Ministry of Justice: Families
(asked on 12th December 2017) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 30 November 2017 to Question HL3576, what steps his Department is taking to strengthen families.
The Government is committed to supporting prisoners to establish or maintain relationships with their families and significant others where appropriate. The Government recently published the report from Lord Farmer, ‘The Importance of Strengthening Prisoners Family Ties to Prevent Reoffending and Reduce Intergenerational Crime’.
Work has already commenced on taking forward some of the important recommendations from this review.
We are placing the importance of these relationships at the centre of our processes. In October family budgets were devolved to Governors, which coincided with the commencement of new family services contracts. This has given Governors the necessary levers to deliver tailored support for prisoners, helping them to build or maintain family ties or develop alternative relationships.
Relationships between prisoners, their family or significant others and children are maintained through a range of visiting opportunities. In addition to the statutory entitlement to visits under the Prison Rules 1999, prisoners may also be granted additional visits through local privilege schemes.
Release on temporary licence (ROTL) is another way for suitable prisoners to maintain family ties, and we will be exploring in the coming months how best to ensure access to ROTL for those who would benefit, within a robust risk assessment framework.
A new Family Policy Framework will be published during 2018 to help standardise the quality of services provided across all prisons to help strengthen relationships between prisoners, their family and significant relationships.