Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of the workforce in prisons in England and Wales are employed by private contractors.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
As of 31 March 2025, there were 3,403 prison custody officers in post across the 16 privately managed prisons in England and Wales, employed in roles that are equivalent to Band 3–5 grades used in public sector prisons. This represents approximately 13% of all officer grades in prisons in England and Wales.
A number of non-directly-employed staff – including contractors, volunteers and third-party service providers – also work in HM prisons, in areas, such as education, healthcare and industries. Statistics for these are not collected centrally and could not be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of safeguards in preventing harm to children during court-ordered contact arrangements.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice recognises the importance of safeguarding children during court-ordered contact arrangements.
The legislation which governs child arrangements cases makes a child’s welfare paramount and presumes a child’s welfare is furthered by the involvement of both parents, unless there is evidence of a risk of harm. Following the recommendation from the ‘Assessing Risk of Harm to Children and Parents in Private Law Children Cases’ report, the Ministry of Justice has carried out a thorough review of the presumption of parental involvement, which will be published shortly.
Where an individual believes that a wrong decision or an unjust decision (due to serious procedural or other irregularity in the proceedings in the lower court) has been made by the courts, there are routes of appeal and individuals can apply to have a Child Arrangements Order varied or discharged.
In some cases, to ensure children’s safety, courts order contact at Child Contact Centres. These are primarily accredited centres run by the National Association of Child Contact Centres, which operate under rigorous safeguarding standards. These include secure premises with controlled access, trained staff present during supervised contact, and comprehensive risk assessments tailored to each family's circumstances.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps the Probation Service takes to liaise with local residents when convicted paedophiles leave prison and move to local communities.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
In deciding where to permit a convicted child sex offender who is subject to licensed supervision to live or reside even for one night, the Probation Service works closely with the Police and other agencies under MAPPA (Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements).
Additionally, offenders subject to licensed supervision may be prohibited from entering specified geographical locations (exclusion zones) on account of the particular risks which those offenders present.
Under MAPPA, the Probation and Police Services must by law consider whether to disclose information about a child sex offender to any particular member of the public. There is a presumption to make disclosure where the offender is assessed as presenting a risk of serious harm to any child or children, where the MAPPA agencies judge that disclosure is necessary for the purpose of protecting any particular child or children from serious harm.
The Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme aims to improve access to information that may help protect children from the risk of abuse. The Scheme allows parents, carers, guardians or interested third parties to ask local police to tell them about a person's record of child sex offences if they are concerned about that person's access to a child. Members of the public can submit a disclosure request to the Police by letter, phone, at a police station or by speaking directly to any police officer.
The Police will disclose information to the person best placed to protect the child if they believe there is a need to protect a child, and the disclosure is necessary and proportionate. Anyone receiving this information must keep it confidential and use it only to protect the child concerned.
Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps she is taking to help reduce reoffending rates.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
We are tackling the root causes of reoffending by investing in a range of interventions which address offenders’ underlying criminogenic needs and support their rehabilitation journey. This includes education, employment, accommodation and substance misuse treatment services.
We continue to work with prisons to improve offenders’ access to purposeful activity, such as education, which we know reduces the likelihood of reoffending. We have also recently launched regional Employment Councils, which will bring businesses together with Probation Services and the Department for Work and Pensions to support offenders in prison and the community.
Recognising that reoffending is twice as high among those released homeless, compared to those released to accommodation, we are expanding our community accommodation service; and working closely with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government and other Departments on a new cross-government strategy to put us back on track to ending homelessness and to improve outcomes over this Parliament.
We are also reforming sentencing to ensure that we never run out of prison places again. Community sentences have been shown to be more effective than short custodial sentences at reducing reoffending. We are working closely with the Department for Health and Social Care to support the increased use of Drug Rehabilitation Requirements and Alcohol Treatment Requirements as robust alternatives to custody, in line with the recommendations of the Independent Sentencing Review.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prosecutions relating to spiking have there been in each of the last five year.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice does not currently collate statistics which show the number of individuals who are charged and subsequently prosecuted and convicted of offences which relate to incidents of spiking. The Government is, however, considering options to improve the way spiking crimes are recorded and collated with the aim of capturing better data to help advise preventative strategies for spiking where needed.
Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of released convicts go on to reoffend within two-years of their release.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The proven reoffending rate and methodology is calculated using a one-year follow up period. Providing this information for a new two-year reoffending measure would be of disproportionate cost.
The proven reoffending rate for adult offenders released from custody was 37.5% for the 2022/23 offender cohort (latest year for which reoffending data is available).
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will take steps to improve access to legal aid for residential park home residents involved in disputes with site owners.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The statutory framework governing the provision of legal aid is set out in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, and its supporting secondary legislation.
Legal aid is available for possession, homelessness and disrepair claims (when there is a serious risk of illness or injury) subject to a financial means and a merits test. Legal aid is additionally available for people facing the loss of their home on a non-means tested basis through the Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service. Legal aid is also generally in scope for judicial reviews that have the potential to produce a benefit for the individual, a member of their family, or the environment. Proceedings related to consumer law are not in scope of legal aid.
Where an issue falls outside the scope of legal aid, individuals can apply for Exceptional Case Funding (ECF), which will be granted where they can show that failure to provide legal aid will risk breaching their human rights under the European Convention on Human Rights. ECF applications are considered by the Legal Aid Agency on an individual basis and are subject to the individual qualifying on means and merits testing.
Asked by: Andy Slaughter (Labour - Hammersmith and Chiswick)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the timely ratification and implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer, signed by the UK in May 2025; and what assessment she has made of the legislative or regulatory measures required to ensure full domestic compliance with its provisions.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
I am delighted that the UK was an early signatory to the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of the Profession of Lawyer, which was signed in Luxembourg on 14 May 2025. Throughout the Convention’s development, the Ministry of Justice worked closely with the profession and the UK representative appointed to the drafting panel, to ensure the UK’s interests were effectively represented on key issues. The Department is conducting the necessary due diligence ahead of ratification including an assessment of whether any legislative or regulatory measures are required.
Once this is complete, the Convention and its accompanying Explanatory Memorandum will be laid before both Houses of Parliament for scrutiny, in accordance with the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. The Convention enters into force on the expiry of a period of 3 months after the date on which eight signatories, including at least six member States of the Council of Europe, have expressed their consent to be bound by it.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate she has made of the cost of the new prison at Gartree in Leicestershire.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The value of the main works for the new prison next to HMP Gartree is planned to be published later this year.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many court cases listed for trial in a Crown Court were (a) cancelled and (b) rescheduled in (i) Lancashire, (ii) Cumbia and (iii) Greater Manchester in the last three years.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes information concerning trials which are rescheduled (ineffective) but does not have a measure of trials “cancelled” - rather we publish information concerning trials which are cracked.
A cracked trial is a trial that does not go ahead on the day as an outcome is reached and so does not need to be re-scheduled. This occurs when an acceptable plea is offered by the defendant, or the prosecution offers no evidence against the defendant.
This data regarding trial effectiveness at the Crown Court including cracked and ineffective trials by LCJB area is published in the “Trial effectiveness in the courts” data tool (latest to March 2025). This can be downloaded from the Criminal Court Statistics landing page here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-court-statistics.