Asked by: Connor Rand (Labour - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the findings in the China Strategic Risks Institute report entitled The PRC’s Extraterritorial Legal Architecture, published in January 2026, regarding the risks of China's civil judgments being enforced in the UK against the public interest.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Decisions about recognition of foreign judgments are made by the UK’s independent judiciary, with safeguards against recognition and enforcement being available.
There are various grounds on which a judge may refuse to recognise or enforce a foreign judgment, including for example where the foreign court acted without jurisdiction, the proceedings involved a breach of natural justice, or recognition would be contrary to public policy.
The Government engages regularly with the judiciary and stakeholders about the operation of frameworks for recognition and enforcement.
Asked by: Connor Rand (Labour - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to help prevent the principle of judicial comity from being used by the People’s Republic of China to conduct transnational repression against diaspora groups through UK civil courts.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Decisions about recognition of foreign judgments are made by the UK’s independent judiciary, with safeguards against recognition and enforcement being available.
There are various grounds on which a judge may refuse to recognise or enforce a foreign judgment, including for example where the foreign court acted without jurisdiction, the proceedings involved a breach of natural justice, or recognition would be contrary to public policy.
The Government engages regularly with the judiciary and stakeholders about the operation of frameworks for recognition and enforcement.
Asked by: Connor Rand (Labour - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will review the assumption of judicial independence used to recognize civil judgments from Hong Kong, in light of the National Security Law and other developments.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Decisions about recognition of foreign judgments are made by the UK’s independent judiciary, with safeguards against recognition and enforcement being available.
There are various grounds on which a judge may refuse to recognise or enforce a foreign judgment, including for example where the foreign court acted without jurisdiction, the proceedings involved a breach of natural justice, or recognition would be contrary to public policy.
The Government engages regularly with the judiciary and stakeholders about the operation of frameworks for recognition and enforcement.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to page 92 of the Strategic Defence Review, how many meetings officials from their Department have attended on the national conversation on defence and security; which directorate in their Department is responsible for the departmental contribution to that national conversation; and what the job title is of the official responsible.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Officials from the Ministry of Justice regularly attend meetings to discuss matters of national security, defence and resilience as well as the associated public communications required to deliver these lines of efforts. The conversation on National Defence was a recommendation in the 2025 Strategic Defence Review (SDR), which the Government accepted. The Ministry of Defence is the lead department for delivering the SDR, with support from the Cabinet Office, and particularly from the National Security Secretariat.
As set out in the Strategic Defence Review, the national conversation will be a multi-year, cross-departmental effort designed to deliver on the whole-of-society approach to national security and defence allowing Government, the private sector and public to play their part in strengthening the UK’s resilience to any potential future shocks. This work addresses the risks and threats the UK faces, including those below and above the threshold of an armed attack.
The Ministry of Justice is actively supporting this work and regularly fields senior officials from across the Department, including the Permanent Secretary, to cross-government meetings on a range of issues, including national security, resilience and defence.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the (a) reasons for and (b) outcomes of complaints made through the new independent reporting channel in HMPPS were since its establishment.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The new independent reporting channel may consider allegations of bullying, harassment, discrimination, sexual harassment or assault, or cases where serious safeguarding concerns are raised. Complaints may be upheld, partially upheld or not upheld, or mediation between parties may be recommended.
A number of cases are still being investigated. As we are still in the process of putting in place a system for analysing data relating to complaints made through the new reporting channel, it is not possible to provide the requested information at this stage.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the answer of 4 March 2026 to Question 115634 on Ministry of Justice: ICT, for what reason the number of laptops, mobile phones and other electrical devices stolen or lost by the Department fell from 665 between 5 July 2024 to 29 April 2025 to 324 between 5 July 2024 and 5 December 2025.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
A difference in figures reported by the Department for periods 5 July 2024 to 29 April 2025 and 5 July 2024 to 5 December 2025 is due to a difference in how incident records were queried and displayed, resulting in an inflated figure of 665 where some devices had been double counted.
