Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of changing the eligibility criteria for prison officer long service medals to enable officers employed in privately managed prisons to receive them; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Prison Service’s (operational duties) Long Service and Good Conduct Medal is awarded to operational staff in UK Prison Services on completion of 20 years continuous service. The medals are awarded by HM The Queen and aligns operational public sector prison staff with other comparable other front line public services such as the police, fire and ambulance services, and the Armed Forces.
HMPPS has previously approached the Cabinet Office in relation to making this medal available to staff in private sector prisons. The Cabinet Office confirmed that there are a series of protocols concerning the issue of medals of this type, one of which is that they can only be awarded to staff working in public sector prisons (civil servants) and not those prisons run by private sector companies.
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many long service medals have been awarded in each of the last five years to prison officers; what the cost was of awarding each medal; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The number of operational prison staff in public sectors prisons who were awarded Prison Services (operational duties) Long Service & Good Conduct medals in each of the last 5 years is shown in the table below.
| Number of operational prison staff who received a long service medal | |
| 2015 | 841 |
| 2016 | 415 |
| 2017 | 603 |
| 2018 | 828 |
| 2019 (up to 30/09/2019) | 523 |
Includes operational prison staff from Band 2 to Band 11
Prison Services (operational duties) Long Service & Good Conduct Medals are manufactured by the Royal Mint at a cost of £27 (+VAT) per medal.
These medals recognise the loyalty, commitment and unique role of operational prison staff in the United Kingdom prison services.
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, which prisons are in the comparator group with HMP Parc; for what reason those prisons were chosen; which of those prisons have (a) young offender institution and (b) sex offender wings; what the (i) category and (ii) size of prison population is of those prisons; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
Comparator groups of prisons for 2018/19 can be found within Annex D of the annual prison performance ratings, published on gov.uk: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/820601/annual-prison-performance-ratings-2018-19-guide.pdf
Further information for all establishments including population, operational capacity, and accommodation details, can also be found on gov.uk at the following links:
https://www.justice.gov.uk/contacts/prison-finder
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/prison-population-figures-2019
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department's statistics identify (a) individual episodes of self-harm and (b) episodes of self-harm by an individual in (i) HMP Parc and (ii) HMP Cardiff prisons; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
This question has been interpreted as the number of self-harm incidents and the number of individuals who self-harm. The data shows the number of self-harm incidents and individuals in HMPs Cardiff and Parc in each of the three financial years (the PQ didn’t specify a time period, so have used the latest three years).
Cardiff Prison |
| ||||
| 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | ||
Self-Harm Incidents | 202 | 273 | 527 |
| |
Self-Harm Individuals | 88 | 145 | 175 |
| |
Parc Prison |
| ||||
| 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | ||
Self-Harm Incidents | 1477 | 1604 | 1436 |
| |
Self-Harm Individuals | 346 | 331 | 271 |
|
|
Our most recent Safety in Custody statistics show that levels of self-harm in Welsh prisons are comparable with the national picture. These figures are published online every quarter, and are broken down by individual prisons to measure trends in specific area, as well as across the whole of England and Wales. There is a piece of work underway in Wales to identify the drivers of self-harm, regionally and at establishment level. Similar work is being done at a national level looking across all prisons.
Too many people self-harm in prisons and we are taking action to stop it. We are investing £100 million in security measures to tackle the drugs, weapons and mobile phones that fuel violence and self-harm behind bars – this is on top of the £70 million we have already spent improving safety and conditions. We have recruited more than 4,300 new prison officers and introduced the keyworker model - so every inmate can have a dedicated officer for support.
We’ve also given the Samaritans £1.5 million over three years, trained more than 24,000 staff in mental health awareness, and improved support for anyone at risk of suicide or self-harm.
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will detail the definitions of (a) concerted indiscipline and (b) violent incident required to be used at (i) HMP Parc and (ii) HMP Cardiff; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The definitions of concerted indiscipline and assaults are:
Concerted indiscipline: the number of incidents in which two or more prisoners act together in defiance of a lawful instruction or against the requirements of the regime of the establishment. The act of indiscipline can be active or passive (i.e. involving aggression and violence or not) and the protagonists do not necessarily need to be acting in a common cause.
Assaults: refer to unwanted physical contact between two or more individuals, excluding lawful use of force by staff (but including where staff are assaulted during use of force) or anything of a purely verbal or threatening nature.
Assaults in prison custody cover a wide range of violent incidents including fights between prisoners.
Serious assaults are those which involve one or more of the following: a sexual assault, results in detention in outside hospital as an in-patient, requires medical treatment for concussion or internal injuries. It also includes incurring any of the following injuries: a fracture, scald or burn, stabbing, crushing, extensive or multiple bruising, black eye, broken nose, lost or broken tooth, cuts requiring suturing, bites, temporary or permanent blindness.
We do not tolerate violence or disruptive behaviour in our prisons. We’ve recruited 4,366 additional officers and are spending an extra £100m, introducing tough airport-style security, x-ray scanners and phone-blocking technology. We are also committed to ensuring our prison officers have the tools they need to do the job safely with body worn cameras, ‘police-style’ handcuffs and restraints, and PAVA incapacitant spray.
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many BAME prisoners were held at (a) HMP Parc and (b) HMP Cardiff prison under (i) remand and (ii) sentence following decisions by courts outside of Wales in each year since 2015; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The below table indicates non white (includes prisoners with ‘not stated’ and ‘not recorded’ ethnicities) prisoners in HMPs Cardiff and Parc with an associated court outside of Wales (includes prisoners with ‘Court not recorded’).
| 30/06/2015 | 30/06/2016 | 30/06/2017 | 30/06/2018 | 30/06/2019 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total | 75 | 60 | 105 | 71 | 87 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Of which: |
|
|
|
|
|
Remand | 11 | 7 | 15 | 5 | 7 |
Sentenced | 62 | 46 | 85 | 60 | 74 |
Non-Criminal | 2 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the statistics collected by his Department from across the prison estate can be broken down into (a) individual episodes of self-harm and (b) episodes of self-harm by an individual in (i) HMP Parc and (ii) HMP Cardiff prisons; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prosecutions of social care workers there have been for abusing older adults in care in each of the last five years.
Answered by Robert Buckland
It is not possible to identify the number of social care workers that were prosecuted for abusing older adults in care in each of the last 5 years from the broader offences:
The offences do not specify whether or not the defendant was a social worker nor do they specify the age of the victim. Detailed information may be held on individual court records but to be able to identify these cases we would have to access these individual court records which would be of disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when his Department plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Bridgend of 8 January 2019 reference MM/JH/08/01/2019.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The response was sent to you on 7 February 2019 and a further copy has been sent to your office.
Asked by: Madeleine Moon (Labour - Bridgend)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to extend position of trust laws to sports coaches.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
Any sexual activity with a child under 16 is a criminal offence, regardless of whether consent is given. Any non-consensual sexual activity is also a crime, whatever the age of the victim and whatever the relationship between the victim and perpetrator.
Where a manipulative offender grooms a child prior to them reaching the age of consent and then engages in a sexual relationship with them when they are over 16, this could be prosecuted under offences such as Section 15a of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.
We remain absolutely committed to protecting children and young people from sexual abuse and we already have a wide range of criminal offences under which to prosecute and sentence those who carry out such acts. We continue to keep this under review.