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1669594

	registered interest
	date	13/11/2023
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Rye Hill Prison
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of implications for his policies of the findings in the 2022-23 annual report of the HMP Rye Hill Independent Monitoring Board that the prison has (a) inadequate resettlement support in place for those leaving and (b) significant challenges to maintaining fair and humane treatment; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact of these findings on rates of recidivism.
	tabling member constituency	Coventry South
	tabling member printed	Zarah Sultana
	uin	1742
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/11/2023 answer text <p>The care and rehabilitation of prisoners are matters that the Ministry of Justice and H M Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) take very seriously. We respond to all issues raised in reports we receive from Independent Monitoring Boards, and take action as appropriate.</p><p> </p><p>The report notes that finding accommodation in Approved Premises can be problematic. We recognise, and are addressing, this issue. In recent years we have undertaken an Approved Premises expansion programme, which has delivered 169 additional spaces, including the first purpose-built site. We are also developing a new digitalised approach to referrals, through a national Central Referral Unit that will oversee assessment for suitability and eligibility, and match individuals to placements, while maximising occupancy and use of Approved Premises capacity across the country. This new approach is being piloted in the North East. Underpinned by the Department’s demand analysis, it will enable HMPPS to improve timeliness and allow greater consistency and responsivity.</p><p> </p><p>The section of the Independent Monitoring Board’s report devoted to fair and humane treatment notes the challenges unavoidably arising from the Covid-19 pandemic, and comments favourably on the prison’s proactive approach in prioritising a return to business as usual, including arranging for prisoners to undertake activity on a daily basis. The report notes that, when interviewed, prisoners were understanding of the need for restrictions and appreciated the efforts the prison had made to return to a normal regime as quickly as possible through the year.</p><p> </p><p>We were encouraged to receive the Board’s comments on the extensive prisoner-led initiatives across a range of topics that have promoted a sense of community and improved staff and prisoner relationships. This can only be beneficial in improving prospects for successful resettlement and rehabilitation on release.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 16/11/2023 13:01:24 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
	tabling member	4786 label Biography information for Zarah Sultana

1700019

	registered interest
	date	12/04/2024
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Prisoners: Foreign Nationals
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign nationals are held in the prison estate by nationality.
	tabling member constituency	East Worthing and Shoreham
	tabling member printed	Tim Loughton
	uin	20833
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/04/2024 answer text <p>Data on how many Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) are held in custody are published in Offender Management Statistics Quarterly: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/offender-management-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2023" target="_blank">Offender management statistics quarterly: July to September 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)</a>. For data on the prison population by nationality, see prison population table 1_7.</p><p> </p><p>The latest published data from 31 December 2023 shows that there were 10,423 (3,333 remand, 6,697 sentenced and 393 non-criminal) FNOs held in custody; representing 12% of the total prison population. The most common nationalities after British Nationals in prisons are Albanian (13% of the FNO prison population), Polish (9%), Romanian (7%), Irish (6%) and Jamaican (4%).</p><p> </p><p>The removal of FNOs is a Government priority and my department continues to work closely with the Home Office to maximise the number of deportations.</p><p> </p><p>Published figures show that FNO returns have increased following the pandemic, in the latest 12-month period (ending December 2023) by 27% when compared to the previous 12-month period. Between January 2019 and December 2023 17,795 FNOs have been removed.</p><p> </p><p>The proportion of FNOs held in custody is 12% of the total prison population and has remained stable in recent years while the overall prison population has grown.</p><p> </p><p>On 11 March, the Government set out a plan to increase the number of FNOs removed through:</p><ul><li>The recruitment of 400 additional caseworkers and streamlining the end-to-end removal process;</li><li>Extending foreign national conditional cautions to FNOs with limited leave to remain; and</li><li>Amending deportation policy to enable FNOs given suspended sentences of 6 months or more to be considered for deportation.</li></ul><p> </p><p> </p><p>These actions build on our expansion of the Early Removal Scheme to allow for removal of FNOs up to 18 months before the end of the custodial element of their sentence, and expediting prisoner transfers with priority countries such as Albania and seeking to conclude new transfer agreements with partner countries.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 17/04/2024 16:31:08 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
	tabling member	114 label Biography information for Tim Loughton

