Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what resources have been allocated to the planned phased approach to policy development on decapods, including the number of full-time equivalent staff involved, dedicated budget, external expertise commissioned and any other support.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office has written to the Animals in Science Committee setting out its phased approach to developing proportionate and evidence-based arrangements for decapods used in scientific procedures. As part of this approach, the Home Office is developing a roadmap setting out objectives and key milestones to enable the development of the evidence base needed to inform future policy decisions. The Home Office will publish further information on its approach to regulating decapods used in science in due course.

The initial phase of this work focuses on the adoption of industry-led welfare standards, supported by voluntary reporting, targeted training and preparatory work. Further steps may include seeking technical advice and engaging relevant experts where appropriate.

This activity is being undertaken using existing resources and budget. As of July 2026, the Animals in Science Regulation Policy Unit has 8.6 full-time equivalent staff who support a range of priorities including policy development for decapods. The Unit collaborates with a range of other government teams to progress project activity. Resourcing arrangements will be kept under review as the policy develops.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to publish a roadmap for the phased approach to policy development on decapods used in scientific procedures.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Home Office has written to the Animals in Science Committee setting out its phased approach to developing proportionate and evidence-based arrangements for decapods used in scientific procedures. As part of this approach, the Home Office is developing a roadmap setting out objectives and key milestones to enable the development of the evidence base needed to inform future policy decisions. The Home Office will publish further information on its approach to regulating decapods used in science in due course.

The initial phase of this work focuses on the adoption of industry-led welfare standards, supported by voluntary reporting, targeted training and preparatory work. Further steps may include seeking technical advice and engaging relevant experts where appropriate.

This activity is being undertaken using existing resources and budget. As of July 2026, the Animals in Science Regulation Policy Unit has 8.6 full-time equivalent staff who support a range of priorities including policy development for decapods. The Unit collaborates with a range of other government teams to progress project activity. Resourcing arrangements will be kept under review as the policy develops.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Annual statistics of scientific procedures on living animals, Great Britain 2025, published in July 2026, what assessment she has made of the reduction in procedures reported as severe in 2025; and what measures she is taking to secure further future reductions.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Government welcomes the reduction in experimental procedures reported as severe in the 2025 published annual statistics. The proportion fell from 3.4% in 2024 to 1.3% in 2025, with the number of severe procedures decreasing from 48,380 to 17,593. Procedure numbers may increase or decrease from year to year due to changes in scientific and public health priorities, scientific innovation, research funding, regulatory requirements, and the application of the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction and Refinement).

The majority of this change was a large decrease seen in batch potency testing, falling from 27,323 severe procedures in 2024 to 521 in 2025. Batch potency testing is a form of quality control testing used to confirm that a batch of a medicine, vaccine or other biological product meets required standards before it is released for use.

All applications to test on animals must conform with all legal requirements set out in the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA). This includes applying the principles of the 3Rs: the replacement of animals wherever there is a suitable alternative available; the reduction of the number of animals used to the minimum possible; and the refinement of any techniques to reduce the harm suffered by the animals to the minimum.

Under ASPA, licences are subject to retrospective assessments if they involved procedures expected to cause severe harm to animals. These retrospective assessments must consider whether any lessons can be learned from the programme of work which may contribute to the further implementation of the principles of the 3Rs.

The Government’s Replacing animals in science strategy, published in November 2025 and backed by £75 million, contains measures to accelerate the development, validation and uptake of alternative methods. These measures, together with continuing regulatory scrutiny and independent advice from the Animals in Science Committee, will support further replacement and refinement of animal procedures.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate his Department has made of the number of prisoners serving standard determinate sentences for (a) domestic abuse-related offences, (b) sexual offences and (c) child sexual offences who are eligible for the Government’s early release scheme in accordance with the Sentencing Act 2026.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

First, I would like to express my sincere sympathy with all victims of these appalling crimes. This Government inherited a prisons system days from collapse. We had no choice but to take decisive action to stop our prisons overflowing and keep the public safe. Our landmark Sentencing Act 2026 will now deliver a more sustainable solution to the prison capacity crisis we inherited, including through the progression model which will help ensure there are always enough places for the courts to be able to send people to custody in order to keep the public safe. The worst thing for victims would be running out of prison space and not being able to lock up dangerous offenders.

The progression model amends release points for offenders on Standard Determinate Sentences. Over 18,000 offenders serving more serious sentences like extended Determinate Sentences or life sentences will be unaffected by these reforms and will be kept in prison for as long as they are now.

Public protection and victims’ interests were central considerations throughout the development of the Sentencing Act 2026 reforms. That is why, once released, offenders will be managed under strict licence conditions in the community.

