Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 6 March 2023 to Question 152263 on Secure Accommodation: Bristol, for what reasons a young person would be placed in secure accommodation away from their home area.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
A child or young person may be placed away from their home area for a number of reasons, including where their individual needs and/or their risk to themselves or others can be managed more appropriately in a different establishment. Children and young people will be placed in the most appropriate available establishment to meet their needs. Any decision is based on information provided by Youth Offending Teams, which the Youth Custody Service (YCS) works with to ensure the needs, risks and circumstances of each young person have been taken into account.
A non-exhaustive list of factors that are considered when making a placement decision is set out in the YCS Placement Team guidance, which can be found at GOV.UK, via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/placing-young-people-in-custody-guide-for-youth-justice-practitioners.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of demand for secure detention facilities within a reasonable distance of permanent places of residence for children and young people under 18 resident in Bristol.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
In 2022, there was an average of 24 contracted secure places for children and young people at Vinney Green, the only establishment in the Bristol area. In the same period an average of 12.5 places were occupied at Vinney Green.
The facility in Bristol is a secure children’s home. Secure children’s homes form one part of the youth secure estate, which also includes young offender institutions and a secure training centre. Placements take account of a range of factors, in addition to closeness to home. In each case, the aim is to place the child or young person in a facility that most suits their needs and is able to manage their risk.
In 2022, five children and young people under the supervision of the Bristol Youth Offending Team were remanded to youth detention accommodation or sentenced to custody. This figure relates solely to new admissions. All five were placed outside the Bristol area.
Admissions over the last five years are provided in the table below:
Number of new admissions (from the Community) from Bristol, 2018 to 2022 Data source: Operational Data |
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
Other Establishments | 17 | 18 | 16 | 11 | 5 |
Vinney Green | 5 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people under the age of 18 who were usually resident in Bristol were placed in secure accommodation outside Bristol in 2022.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
In 2022, there was an average of 24 contracted secure places for children and young people at Vinney Green, the only establishment in the Bristol area. In the same period an average of 12.5 places were occupied at Vinney Green.
The facility in Bristol is a secure children’s home. Secure children’s homes form one part of the youth secure estate, which also includes young offender institutions and a secure training centre. Placements take account of a range of factors, in addition to closeness to home. In each case, the aim is to place the child or young person in a facility that most suits their needs and is able to manage their risk.
In 2022, five children and young people under the supervision of the Bristol Youth Offending Team were remanded to youth detention accommodation or sentenced to custody. This figure relates solely to new admissions. All five were placed outside the Bristol area.
Admissions over the last five years are provided in the table below:
Number of new admissions (from the Community) from Bristol, 2018 to 2022 Data source: Operational Data |
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
Other Establishments | 17 | 18 | 16 | 11 | 5 |
Vinney Green | 5 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the (a) quality and (b) safety standards of secure accommodation for children from Bristol.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Children are placed into the most appropriate establishment to meet their needs, which may not necessarily be the closest to their home area although this is considered as a factor. This means that children from Bristol could be placed into any establishment across the youth secure estate. All establishments within the youth estate are regularly inspected by independent bodies, with reports published on their websites.
In England, sites are inspected by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons, Ofsted, the Care Quality Commission and Independent Monitoring Boards. In Wales, sites are inspected by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons, Estyn, Care Inspectorate Wales and the Independent Monitoring Board.
Any concerns raised by the Inspectorates during their visits, including about the quality of provision and the safety of children at the site, are taken very seriously and action is taken to address them. Where an establishment is operated by a private contractor, we will hold them to account.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of trials for rape were delayed by defendants failing to place a plea at the first plea hearing in each of the last three years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Data regarding the number of hearings before plea entry for defendants dealt with for rape offences in ‘for trial’ cases at the Crown Court can be found in the table below.
The latest data is available to the 12 months ending March 2022.