1700020

	registered interest
	date	12/04/2024
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Prisoners: Foreign Nationals
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish a breakdown of offences committed by foreign nationals held in the prison estate.
	tabling member constituency	East Worthing and Shoreham
	tabling member printed	Tim Loughton
	uin	20834
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/04/2024 answer text <p>The requested information can be found in the attached spreadsheet.</p><p> </p><p>The removal of Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) is a Government priority and my department continues to work closely with the Home Office to maximise the number of deportations.</p><p> </p><p>Published figures show that FNO returns have increased following the pandemic, in the latest 12-month period (ending December 2023) by 27% when compared to the previous 12-month period. Between January 2019 and December 2023 17,795 FNOs have been removed.</p><p> </p><p>The proportion of FNOs held in custody is 12% of the total prison population and has remained stable in recent years while the overall prison population has grown.</p><p> </p><p>On 11 March, the Government set out a plan to increase the number of FNOs removed through:</p><ul><li>The recruitment of 400 additional caseworkers and streamlining the end-to-end removal process;</li><li>Extending foreign national conditional cautions to FNOs with limited leave to remain; and</li><li>Amending deportation policy to enable FNOs given suspended sentences of 6 months or more to be considered for deportation.</li></ul><p> </p><p>These actions build on our expansion of the Early Removal Scheme to allow for removal of FNOs up to 18 months before the end of the custodial element of their sentence, and expediting prisoner transfers with priority countries such as Albania and seeking to conclude new transfer agreements with partner countries.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 17/04/2024 16:32:38 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar attachment 1 file name 2024-04-17 PQ 20834 table.xlsx title Foreign National prisoners
	tabling member	114 label Biography information for Tim Loughton

1700022

	registered interest
	date	12/04/2024
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Prisoners: Foreign Nationals
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign nationals held in the prison estate have previously been detained after conviction.
	tabling member constituency	East Worthing and Shoreham
	tabling member printed	Tim Loughton
	uin	20836
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/04/2024 answer text <p>The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. This is because it would require data linking between prison data and the Ministry of Justice extract of the police national computer.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 22/04/2024 12:19:55 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
	tabling member	114 label Biography information for Tim Loughton

1674029

	registered interest
	date	29/11/2023
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Prison Officers: Labour Turnover
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to increase retention levels of experienced prison officers.
	tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Hall Green
	tabling member printed	Tahir Ali
	uin	4563
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/12/2023 answer text <p>In late 2021, the Ministry of Justice launched a retention toolkit to help Senior Leaders across HMPPS including Governors/Directors to tackle the main drivers of attrition in their departments and improve retention levels. We are using the data from enhanced exit interviews to better understand why experienced Prison Officers are leaving.</p><p> </p><p>We made a significant investment in pay for prison staff through the 2023/24 pay award. This delivered an increase in base pay of at least 7% for all staff between bands 2 to 5 which includes Prison Officers.</p><p> </p><p>Since April 2022, we have invested in several new initiatives to increase retention of our employees including Prison Officers. These include a new peer-to-peer learning scheme, the introduction of new staff mentors to support new Prison Officers in their roles, which takes the pressure off both experienced Prison Officers and managers, and a Career Pathways framework to enable staff to identify their development needs and career aspirations. We are also running supervision pilots in two prisons alongside the introduction of new leadership training, which will contribute to supporting career development and retention of experienced officers.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 08/12/2023 14:14:16 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
	tabling member	4747 label Biography information for Tahir Ali

