Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people serving an imprisonment for public protection sentence were deported under the Tariff-Expired Removal Scheme in (1) 2023 and (2) 2024.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice routinely publishes official statistics on the number of individuals serving Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences in the community, as part of the Offender Managements Statistics Quarterly (OMSQ) publication. The latest OMSQ statistics were published on 24 April 2025 and showed the number of individuals serving IPP sentences in the community, as at 31 December 2024. In accordance with the requirements of the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, we cannot share figures on the number of individuals who had their licence automatically terminated between March and June 2025, as to do so, would provide an early indication of data on individuals serving IPP sentences in the community, which is not yet publicly available and is intended for future publication. The next release of OMSQ is scheduled for 31 July 2025, and will show the number of individuals serving IPP sentences in the community as at 31 March 2025.
The Tariff Expired Removal Scheme (TERS) applies to foreign national offenders (FNOs) serving an indeterminate sentence. There were four FNOs serving IPP sentences that were approved for removal for the under TERS in 2023 and one in 2024. It would fall to the Home Office to confirm whether all five have now been deported.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many deaths by (1) suicide, and (2) natural causes, there were in prisons of people who were serving an imprisonment for public protection sentence between 1 January and 1 June.
Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested is not currently available. Releasing data on deaths of prisoners serving Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences between 1 January and 1 June would give an early indication of future accredited official statistics.
Data on self-inflicted and natural causes deaths in custody, including annual data on self-inflicted deaths for IPP prisoners, is published in the Ministry of Justice’s “Safety in Custody” statistics. The latest available detailed deaths data covers up to December 2024 and can be found here: Safety in custody: quarterly update to September 2024 - GOV.UK.
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: Robert Jenrick (Conservative - Newark)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been (a) charged, (b) prosecuted and (c) convicted for knowingly assisting asylum seekers to enter the UK under s25A Immigration Act 1971 in each month since July 2024.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on prosecutions and convictions for various offences by month at criminal courts in England and Wales in the Outcomes by Offences data tool (latest data to December 2024), that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics.
Data relating to charges is not held by the Ministry of Justice - this data is held and published by the Home Office.
Asked by: Robert Jenrick (Conservative - Newark)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been (a) charged, (b) prosecuted and (c) convicted for human trafficking under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 in each month since July 2024.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on prosecutions and convictions for various offences by month at criminal courts in England and Wales in the Outcomes by Offences data tool (latest data to December 2024), that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics.
Data relating to charges is not held by the Ministry of Justice - this data is held and published by the Home Office.
Asked by: Robert Jenrick (Conservative - Newark)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have been (a) charged, (b) prosecuted and (c) convicted for assisting unlawful immigration under s25 Immigration Act 1971 in each month since July 2024.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on prosecutions and convictions for various offences by month at criminal courts in England and Wales in the Outcomes by Offences data tool (latest data to December 2024), that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics.
Data relating to charges is not held by the Ministry of Justice - this data is held and published by the Home Office.
Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if the Probation Service will introduce a ban on convicted paedophiles living within a five-mile radius of (a) schools and (b) nurseries.
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: 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.