Table 1 – Defendants dealt with for rape offences in ‘for trial’ cases where a plea was entered and accepted in the Crown Court, England and Wales, 12 months to March 2022
Year | Total defendants | Plea entered at first hearing | Plea entered at subsequent hearings | Unknown |
Volume of defendants | ||||
2019/20 | 1,509 | 1,205 | 234 | 70 |
2020/21 | 1,047 | 797 | 192 | 58 |
2021/22 | 1,925 | 1,456 | 354 | 115 |
Percentage (%) | ||||
2019/20 | 100% | 80% | 16% | 5% |
2020/21 | 100% | 76% | 18% | 6% |
2021/22 | 100% | 76% | 18% | 6% |
Source: Criminal Court Statistics, Data and Analysis, Ministry of Justice
1) | The number of defendants relate to defendants in the cases that were disposed of in the reporting period where a plea was entered, e.g. this excludes instances where no plea was entered. |
2) | Number of hearings it took for a plea to be entered, including the hearing that it was entered at. ‘Unknown’ hearings include instances where no hearing information is available. |
3) | Most serious offence for each defendant. If a defendant is charged with more than one offence in a case the most serious offence will be taken to represent the defendant. |
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department plans to make an assessment of the (a) nature and (b) impact on victims of crime of restorative justice in the context of the Victims' Bill consultation.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Under the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime all victims must be told about the option of restorative justice and how to access it. We have just consulted on how we can enshrine the Victims’ Code in legislation, to send a clear signal about what victims can and should expect from the criminal justice system. We also provide grant funding to Police and Crime Commissioners for victims’ support services, including restorative justice. In 2021/22, we are providing c£115m of grant funding to Police and Crime Commissioners for victims’ support services, including restorative justice. We will further bolster support for victims of crime, by increasing MoJ funding for victim and witness support services to £185 million by 2024-25. PCCs are required to report to the Ministry of Justice every six months on the delivery of the funding, which we monitor closely. The National Probation Service is developing a new framework for restorative justice to ensure a more consistent approach, focusing on the people for whom it will make the biggest difference. I am carefully considering the recommendations of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Restorative Justice’s report and will respond in due course.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what reason restorative justice is not included in the Victims Bill consultation.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
We have just consulted on how we can enshrine the Victims’ Code in legislation through the Victims’ Bill, to send a clear signal about what victims can and should expect from the criminal justice system. Under the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime all victims must be told about the option of Restorative Justice and how to access it. In 2021/22, we are providing c£115m of grant funding to Police and Crime Commissioners for victims’ support services, including Restorative Justice. We will further bolster support for victims of crime, by increasing MoJ funding for victim and witness support services to £185 million by 2024-25.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what criteria are used to assess the suitability of an interpreting agency for use in court work; and how that work is assessed and monitored against those criteria for individual providers.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
As per the Public Contract Regulations 2015, the suppliers with which we have contracts in place were assessed against the publicly published evaluation criteria for that tender. Please find evaluation criteria attached.
Ongoing quality is maintained in a number of forms:
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to paragraph 3.18 of the A Smarter Approach to Sentencing White Paper published in September 2020, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of excluding domestic violence related murder in the home from the Minimum term starting points of 25 years for adult mandatory life sentences for offenders who took a knife or weapon to the scene.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The law requires a mandatory life sentence to be imposed on anyone convicted of murder. The time an offender will spend in prison before being eligible to be considered for release on licence is set by the judge at sentencing. Schedule 21 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 sets out a range of starting points and aggravating factors for the judge to consider when deciding this minimum tariff. This Schedule does not set out all possible scenarios, but rather provides a framework and affords the judge the ability to make decisions on the specific facts of the case. Aggravating factors which will be considered, regardless of where the murder took place, will include the level of premeditation, the level of suffering inflicted on the victim, and the vulnerability of the victim.
Asked by: Thangam Debbonaire (Labour - Bristol West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his letter of 21 October 2020 to the High Court Enforcement Officers Association, whether his request that enforcement officers do not carry out evictions in areas with local lockdown restrictions now applies to all of England.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
On 5 November, the Lord Chancellor wrote to the High Court Enforcement Officers Association to request that they ask their members not to enforce evictions other than in a limited number of the most serious circumstances during the period of time that the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) (No.4) Regulations 2020 are in force.