projections account for any projected increase in the number of people given a short determinate sentence who are immediately released from prison following sentence as a result of time served on remand.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
To a certain degree the prison population projection incorporates extended time spent remanded in custody. For example, the modelling accounts for lower volumes of offenders starting determinate sentences, due to increased numbers serving the custodial part of their sentence on remand.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Prison population projections: 2021 to 2026, published on 25 November 2021, for what reason there is a fall in the projected Fine Defaulter prison population from July 2022.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The fine defaulter population is assumed to remain at the average population observed in
October 2020 to March 2021 inclusive. This small population is rounded to zero for presentation in the tables.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Prison population projections: 2021 to 2026, published on 25 November 2021, Table 3.1, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the increase in projected remand populations relative to those projected in the publication Prison Population Projections: 2020 to 2026, published on 26 November 2020.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The 2021 remand population projection has changed compared to the 2020 remand population projection due to the further lockdowns that occurred post 2020 publication and the resulting slower than anticipated court recovery.
The 2021 remand projection modelling methodology has been improved since the previous publication. The court recovery assumptions in the modelling have also been updated.
The 2021 remand population projection modelling does not include any additional policy changes compared to the 2020 publication.
This Government committed to building as many prison places as we need to meet demand. We are undertaking the largest prison building programme in a century. We are investing £3.5 billion over the next three years to deliver 18,000 additional, modern prison places and £250 million to deliver a further 2,000 temporary prison places across England and Wales by the mid-2020s. This will help to manage the increasing demand.