Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average time is for hon. Members to receive a response from His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service on casework queries.
Answered by Mike Freer
In the period January – June 2023, HMCTS issued 74% of responses to honourable Members’ casework queries within 15 working days. 91.5% were responded to within 20 working days.
Published data is available on Gov.uk - Data on responses to correspondence from MPs and peers - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of legally recognising humanist marriages.
Answered by Mike Freer
In July 2019 we invited the Law Commission to undertake a wholesale review on weddings law in England and Wales. As part of that review, the Government invited the Law Commission to make recommendations about how marriage by humanist and other non-religious belief organisations could be incorporated into a revised or new scheme for all marriages that is simple, fair and consistent.
The Law Commission report was published in July 2022 and contains 57 recommendations for extensive legislative reform. The Government is carefully considering these recommendations, and a response will be published in due course.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners who have been convicted of rape are housed in the female estate; and how many and what proportion of those prisoners are in possession of a gender recognition certificate.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The number of prisoners in the women’s estate convicted of rape can be found in the mid-year prison population detailed characteristics published in the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly, in Table 1.5i found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1094517/Population_30June2022_Annual.ods.
To note that under English law, accessories to a crime are charged as principal offenders, and therefore biological women can be convicted of rape. Data disclosure rules mean we cannot disclose whether any of these prisoners have gender recognition certificates, as the answer is 5 or fewer (including 0).
HMPPS have a range of processes in place to manage the risk posed by prisoners convicted of sexual offences, including through structured risk assessments, security measures in prisons such as cell sharing risk assessments, sentence planning and offending behaviour programmes and interventions.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to monitor prisoners housed in the female estate who have been convicted of (a) rape and (b) other sexual offences against women.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The number of prisoners in the women’s estate convicted of rape can be found in the mid-year prison population detailed characteristics published in the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly, in Table 1.5i found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1094517/Population_30June2022_Annual.ods.
To note that under English law, accessories to a crime are charged as principal offenders, and therefore biological women can be convicted of rape. Data disclosure rules mean we cannot disclose whether any of these prisoners have gender recognition certificates, as the answer is 5 or fewer (including 0).
HMPPS have a range of processes in place to manage the risk posed by prisoners convicted of sexual offences, including through structured risk assessments, security measures in prisons such as cell sharing risk assessments, sentence planning and offending behaviour programmes and interventions.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of prisoners convicted of sexual offences have transferred from the male estate to the female estate since 2010.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Our records on transfers from the men’s estate to the women’s estate start in 2016. In each year since then, 5 or fewer (including 0) prisoners were transferred from the men’s estate to the women’s estate.
Since 2016, 5 or fewer (including 0) prisoners convicted of a sexual offence as their principal offence had been transferred from the men’s estate to the women’s estate.
Data disclosure rules mean that where the answer to a question would disclose a number of prisoners which is 5 or fewer, this figure must be suppressed as it could be used to identify individuals.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have been transferred from the male estate to the female estate in each year since 2004.
Answered by Damian Hinds
Our records on transfers from the men’s estate to the women’s estate start in 2016. In each year since then, 5 or fewer (including 0) prisoners were transferred from the men’s estate to the women’s estate.
Since 2016, 5 or fewer (including 0) prisoners convicted of a sexual offence as their principal offence had been transferred from the men’s estate to the women’s estate.
Data disclosure rules mean that where the answer to a question would disclose a number of prisoners which is 5 or fewer, this figure must be suppressed as it could be used to identify individuals.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department has taken to train prison staff on the additional needs of people in prison on remand with disabilities, including for neurodiverse people.
Answered by Damian Hinds
On 30 June 2022, the Government published our Action Plan in response to the Evidence Review on Neurodiversity in the Criminal Justice System, setting set out a number of steps we are taking to increase support for neurodivergent people encountering the criminal justice system (CJS), including those on remand.
