Asked by: Robert Jenrick (Conservative - Newark)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners serving sentences for violent offences have been erroneously released since 1 April 2025.
Answered by Jake Richards - Assistant Whip
Releases in error have been increasing for several years and are another symptom of the prison system crisis inherited by this Government.
While the overwhelming majority of offenders are released correctly, we are clamping down on those releases in error that do occur – including through improved staff training and establishing a new specialist unit. A joint protocol between HMPPS and NPCC is in place, to ensure effective and timely communication between partner agencies when an individual is released in error to rearrest them as quickly as possible.
We have gripped this chaos – by building more prison places, ending the last Government’s early release scheme, being transparent with the public, immediately making changes to sentences to ease pressure on the system and now, taking landmark reforms through our Sentencing Bill to make sure that prisons never run out of places again
Annual totals for releases in error are published each July in the HMPPS Annual Digest, available via Prison and Probation Performance Statistics - GOV.UK(opens in a new tab), and provide data up to March 2025.
The number of people who have been released in error since April 2025 cannot be provided because it would form a subset of releases in error data which underpins future versions of these Official Statistics.
Asked by: Lord Jones of Penybont (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what policies and protections are in place to enable prisoners to use the Welsh language at HMP Berwyn.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The new HMPPS Welsh Language Scheme (24-27), published this month, sets out how the English and Welsh languages will be treated equally when delivering services to the public. This includes upholding and reinforcing the rights of prisoners to use Welsh, for example, through recording of language preference on arrival, provision of relevant information in Welsh, and offering opportunities for prisoners to use Welsh socially.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that victims are informed when offenders are released early from custody.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
It is vital that information about an offender’s release is available to victims who need it most. Victims who are eligible for, and who have opted into, the Probation Service Victim Contact Scheme or Victim Notification Scheme will be informed about any changes to an offender’s release date where it is appropriate to do so. Responsibility for informing victims about release through each of these schemes sits with HMPPS Victim Liaison Officers.
We have committed to improve the support and information for victims, which is why, through the Victim and Courts Bill, we are establishing a new route for all other victims to request information about an offender’s release, which will be delivered through a new, dedicated Helpline. This will give victims confidence about the routes available to receive information about their offender’s release.
With regards to how many victims have been notified of the early release of their offender in each of the last five years, the information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
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 victims have been notified of the early release of their offender in each of the last five years, broken down by police force area.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
It is vital that information about an offender’s release is available to victims who need it most. Victims who are eligible for, and who have opted into, the Probation Service Victim Contact Scheme or Victim Notification Scheme will be informed about any changes to an offender’s release date where it is appropriate to do so. Responsibility for informing victims about release through each of these schemes sits with HMPPS Victim Liaison Officers.
We have committed to improve the support and information for victims, which is why, through the Victim and Courts Bill, we are establishing a new route for all other victims to request information about an offender’s release, which will be delivered through a new, dedicated Helpline. This will give victims confidence about the routes available to receive information about their offender’s release.
With regards to how many victims have been notified of the early release of their offender in each of the last five years, the information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what guidance has been issued to police forces on informing victims about the early release of offenders.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
It is vital that information about an offender’s release is available to victims who need it most. Victims who are eligible for, and who have opted into, the Probation Service Victim Contact Scheme or Victim Notification Scheme will be informed about any changes to an offender’s release date where it is appropriate to do so. Responsibility for informing victims about release through each of these schemes sits with HMPPS Victim Liaison Officers.
We have committed to improve the support and information for victims, which is why, through the Victim and Courts Bill, we are establishing a new route for all other victims to request information about an offender’s release, which will be delivered through a new, dedicated Helpline. This will give victims confidence about the routes available to receive information about their offender’s release.
With regards to how many victims have been notified of the early release of their offender in each of the last five years, the information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the criteria for parental involvement in decision-making for young people who lack mental capacity after becoming 18 years of age.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Anyone who wishes to make decisions for a person who lacks the mental capacity to do so for themselves must have the legal authority to act. The provisions of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 reflect that principle and provide safeguards to protect the interests of persons who lack mental capacity.
Parents are often unaware they need legal authority to make decisions once their child reaches 18, when legal parental responsibility ends. The Government acknowledges this lack of awareness and in relation to property and finance has produced a toolkit ‘Making Financial decisions for young people who lack capacity’ to raise awareness: Making financial decisions for young people who lack capacity: A toolkit for parents and carers - GOV.UK.
Parents and carers can still be involved in decisions regarding the young person. Section 4 of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005, outlines the principles for making decisions in a person’s best interests for whom they care and confirms that the decision maker should consult with anyone engaged in caring for the person as well as close family and friends.
Asked by: Ben Maguire (Liberal Democrat - North Cornwall)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department plans to legislate to protect the rights of children to communicate with (a) grandparents and (b) others members of extended family in cases where (i) one and (ii) both parents seek to prevent such contact.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
I acknowledge and respect that grandparents and other extended family members often play an important role in children’s lives and can provide stability in families, particularly where parents are separating.
Any contact with the child should always be in their child's best interests. This is why there is no statutory right for any adult to have contact with a child. It is already possible for extended family members to seek leave of the court to apply for ‘spending time with’ or ‘living with’ arrangements through a Child Arrangements Order under Section 8 of the Children Act 1989 (‘the Act’). The requirement for grandparents or others to seek the leave of the court first is to ensure that their application is in the child's best interests; but in certain circumstances, applicants may be entitled to apply without the leave of the court under section 10 (5) of the Act. These circumstances include where the child has lived with them for a period of at least three years. Therefore, the Government has no current plans to legislate further on this issue.
Asked by: Baroness Redfern (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government why the core education offer for prisoners does not include a distinct reading curriculum.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The core education offer in all prisons includes reading skills and their practical application. These are an integral part of literacy provision. In addition to this, prisons benefit from locally commissioned support delivered by voluntary and community sector organisations. These partners play a vital role in engaging individuals who may lack the confidence to participate in classroom-based learning, offering tailored and accessible routes into reading. Every prison now has a dedicated reading strategy, underpinned by HMPPS’s National Prison Reading Framework which supports the development and evaluation of effective reading provision.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to help support smaller solicitors' practices in rural areas to (a) prevent their closure and (b) maintain local choice.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Government recognises the vital role that solicitors’ practices play in supporting access to justice and sustaining local economies, including in rural communities. However, solicitors’ firms operate as independent businesses, and decisions about where they open, or close are commercial matters for those firms.
The Ministry of Justice works closely with representative and regulatory bodies, including the Law Society, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), and the Legal Services Board (LSB), to help ensure that the wider legal services market remains effective, competitive, and accessible to people across England and Wales.
The Government is also taking wider steps to support the sustainability of the legal aid and legal services sectors. Ensuring that solicitors and firms remain able to operate effectively across England and Wales underpins the justice system as a whole.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many occupation orders have been issued against joint tenants in the last 12 months for which data is available.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.