All offenders will remain on licence until the end of their sentence, and where an offender breaches their licence conditions, probation has a full suite of options available, including recall to custody. We are also introducing restriction zones for the most serious sexual and violent offenders where appropriate, enforced through electronic monitoring. The Government is investing up to £700 million in probation and community services by 2028/29, including recruiting at least 1,300 additional trainee probation officers and expanding tagging capabilities, to ensure the Probation Service has the capacity and tools it needs to manage offenders safely in the community.

Victims who are eligible for and have opted into the Victim Contact Scheme will continue to be notified of an offender’s release and may make representations regarding licence conditions, including exclusion zones and non-contact conditions.

It is not possible to estimate sufficiently accurately the number of future releases because of the uncertainty of the volume of eligible offenders who will be sentenced to prison in the near future nor can we estimate any added days for bad behaviour committed which will determine their release point. The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes Accredited Official Statistics on prisoner releases as part of the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly (OMSQ) publication.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential risk to victims of (a) domestic abuse-related offences, (b) sexual offences and (c) child sexual offences arising from the reduction of automatic release points for standard determinate sentences.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

First, I would like to express my sincere sympathy with all victims of these appalling crimes. This Government inherited a prisons system days from collapse. We had no choice but to take decisive action to stop our prisons overflowing and keep the public safe. Our landmark Sentencing Act 2026 will now deliver a more sustainable solution to the prison capacity crisis we inherited, including through the progression model which will help ensure there are always enough places for the courts to be able to send people to custody in order to keep the public safe. The worst thing for victims would be running out of prison space and not being able to lock up dangerous offenders.

The progression model amends release points for offenders on Standard Determinate Sentences. Over 18,000 offenders serving more serious sentences like extended Determinate Sentences or life sentences will be unaffected by these reforms and will be kept in prison for as long as they are now.

Public protection and victims’ interests were central considerations throughout the development of the Sentencing Act 2026 reforms. That is why, once released, offenders will be managed under strict licence conditions in the community.

All offenders will remain on licence until the end of their sentence, and where an offender breaches their licence conditions, probation has a full suite of options available, including recall to custody. We are also introducing restriction zones for the most serious sexual and violent offenders where appropriate, enforced through electronic monitoring. The Government is investing up to £700 million in probation and community services by 2028/29, including recruiting at least 1,300 additional trainee probation officers and expanding tagging capabilities, to ensure the Probation Service has the capacity and tools it needs to manage offenders safely in the community.

Victims who are eligible for and have opted into the Victim Contact Scheme will continue to be notified of an offender’s release and may make representations regarding licence conditions, including exclusion zones and non-contact conditions.

It is not possible to estimate sufficiently accurately the number of future releases because of the uncertainty of the volume of eligible offenders who will be sentenced to prison in the near future nor can we estimate any added days for bad behaviour committed which will determine their release point. The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes Accredited Official Statistics on prisoner releases as part of the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly (OMSQ) publication.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department provides dedicated guidance on minimum rehabilitation requirements for prisoners in custody serving standard determinate sentences for (a) domestic abuse-related offences, (b) sexual offences and (c) child sexual offences.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Rehabilitative interventions are determined for each offender based on their specific needs and offending profile as part of sentence planning. There is no dedicated guidance on minimum rehabilitation requirements specifically for the offence types listed.

In custody, a range of interventions are delivered to support rehabilitation, including Accredited Programmes which are designed to target the underlying factors that can lead to offending by building skills and methods that can help improve decision making, problem solving, and self-management and regulation of emotions. Accredited Programmes are targeted at individuals assessed as presenting a medium or higher risk of reoffending with the targeted risks, as evidence indicates they are most effective for this group.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department operates a single database to record (a) the number of offenders serving standard determinate sentences, (b) their offence category and (c) their release dates.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Department holds information on offenders' offences, sentences and release dates within the Digital Prison Services (DPS) platform and the legacy offender case management system, NOMIS. This information is not held in a single database but these systems combine information from many databases to address operational, reporting and analytical requirements

The current authoritative system of record, with synchronised data, remains the National Offender Management Information System (NOMIS).

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to monitor the safety of release provisions in place for offenders serving custodial sentences for (a) domestic abuse-related offences, (b) sexual offences and (c) child sexual offences who are eligible for early release.

Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

This Government is committed to strengthening public protection and ensuring the Probation Service has the tools and capacity it needs to keep communities safe and protect victims. We are investing £700m into probation and community services, recruiting 1,300 additional probation officers this year, and ensuring every prison leaver is tagged unless there is clear reason not to. We are delivering the biggest expansion of tagging in history, with thousands of offenders having their every movement tracked as well as investing £100m to expand our ability to monitor even more individuals in the community. These changes will significantly strengthen probation’s ability to monitor offenders in real time and intervene quickly where risk escalates or conditions are breached.