The correct figure for the period of 5 July 2024 to 5 December 2025 is 324.
The Department is currently undertaking work to improve asset data quality, during which some devices previously been reported lost or stolen have been since recovered or identified as having been reported in error.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to provide education and training in Welsh at Berwyn Prison for inmates whose first language is Welsh.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
All learners at HMP Berwyn are entitled to access their education through the medium of Welsh should they choose to do so and are asked their language preference on arrival at the prison, and during their education induction. Although take up is historically low, this is facilitated through translated course materials, opportunities to complete assessments in Welsh, and classroom support provided by Welsh speaking staff working within the Education team. Welsh language courses are available to all prisoners on request, alongside a bilingual course on Welsh traditions and customs.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to promote literacy enrichment in the criminal justice system as part of the National Year of Reading.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
I refer the noble Lord to the answer I gave to question PQ HL 14560 to Lord Weir on 23 February 2026.
The National Year of Reading is a welcome opportunity to promote a wide range of activity to improve literacy and engagement with reading for people in custody and on probation.
As part of this work we have appointed the first ever Prison Reading Laureate, the author Lee Child. He will champion the transformative power of reading across the criminal justice system, continue expansion of his successful literacy pilot programme which has been running in a number of prisons since 2025 and will bring in more authors to work with prisons across the country, promoting the benefits of reading to rehabilitation.
Reading is a priority for HMPPS who work with many voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations such as the Reading Agency and National Literacy Trust. A programme of work is planned throughout this year to improve national access to books and facilitate workshops with authors. The Youth Custody Service is also launching its first ever Literacy Festival to inspire reading amongst some of the most complex children in our society.
Asked by: Apsana Begum (Labour - Poplar and Limehouse)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of recent prison education funding changes on rehabilitation outcomes.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
The Ministry of Justice is committed to supporting rehabilitation through high-quality education, skills and work activities. National funding for prison education has not been reduced. Inflationary pressures have affected the proportion of the overall budget that can be spent on the Core Education contracts, and this has led to reductions in the volume of delivery that prisons are able to commission. This represents just one element of the wider education, skills and work offer that prisoners are able to access and Governors retain the flexibility to commission provision that best meets the needs of their prison population.
We continue to monitor delivery closely through HMPPS contract management arrangements. In addition, a full evaluation of the new Prisoner Education Service is underway to assess the impact of education provision on prisoner progress and rehabilitation outcomes, and to inform future policy and commissioning decisions.
Asked by: Steve Darling (Liberal Democrat - Torbay)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on the number of cases in which there have been miscommunications with respect to the Person Escort Record in the last 12 months.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Obtaining the information requested relating to possible miscommunications with respect to person escort records would require each prison to undertake a manual search of all such records for the period in question. That could not be undertaken without incurring disproportionate cost.
When a prisoner arrives in prison reception, risk assessment procedures are carried out in accordance with HM Prison and Probation Service’s current policy frameworks. During the reception process, staff review all available documentation, including the person escort record, and any existing Digital Prison Service alerts, as well as undertaking an observational assessment of the prisoner’s presentation and behaviour. A structured reception screening is then carried out by both operational and healthcare staff, to identify any risks relating to suicide or self-harm, violence, vulnerability, physical or mental health issues, or other safeguarding concerns. In addition, a cell-sharing risk assessment (CSRA) is completed for all prisoners new to custody, to identify whether they would be likely to cause serious harm to another prisoner if they were to share a cell. When a prisoner is transferred, their CSRA accompanies them. If the CSRA cannot be located at the time of transfer, a new assessment is undertaken to ensure that risks are appropriately identified.
The processes relating to capturing and transferring risk management information are set out in the Person Escort Record Policy Framework. The framework is currently being reviewed: this will help to capture a broader range of risk information, and support more accurate and consistent completion of the form.