Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce reoffending among people (a) released early on licence, (b) convicted and awaiting sentencing and (c) receiving community sentences.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
This Government is driving down reoffending by investing in a wide range of rehabilitative interventions to help prison leavers, including those released early on licence, to secure accommodation, employment, and substance misuse treatment on release. The overall proven reoffending rate for England and Wales was 24.4% in 2020/21, down from 31.6% in 2010/11.
We are also focused on expanding resettlement support for those on remand, including through the provision of embedded pre-release teams in prisons and through the extension of Commissioned Rehabilitative Service contracts to include those on remand.
We have increased funding for the Probation Service by an additional £155m a year to recruit staff, bring down caseloads and deliver better supervision of offenders in the community. We continue to recruit at pace and have exceeded our recruitment targets for the last three years. This investment enables us to strengthen probation supervision which is shown to be an effective rehabilitation tool.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the numbers of electronic GPS tags available for prisoners on early release.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The government has invested £156 million to expand the use of electronic monitoring (EM) and build the evidence base for the effective use of the technologies. The majority of our expansion projects are on post-custody licence.
The Department works with EM equipment providers to ensure sufficient equipment is available across the justice system to support forecast caseload projections. This includes the use of GPS tags to monitor those released under the ECSL scheme where necessary and proportionate to help support their reintegration into the community. The Lord Chancellor announced on Monday 16th October that the number of GPS tags available to the sentencers will be doubled to ensure that there is sufficient capacity to monitor offenders’ compliance with sentences served in the community where ordered by the court.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of prison places that will be made available as a result of the planned early release on licence scheme.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The End of Custody Supervised Licence scheme will operate in targeted areas facing particular pressure and for a limited period. Fluctuating demand pressures will affect how the scheme is deployed.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of (a) early release and (b) a presumption against short sentences on victims.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to the right hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the impact of the early release scheme on the probation service.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
It has not proved possible to respond to the right hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have absconded from (a) category A and (b) category B prisons since 2010; and which prisons did those incidents occur.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Time series for escape and abscond data are published at: HMPPS Annual Digest, April 2021 to March 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). In the 13 years from April 2010 to March 2023 there were no escapes from category A prisons and 8 escapes from category B prisons. The prisons were HMP Pentonville, HMP Wandsworth, HMP Dovegate, HMP Peterborough and HMP Bedford. There have been no absconds from a category A or category B prison in this period.
In the 13 years prior to 2010, there were nearly 146 escapes from prisons – nearly ten times the number since 2010.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have escaped from (a) category A and (b) category B prisons since 2010; and which prisons did those escapes occur from.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Time series for escape and abscond data are published at: HMPPS Annual Digest, April 2021 to March 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). In the 13 years from April 2010 to March 2023 there were no escapes from category A prisons and 8 escapes from category B prisons. The prisons were HMP Pentonville, HMP Wandsworth, HMP Dovegate, HMP Peterborough and HMP Bedford. There have been no absconds from a category A or category B prison in this period.
In the 13 years prior to 2010, there were nearly 146 escapes from prisons – nearly ten times the number since 2010.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners who have (a) escaped and (b) absconded from category B prisons were (i) being held on remand for terrorism related charges, (ii) convicted of terrorism related charges, (iii) being held on remand under the Official Secrets Act and (iv) convicted under the Official Secrets Act since 2010.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
There has only been one incident of a prisoner who has (a) escaped or (b) absconded from category B prisons and was (i) being held on remand for terrorism related charges, (ii) convicted of terrorism related charges, (iii) being held on remand under the Official Secrets Act and (iv) convicted under the Official Secrets Act since 2010. This was the escape of Daniel Khalife from HMP Wandsworth on 06 September 2023.
An abscond is an escape that does not involve overcoming a physical security restraint such as that provided by a wall or fence, locks, bolts or bars, a secure vehicle, handcuffs, or the direct supervision of staff.
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners were in (a) category A and (b) category B prisons as of 11 September 2023.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The number of prisoners held in Category A and B prisons as of 11 September is provided below. The main function of Category B training prisons is to hold sentenced Category B prisoners. By contrast all reception prisons are certified as suitable to hold sentenced category B prisoners, but their main function is to hold remand and recently sentenced prisoners.
Function | Population |
Category A prisons | 5,039 |
Category B training prisons | 6,200 |
Category B reception prisons | 25,944 |
Total | 37,183 |
Asked by: Shabana Mahmood (Labour - Birmingham, Ladywood)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners were assessed to be in the wrong security categorisation since 2010.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Prisoners are not assessed as being in the wrong security category. A re-categorisation review can take place at any point during a prisoner's sentence following specific incidents or changes in risk. It is vital to ensure we hold prisoners in the appropriate category of prison.