We are ensuring there is a robust regime of controls and punishment outside of prison, offenders may be controlled by a range of measures. This includes curfews, exclusion zones, requirements to live in a different part of the country to their victim, bans from spaces such as sport matches and pubs. This is designed to manage risk and restrict offenders’ movements as necessary.

Probation will apply additional licence conditions where appropriate to address the specific risks an offender presents – including victim-related conditions such as exclusion zones and no-contact requirements. We are also introducing tough new Restriction Zones which will restrict the movements of the most serious sexual and violent offenders to specific geographical areas where appropriate, so their victims know they are safe wherever else they want to go. These will be robustly monitored by electronic monitoring and provide probation with greater visibility of offenders’ movements and strengthen their ability to identify and respond to breaches at an early stage. Victims who are eligible and opted into the Victim Contact Scheme will be notified of an offender’s release, in line with existing practice and will continue to be able to make representations for licence conditions.

From September 2026, we are expanding the Domestic Abuse Perpetrators on Licence (DAPOL) scheme from 8 probation regions to all 12 across England and Wales from September 2026. This will give probation staff a greater ability to track hundreds of prison leavers who pose a threat to a former partner or their children.

We are also introducing Electronic Monitoring Data Insight (EMDI), a new tool allowing probation practitioners near real-time access to electronic monitoring information and GPS trail maps. This will help practitioners monitor compliance with licence conditions, identify emerging risks more quickly and make better-informed decisions and make better-informed decisions to support public protection.

We are extending and expanding a feasibility pilot in the South West of England to the North West and North East NHS regions pilot on the use of Medication to Manage Problematic Sexual Arousal (MMPSA) for sex offenders, which marks a vital first step towards a national rollout and is a wider intervention probation can use. We are also exploring the feasibility of mandatory or incentivised treatment.

Our CAS 1 provision, also known as Approved Premises, accommodates higher-risk prison leavers and people on probation. Approved Premises are temporary accommodation for public protection purposes in the community and are staffed 24 hours a day, operate a curfew, carry out mandatory drug testing, closely monitor licence conditions, and are covered by CCTV across all sites. They provide a high level of supervision in a controlled environment and are closely integrated with Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA). This will allow continuous monitoring of the highest risk offenders as they transition from custody to the community.

Probation has a broad range of tools available when setting conditions or managing offenders safely in the community. These will be dependent on the specific risks posed by each offender and not all measures will be applied in every case. All offenders will remain on licence to the end of their sentence and where an offender breaches their licence conditions, probation have a full suite of options for managing this, including recall to prison.

All Ministry of Justice policies are routinely kept under review and statistics relevant to core policies will be published in the usual way to support public scrutiny.

Found: for International Development and Africa King Charles Street London SW1A 2AH Sarah Champion

Found: Minister for International Development and Africa King Charles Street London SW1A 2AH Sarah Champion

Found: Conservative; Staffordshire Moorlands) Liam Byrne (Labour; Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North) Sarah Champion

Found: Yours sincerely, Sarah Champion MP Chair of the International Development Committee

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Sarah Champion (Chair); Janet Daby; Tracy Gilbert; Monica Harding

Found: King Charles Street London SW1A 2AH Email: [email protected] Sarah Champion

Found: and Africa King Charles Street London SW1A 2AH Email: [email protected] Sarah Champion

Found: for International Development and Africa King Charles Street London SW1A 2AH Sarah Champion

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Sarah Champion (Chair); Janet Daby; Tracy Gilbert; Monica Harding

Found: Correspondence with Sarah Champion MP, dated 6 February.

Found: Current membership Sarah Champion (Labour; Rotherham) (Chair) Janet Daby (Labour; Lewisham East) Tracy

Found: Members present: Matt Western (The Chair); Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom; Lord Boateng; Liam Byrne; Sarah Champion

Found: Members present: Matt Western (The Chair); Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom; Lord Boateng; Liam Byrne; Sarah Champion

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Sarah Champion (Chair); Janet Daby; Tracy Gilbert; Monica Harding

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Sarah Champion (Chair); Janet Daby; Tracy Gilbert; Monica Harding

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Sarah Champion (Chair); Janet Daby; Tracy Gilbert; Monica Harding

Submit Evidence (by 18 Sep 2026)

The Sahel is one of the world's most complex and protracted development contexts. The region faces overlapping humanitarian, governance, security and climate challenges that have contributed to widespread displacement, food insecurity and declining development indicators. Armed conflict, violent extremism and organised crime continue to undermine state institutions and limit access to basic services across much of the region.

Submit Evidence (by 6 Sep 2026)

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