Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what accredited courses are or have been available to those serving indefinite sentences for public protection in (1) HMP Durham and (2) HMP Acklington; and how many of each have been cancelled in the last three years.

The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) does not commission accredited programmes exclusively for Indeterminate Sentence Prisoners. Programme and public protection resources are allocated based on offenders' type, level of risk and criminogenic needs in order to maximise public safety and value for money.

It is important that Indeterminate Sentence Prisoners have access to services that are appropriate to their risk and needs. NOMS has been using an evidence based approach to move investment in interventions to higher intensity longer programmes that are more likely to meet the complex needs of Indeterminate Sentence Prisoners. This approach increases the availability and access to these services across the estate.

HMP Durham, like many other local prisons, has not been commissioned to deliver accredited programmes as the primary function of the prison is to serve the courts and hold prisoners who are on remand. Where a prisoner is identified as having a need for a specific accredited programme, and has sufficient time left in their sentence to complete the programme in custody (including prisoners who are serving indefinite sentences for public protection), they would be transferred to an appropriate prison delivering the identified programme.

HMP Acklington is the former name of HMP Northumberland. HMP Northumberland was formed following the merger of two separate prisons – HMP Acklington and HMP Castington on 31 October 2011.

HMP Northumberland is commissioned to deliver two different accredited programmes. Thinking Skills Programme (TSP) which is a short non offence specific thinking skills programme and Core Sexual Offending Treatment Programme (SOTP) which is designed for medium to high risk sex offenders.