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.