Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce the prison population.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
Sentencing is a matter for our independent courts, which take into account the circumstances of the case, including any aggravating and mitigating factors. We are clear that sentencing must match the severity of a crime.
Prison numbers can fluctuate, which is why we have a robust set of plans in place to ensure we will always have enough places for offenders sent to custody by the courts. The Prime Minister recently announced his ambition to transform the prison estate with an additional investment of £2.5 billion which will deliver 10,000 additional prison places.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he is taking steps to ensure that grandparents are ensured access to their grandchildren in custody cases.
Answered by Wendy Morton - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Grandparents who are experiencing difficulties in spending time with their grandchildren following parental separation can seek the permission of the family court to apply for a child arrangements order. Experience suggests that grandparents would not usually experience any difficulty where their application is motivated by genuine concern for the welfare of the child.
The law does not provide any absolute right for a grandparent, or indeed a parent, to be involved in a child’s life because it is the child’s welfare which is paramount in all court decisions about who a child lives with or spends time with. The court can, however, direct the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) to prepare a welfare report into the child’s circumstances, including the beneficial involvement in their life of significant adults such as grandparents.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent steps he is taking to ensure the gender of a parent is not considered as a factor in custody cases.
Answered by Wendy Morton - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The legislative framework which governs family law proceedings about a child’s upbringing is gender neutral and focused on the welfare of the child involved.
The court is legally required to presume that the involvement of a parent in the life of the child will further that child’s welfare, unless there is evidence to the contrary. The nature of any parental involvement will be determined by the court based on all the available evidence.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made the potential merits of requiring young people entering the secure system to undertake an individual assessment to ensure that (a) vulnerabilities and (b) trigger points are (i) identified and (ii) regularly reviewed in an individual care plan.
Answered by Edward Argar
Professionals undertake a number of assessments on Children and Young People (CYP) when they enter the Youth Secure Estate in order to identify and review any vulnerabilities they have.
The Comprehensive Health Assessment Tool (CHAT) provides screening and assessment for all CYP across the youth justice system, allowing for early identification of needs and requirements to support their care. An initial assessment is made before the first night in custody to assess any immediate needs or requirements, with a wide range of vulnerabilities and triggers screened for. This is followed by further physical and mental health assessments.
In addition, the Youth Custody Service use information provided by the Youth Offending Team to determine suitability for a particular placement into either a Secure Children’s Home, a Secure Training Centre or a Young Offender Institution. When making this determination a wide range of factors are considered, including, but not limited to, risk of harm to self and others, welfare, and medical history, including mental health.
As well as this we are working closely with the NHS on ‘Secure Stairs’, an integrated approach to strengthen the provision of health care to address the needs of young people holistically and co-ordinates services through a coherent, joined up approach. This will ensure CYP receive a full needs assessment and a tailored care and support plan.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
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 uprating the financial thresholds for legal aid eligibility.
Answered by Paul Maynard
On 7 February 2019, the Government published its Legal Support Action Plan in which it announced a comprehensive review of the wider legal aid eligibility regime. The review will study the income and capital thresholds for legal aid entitlement and assess the effectiveness with which the means testing arrangements appropriately protect access to justice, particularly with respect to those who are vulnerable.
The review is expected to conclude by Summer 2020 after which we will publish a full consultation paper setting out our future policy proposals in this area. We will seek to implement any final recommendations as soon as practicable following public consultation.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the findings of HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales Annual Report 2018-19, what steps he is taking to tackle (a) increased violence, (b) mental health problems and (c) drugs problems in prisons.
Answered by Robert Buckland
We are taking urgent action to tackle violence in prisons, alongside reforms to overhaul the system to focus on the rehabilitation of offenders. Investment in additional prison officers and the introduction of Keyworkers enables prison officers to mentor, challenge and support a small caseload of prisoners away from violence and reoffending. The Challenge, Support and Intervention Plan (CSIP) has, since November 2018, been mandated for use in all establishments. CSIP provides a case management model to help staff to manage violent prisoners and those identified as posing a raised risk of being violent. Violence against our staff is unacceptable. The Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act came into force on 13 November which has increased the penalty – from 6 to 12 months - for those who assault emergency workers including prison officers.
