Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what criteria his Department uses to assess whether a prison has (a) demonstrated that their monitoring of potential disproportionality in the use of force is effective, (b) understood potential trends in the use of force and (c) demonstrated how they will address potential disproportionalities in the use of force through their action plan.

Prisons are expected to have a diverse and empowered committee, with laypersons invited to express the views of prisoners. In some prisons, prisoners are invited to form part of the committee. We have provided clear guidance around Use of Force governance though the Good Governance Toolkit. The toolkit supports sites with their assurance, staff development and prisoner rehabilitation. It provides signposting for concerns relating to force and establishes a framework of positive practice and improvement through assurance. The toolkit highlights the input required for the assurance processes, such as the data collation, analysis and presentation at the UoF Committee and to ensure an explain or reform response is made. This was developed in consultation with the HMPPS Race Action Programme and both internal and external stakeholders and is based around the Procedural Justice principles.

We have put in place a process around the assurance visits that the central team conduct, with standardised measures, including looking at data and disproportionality. They also look at the diversity of the local committee. Once a visit is completed, the report is shared with the prison and depending on the level of concern, follow up visits arranged. When we devised the internal scoring and weighting, we placed a high weighting on identifying disproportionality, and also on the actions taken. If prisons are not doing either of those, it would be reported back, and support given to develop the prisons own processes. If their committee is not meeting the Lammy recommendation then the team will suggest ways to do so, such as prisoner representation or external third sector organisations. We also engage at regional level with group safety leads, and equality leads to support them and also take referrals to ensure support is given.

We have established a Use of Force Disproportionality working group, which brings together Diversity and Inclusion, the HMPPS Race Action Programme and Use of Force team, that will collect and share good practice around reducing disproportionality and develop further guidance on how to take action where necessary.