Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to improve rehabilitation programs in prisons.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) has a unique opportunity, across prisons, probation and the Youth Custody Service, to help people turn their lives around. To do this successfully, it is important to ensure that the best conditions are created and the right services for rehabilitation provided.
Fundamental to the rehabilitation offer is a supportive and rehabilitative organisational culture, coupled with positive support from skilled pro-social staff. We know from the evidence that this is likely to be the best approach to support those who are at lower risk to desist from future offending. Others, particularly those at a higher risk of re-offending, will need more. HMPPS is committed to ensuring that the right approach is adopted in relation to each individual.
Rehabilitation services take many forms, ranging from accredited programmes and interventions that are aimed at giving people skills to change their attitudes, thinking and behaviour, to enabling a person to access education, healthcare, substance misuse support, suitable accommodation, and the means to earn a living pro-socially. Some rehabilitative activity is delivered in-house, and some via partner organisations. HMPPS keeps its work under constant review to ensure it is acting in accordance with the available evidence. It is committed to the ongoing development, monitoring, evaluation and review of accredited programmes in line with the aims of reducing re-offending and protecting the public.
To help achieve this, HMPPS has implemented the Next Generation of Accredited Programmes change programme and rolled out the new Building Choices accredited programme, realising significant benefits in terms of staff training and development, programme assessment, evaluation, and quality assurance processes. In addition, HMPPS is deploying a range of resources and training courses as part of the Enable Programme, which is designed to build skills and boost confidence in front-line prison colleagues. Topics covered include security, safety, leadership, procedural justice, defensible decision making, incident management and relational practice.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion Preseli)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has considered the potential merits of extending the range of offences that can be considered under the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Unduly Lenient Sentence (ULS) scheme is an exceptional power. It includes all indictable-only offences (e.g. murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery) and certain triable-either way offences sentenced in the Crown Court (e.g. threats to kill, stalking, most child sex offences).
Parliament intended this to be an exceptional power, and any expansion of the scheme must be carefully considered. While we understand calls for expansion, it is important for both victims and offenders that there is finality in sentencing. The general rule is that a person should expect to serve the sentence a judge has imposed upon them.
The Law Commission is undertaking a review of criminal appeals and it held a public consultation inviting views on a range of reforms to the ULS scheme, including offences in scope. The consultation closed on 27 June 2025 and the Law Commission is expected to publish its report in 2026.
The Government will carefully and holistically consider the Law Commission review’s final recommendations on the wider reforms to the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme in due course.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in which probation regions is the Domestic Abuse Perpetrators on Licence pilot currently live.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Domestic Abuse Perpetrators on Licence (DAPOL) pilot is currently live in eight probation regions: East Midlands; West Midlands; London; Kent, Surrey and Sussex; East of England; South West; South Central; and Wales.
The Electronic Monitoring for Acquisitive Crime (AC) scheme is currently live in the following 19 police force areas in England and Wales: Avon and Somerset, Bedfordshire, Cheshire, City of London, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Durham, Essex, Gloucestershire, Gwent, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Humberside, Kent, the Metropolitan Police area, North Wales, Nottinghamshire, Sussex and West Midlands.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners have access to faith-based support services.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
All prisoners in England and Wales have access to faith-based and pastoral support services. His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service is required to make chaplaincy and faith provision available to prisoners of all faiths and beliefs, as well as to those who do not identify with a particular faith. This support is available on request in every establishment.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps is he taking to improve the safety of officers in the Youth Custody Service.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Unacceptable levels of violence faced by Youth Justice Workers (i.e. officers) in young offender institutions were part of the wider difficulties across the criminal justice system that this Government has had to address. Making PAVA spray available in young offender institutions, subject to strict controls, was necessary to keep both staff and young people in custody safe. Each use of PAVA spray is reviewed by an independent panel and reported to Ministers for further scrutiny. H M Prison & Probation Service, as well as external organisations, are continuing to exercise very close scrutiny of any use of PAVA spray.
The Youth Custody Service’s Framework for Integrated Care, known as ‘SECURE STAIRS’, which is delivered in partnership with the Department for Health and Social Care, and includes improvements in areas such as conflict resolution and specialist psychological interventions, is integral to improving safety within the youth estate. The Youth Custody Service has also developed roadmaps to effective practice which focus on outcomes in areas such as safety, behaviour management support and education.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much funding has been allocated to the Youth Custody Service for the next five years.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
As budget allocation across the Department is agreed annually, it is not possible to provide the information requested.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to help ensure that prison staffing levels are sufficient to maintain security.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Effective prison security is a prerequisite for the safe and stable regimes required to promote prisoner rehabilitation, and sufficient levels of skilled frontline staff are fundamental to delivering secure and rehabilitative prison regimes. Against a challenging labour market, we have recruitment campaigns at all prisons where there are current or projected needs, and provide enhanced support to the prisons in the most challenging parts of the estate. HMPPS offers several routes to become a prison officer, including:
To help improve Prison Officer retention, HMPPS has created a retention strategy which is linked to wider activities around employee experience, employee lifecycle and staff engagement at work. As of December 2025, the resignation rate for Band 3-5 Prison Officers was the lowest it has been in the last four years.
We have specialist staff and equipment to stop the smuggling of contraband in prisons – such as drugs, weapons and mobile phones – which can fuel violence and create instability.
We remain committed to ensuring prisons are sufficiently resourced and that we retain and build levels of experience, both of which are fundamental to delivering quality outcomes in prisons.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of meat served in prisons has been (a) halal and (b) kosher in each year since 2020, broken down by individual prison.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
As this data is not held centrally the information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The Food in Prison Policy Framework requires that prisoners are provided with meals that meet an individual’s religious, cultural, and medical dietary needs. Prisons provide a multi-choice, pre-select menu for the lunchtime or evening meal which must reflect the diverse needs of the establishment’s population. When a Halal meat or poultry menu choice is offered, an alternative meat or poultry choice which is not Halal must be provided at the same meal.
All prisons across England and Wales provide prisoners with a choice of at least five meal options at both lunch and the evening meal. As a minimum, these options include: one meat dish, one vegan dish, one vegetarian dish, one Halal dish, and one additional alternative option.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will list the organisations authorised to send religious and welfare packs to prisons in England and Wales for (a) Ramadan and (b) Eid.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Decisions on whether any external materials may be provided are taken by individual establishments. They are subject to governor approval, national policy on faith and pastoral care, security requirements, and extremism safeguards. All proposed materials are assessed by chaplaincy teams in conjunction with prison security staff, including scrutiny against the Inappropriate Materials Guidance and oversight by Prevent Leads and Chaplaincy headquarters, and may be refused or withdrawn where concerns arise.
HMPPS chaplaincy teams do not request or use materials from the Islamic Human Rights Commission in prisons.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many religious chaplaincies have permitted the Islamic Human Rights Commission to send religious materials to prisons in England and Wales.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Decisions on whether any external materials may be provided are taken by individual establishments. They are subject to governor approval, national policy on faith and pastoral care, security requirements, and extremism safeguards. All proposed materials are assessed by chaplaincy teams in conjunction with prison security staff, including scrutiny against the Inappropriate Materials Guidance and oversight by Prevent Leads and Chaplaincy headquarters, and may be refused or withdrawn where concerns arise.
HMPPS chaplaincy teams do not request or use materials from the Islamic Human Rights Commission in prisons.