In order to improve support for prisoners with mental health needs, we have rolled out improved suicide and self-harm prevention training and over 25,000 new and existing prison staff have completed some of this training. We have also awarded the Samaritans a grant of £500,000 each year for the next three years, to continue to support the Listeners’ scheme. For those prisoners requiring transfer to secure hospitals for mental health treatment, we are working collaboratively with Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England (NHSE) to improve the transfer process. On 20th June we also announced the development of a Health and Justice Plan which will bring together a coherent, holistic picture of the full offender health journey, from the point of arrest through to release.
Our Drugs Taskforce is working with law enforcement and health partners across government to restrict the supply of drugs, reduce demand and build recovery from substance misuse through the national Prison Drugs Strategy. We have invested £70 million to improve safety, security and decency, allowing us to fund new security scanners, improve searching techniques, and introduce phone-blocking technology. We have made it a criminal offence to possess psychoactive substances in prison and trained more than 300 sniffer dogs to detect these drugs. Additionally, our £9 million joint-funded Ministry of Justice, HMPPS, DHSC and NHSE Drug Recovery Prison pilot at HMP Holme House is testing and evaluating innovative approaches to tackle drugs in prison and help prisoners improve their chances of recovery.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people prosecuted under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Ministry of Justice has published data up to December 2018. The number of prosecutions for offences under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 in each of the 12 months of 2018 can be found in the accompanying table.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the findings of the June 2019 report by the Prison Reform Trust, Prison: the facts, what steps his Department is taking to (a) tackle overcrowding and (b) improve conditions in prisons.
Answered by Robert Buckland
Reducing crowding is a central aim of our modernisation of the prison estate. Our plan for reducing prison crowding is to replace prisons that are operating over their certified normal accommodation levels with new accommodation that is safe, decent, and uncrowded and close current (crowded or partially crowded) capacity. The first steps in this direction have already been taken with the opening of 2,100 uncrowded prison places at HMP/YOI Berwyn and 206 uncrowded places in a new houseblock at HMP Stocken. Additionally, we are constructing modern prisons at the former HMP Wellingborough and HMP Glen Parva sites, which are due to open in 2021 and 2023 respectively.
We invested an additional £31m in the last financial year to improve conditions in some of the prisons with the most pressing issues. With this funding we delivered refurbishments of nearly 1,000 cells, over 100 shower blocks and 14 food serveries at a number of prisons including HMPs Liverpool, Bristol, Wandsworth and Wormwood Scrubs, as well as essential fire safety work.
There is also ongoing refurbishment work to improve the condition of cells, showers and communal areas at a number of prisons, along with several projects to enhance fire safety.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure victims of discrimination are able to access the legal representation they require.
Answered by Paul Maynard
We have specifically protected legal aid, both for initial advice and representation, subject to the statutory means and merits tests, for civil legal services provided in relation to contravention of the Equality Act 2010.
Publicly funded advice continues to be available for Employment Tribunal discrimination claims, and publicly funded advice and representation is available in the Employment Appeal Tribunal, and the civil courts more generally.
Our Legal Aid Support Action Plan, published in February, has also committed to improving the access victims of discrimination have to state-funded legal representation. This includes reinstating immediate access to face-to-face legal advice in discrimination cases, reviewing legal aid means testing, and improving the Exceptional Case Funding scheme.
Asked by: Paul Farrelly (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the (a) numbers and (b) performance of specialist staff trained in therapeutic and welfare-based approaches in UK young offenders institutions.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Ministry of Justice is committed to improving the safety and life chances of young people in custody. We recognise that in recent years the youth secure estate has experienced difficulty in recruiting and retaining staff. We are expanding frontline staff capacity in public-sector Young Offender Institutions: at the start of 2019, the Youth Custody Service had 315 more frontline officers than 12 months previously – an increase of 35 per cent. We are also providing funding for every Prison Officer in the Youth Custody Service to undertake a youth justice qualification and, on completion, move to a new youth justice specialist role on promotion and at a higher pay-grade. Over 400 frontline staff are currently enrolled on this qualification.
We are working with the National Health Service to deliver an integrated framework of care, encompassing education, health and behavioural support, to ensure young people receive full needs assessments and tailored care and support plans. This is in addition to opening Enhanced Support Units for young people with the most complex needs, and increasing psychology staffing across the estate.