Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women in custody applied for a place in a mother and baby unit in 2017.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
When considering applications for admission to Mother and Baby Units, the best interests of the child are paramount.
In 2016-17, 119 applications were received; 61 were approved and 16 declined. The remaining applications did not proceed for other reasons. Some women may change their mind, are released from custody, miscarry or have a termination.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women who had babies or infants resident with them in prison had those children taken away from them in 2017.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The number of babies and infants leaving Mother and Baby Units (MBUs) is recorded locally, but not collated centrally. The requested information could not be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.
There are many reasons why babies or infants may be separated from their mothers. In all cases where it is proposed that a baby or infant should leave an MBU, a Separation Board takes place. The Board has an independent Chair and advice is provided by Children’s Services. The separation process is carefully planned and sensitively handled. The paramount consideration in all cases is in the best interests of the child.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what scoping of the state of the prison estate was conducted prior to the formulation of (a) lot 1, (b) lot 2, (c) lot 3 and (d) lot 4 and before the declaration of preferred bidders for the prison facilities management contracts awarded by the Government in 2014; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The four prison facilities management contracts referred to were awarded by the Department in January 2015 and services commenced in June 2015.
Prospective bidders were permitted to undertake site visits to establishments during the procurement process to familiarize themselves with the estate.
Prospective bidders were provided with information on the number and type of assets in establishments that they were required to maintain. Following the award of the contract the successful bidders were allowed a six month period to verify the number and type of assets in establishments with the information provided by the Department during the procurement.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the (a) names of providers and (b) value of each of the bids was of tenders submitted for (a) lot 1, (b) lot 2, (c) lot 3 and (d) lot 4 for the prison facilities management contracts awarded in 2014.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The names of providers who submitted tenders are as follows:
| Lot 1 | Lot 2 | Lot 3 | Lot 4 |
Regions | North East, North West, Yorkshire and Humberside | East Midlands, West Midlands, Wales | East of England, London | South West, South Central, Kent and Sussex |
Successful bidder | Amey | Amey | Carillion | Carillion |
Unsuccessful bidders | Mitie, Sodexo, Carillion | Mitie, Sodexo, Carillion | Mitie, Sodexo, Amey | Mitie, Sodexo, Amey |
All Tender prices were entered into a permutation table which calculated the most economically advantageous submission for each Package Order or combination of Package Orders. The most economically advantageous permutation of tenders are as follows:
Package Order E: £117,861,047 (Amey)
Package Order F: £ 93,429,773 (Amey)
Package Order G: £ 98,790,002 (Carillion)
Package Order H: £ 100,195,572 (Carillion)
The Department does not publish the value of unsuccessful bidders due to commercial sensitivity.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women in custody of each ethnic group were given a place in a mother and baby unit in 2017.
Answered by Phillip Lee
The total number of women given a place in a Mother and Baby Unit in 2016-17 was 67. 48 were of white ethnicity, 7 were from mixed ethnic groups, 5 were of Asian or Asian British (including Chinese) ethnicity, and 5 were Black or Black British.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the contracts to outsource facilities management in prisons, awarded in 2014, how much funding was allocated to (a) preventative maintenance and (b) reactive maintenance; and in relation to each of those allocations, what the (i) budgeted spend and (ii) actual spend was; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rory Stewart
The facilities management contracts awarded in 2014 provide for payments under the following categories:
The table below provides information on the budgeted and actual expenditure for each of these categories in 2015/16 and 2016/17. Final figures for 2017/18 are not yet available.
We will only transform our prisons into places of rehabilitation if we ensure that we address basic issues such as cleanliness, decent conditions and safety. Our Facilities Management providers, Amey and Gov Facility Services Ltd, play an important role in achieving this.
FM Contract Budget and Reported Costs from June 2015 (contract start)
| 2015-16 | 2016-17 | ||
| 10 months | 12 months | ||
| Budget | Actuals | Budget | Actuals |
FM Contract costs | £m | £m | £m | £m |
Fixed costs | 58.9 | 73.9 | 71.3 | 78.3 |
Variable costs | 3.1 | 5.6 | 3.9 | 20.3 |
Management fees | 6.5 | 6.6 | 8.2 | 8.1 |
Base Contract Costs | 68.5 | 86.1 | 83.4 | 106.7 |
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much of the projected £115 million of savings in the prison facilities management contracts awarded in 2014 has been saved to date.
Answered by Rory Stewart
I refer the Honourable Member to my answers to Questions 125573 and 125574 from the Honourable Member for Leeds East. As stated in the 2016-17 National Offender Management Service Annual Report, the contracting exercise “exposed that historically the costs of maintenance and services were not clearly understood by the business and consequently planning assumptions have not held true.” Anticipated efficiency savings have therefore not been achieved.
We will only transform our prisons into places of rehabilitation if we ensure that we address basic issues such as cleanliness, decent conditions and safety. Our Facilities Management providers, Amey and Gov Facility Services Ltd, play an important role in achieving this.
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure that the Government meets its target of recruiting 2,500 new prison officers by December 2018; what progress has been made on meeting that target; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rory Stewart
In 2016 the former Secretary of State announced HMPPS would be recruiting an additional 2,500 prison officers by December 2018. Good progress is being made to hit this target, with 1,970 additional officers recruited by 31st December 2017. These new staff will reduce the need for Detached Duty.
A further 1,582 new recruits have been offered roles and are booked onto Prison Officer Training (POELT) courses, meaning the Government is on target to recruit the 2,500 officers nine months ahead of schedule.
The HMPPS workforce statistics published on 15 February 2018 can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/her-majestys-prison-and-probation-service-workforce-quarterly-december-2017
Asked by: Marie Rimmer (Labour - St Helens South and Whiston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Answer of 23 January 2018 to Question 903506, what steps the Government has taken to address unsafe conditions in youth custody following the Youth Custody Improvement Board report published in February 2017.
Answered by Phillip Lee
The safety of young people in custody is our highest priority, and we take the findings of the Youth Custody Improvement Board very seriously. We are investing £64 million as part of our work to reform youth custody. This includes expanding frontline staff capacity in public-sector Young Offender Institutions by 20% and introducing a new youth justice specialist role. We have already started to make progress and currently around 140 frontline staff are enrolled on a new vocational youth justice foundation degree.
To ensure a grip on safety and performance a new Youth Custody Service was launched in September 2017, headed by an Executive Director who is accountable to Ministers. This is the first time in the department’s history that such a role has existed and this demonstrates our commitment to improving youth custody.
We are working with NHS England to strengthen the provision of mental health care. We are also investing in the development of Enhanced Support Units to provide a better environment for young people with the most complex needs. The first of these is now operational at Feltham YOI.
We are currently implementing a behaviour management strategy to improve safety across the youth estate and progressing with a conflict resolution model.