The action plan includes a number of steps specifically focused on training staff:
we are on track to have a dedicated Neurodiversity Support Manager in every prison across England and Wales by March 2024. A key part of their role is to deliver awareness sessions to upskill staff, and to improve prisoners’ access to education, skills and work;
by the end of 2022, we will have developed and launched a National Neurodiversity Training Toolkit available for all prison and probation staff; and
HM Prison and Probation Service has commissioned the organisation Skills for Justice to develop an ‘Adult Health, Care and Wellbeing Core Capabilities Framework’ for frontline staff, to set out what skills, knowledge and behaviour are required to support offenders with health requirements, including neurodivergent need.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department has taken to train prison staff on the additional needs of prisoners with disabilities, including for neurodiverse prisoners.
Answered by Damian Hinds
On 30 June 2022, the Government published our Action Plan in response to the Evidence Review on Neurodiversity in the Criminal Justice System, setting set out a number of steps we are taking to increase support for neurodivergent people encountering the criminal justice system (CJS), including those on remand.
The action plan includes a number of steps specifically focused on training staff:
we are on track to have a dedicated Neurodiversity Support Manager in every prison across England and Wales by March 2024. A key part of their role is to deliver awareness sessions to upskill staff, and to improve prisoners’ access to education, skills and work;
by the end of 2022, we will have developed and launched a National Neurodiversity Training Toolkit available for all prison and probation staff; and
HM Prison and Probation Service has commissioned the organisation Skills for Justice to develop an ‘Adult Health, Care and Wellbeing Core Capabilities Framework’ for frontline staff, to set out what skills, knowledge and behaviour are required to support offenders with health requirements, including neurodivergent need.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when the revised protocol on searching of the person will be published; whether prison officers of the male sex who identify as transgender, with or without a gender recognition certificate, will be permitted to rubdown or strip search female offenders; and whether the revised protocols will also apply to youth custody services.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The national policy on the searching of prisoners, staff and visitors (PSI 07/2016 – Searching of the Person) is currently under review, and to allow for extensive consultation, is expected to be published later this year.
The updated policy will include directions on transgender staff, with and without Gender Recognition Certificates, conducting searches.
In reviewing the policy, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) is consulting with the Government’s Legal Department, HMPPS Equalities Team and representatives from external women’s and transgender groups. The new policy will be compliant with the Equality Act 2010, Gender Recognition Act 2004 and the European Convention of Human Rights.
Asked by: Tonia Antoniazzi (Labour - Gower)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the OASys Sexual reoffending Predictor (OSP) Guidance for Practitioners, dated December 2021, what tools are used to assess the risk of biologically male transgender prisoners (a) with and (b) without a Gender Recognition Certificate who are convicted of sexual offences; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
OASys Sexual Reoffending Predictor (OSP) was developed for use with legally male offenders and so is not used with offenders who are not legally male. However, transitioning will not result in an offender’s risk assessment being less robust. Whether or not a transgender prisoner is assessed using OSP is not a factor in decisions about whether to allocate them to a men's or women's prison, which are only made after all individual risk factors have been thoroughly assessed.
The most accurate risk assessments combine actuarial methods of prediction with structured professional judgement. The Offender Assessment System (OASys) allows HMPPS staff to undertake actuarial assessments. It also provides a structure to record their assessment of the risks posed by, and needs of, an offender.
Apart from OSP, all actuarial risk assessment tools can be used with men and women. These tools are:
- Offender Group Reconviction Scale version 3 (OGRS3), for risk of any proven reoffending
- Risk of Serious Recidivism (RSR), for risk of serious proven reoffending, which comprises sexual reoffending (using OSP, or a simple base rate for legal females) and serious nonsexual violent reoffending (a separate algorithm)
- OASys Violence Predictor (OVP), for risk of nonsexual violent proven reoffending
- OASys General reoffending Predictor (OGP), for risk of nonviolent proven reoffending
Forensic psychologists also use a range of risk assessment tools with this cohort, which involve using their professional judgement. These are used on an individual basis, as with any offender, taking into account the full range of characteristics of the person being assessed.