1680845

	registered interest
	date	09/01/2024
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Probation Service
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of enabling the probation service to share caseloads between regions.
	tabling member constituency	St Austell and Newquay
	tabling member printed	Steve Double
	uin	8750
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/01/2024 answer text <p>The Probation Service supervises both offenders serving community sentences and offenders released from custody who are subject to licence conditions or other types of post-release supervision. The legislation underpinning both types of sentence requires a single officer to own and be responsible for the supervision of that case. The cases are allocated to a practitioner in the Probation Delivery Unit (PDU) in the area in which an offender resides, because of the importance of regular and consistent contact between the offender and their supervisor for managing risk and supporting rehabilitation.</p><p> </p><p>However, other staff can support the supervisor in delivering the sentence. Within PDUs, other practitioners and administrative staff may deliver particular tasks such as referrals to other organisations, report writing or letters to the offender. The Probation Service has experience of such support being delivered beyond PDU boundaries when there are acute pressures. However, the ownership of the case remains with the relevant region.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 16/01/2024 11:11:22 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
	tabling member	4452 label Biography information for Steve Double

1696707

	registered interest
	date	18/03/2024
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Convictions: Young People
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many convictions of young people there were in (a) the North West, (b) Lancashire and (c) Preston in each of the last five years; and what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the trend in the number of such convictions.
	tabling member constituency	Preston
	tabling member printed	Sir Mark Hendrick
	uin	18978
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/03/2024 answer text <p>The Ministry of Justice holds information on convictions by age group and Police Force Area, covering the period requested. The latest data available, until year ending June 2023, can be obtained in the following published tool: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65bd0675704282000d752143/outcomes-by-offence-june-2023.xlsx" target="_blank">Outcomes by Offence tool: June 2023</a>.</p><p>The tool linked above will allow you to select particular age groups of interest through the age group filter, and areas of the country through the police force area filter.</p><p>It is not possible to separately identify all convictions in Preston courts specifically, as those at magistrates’ courts in Preston are counted within the wider geographical area of Lancashire outlined in the first part of the question. Figures for the rest of 2023 will be available in the next update of the Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly publication, expected in May 2024.</p><p>The Ministry of Justice has not carried out any recent location-specific assessment of on how our policies have influenced the trend in the number of children convicted since 2019 in Preston, Lancashire and the North West. However, there has been analysis of the broader national trend, which is a fall in the overall number of children entering the criminal justice system more generally in recent years. Since 2012, the number of first-time entrants to the youth justice system has declined by 72%. This can be attributed to a number of drivers. These include changes to policing and criminal justice practices intended to increase police discretion to divert children who had committed low-level offences from the formal justice system, prevention programmes to support vulnerable families and Youth Offending Teams undertaking prevention work with children perceived to be at risk of offending.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 27/03/2024 13:00:03 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
	tabling member	473 label Biography information for Sir Mark Hendrick

1669966

	registered interest
	date	14/11/2023
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Prisons
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an estimate of what the prison population will be in (a) 2030 and (b) 2040.
	tabling member constituency	South Holland and The Deepings
	tabling member printed	Sir John Hayes
	uin	1787
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/11/2023 answer text <p>The Ministry of Justice does not project the size of the prison population to 2030 and 2040.</p><p>Prison population projections for 2022-2027 were published on 23 February 2023: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1138135/Prison_Population_Projections_2022_to_2027.pdf" target="_blank">Prison_Population_Projections_2022_to_2027.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk).</a></p><p>Updated five-year prison population projections (2023 to 2028) are due to be released February 2024.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 21/11/2023 17:50:39 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
	tabling member	350 label Biography information for Sir John Hayes

1685586

	registered interest
	date	29/01/2024
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Prisoners: Foreign Nationals
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people serving prison sentences in England and Wales as of January 29 2024 were born outside of the United Kingdom.
	tabling member constituency	South Holland and The Deepings
	tabling member printed	Sir John Hayes
	uin	11684
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/02/2024 answer text <p>Data on the nationality of prisoners serving sentences in England and Wales are published in the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly, which is available online at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/offender-management-statistics-quarterly</a>.</p><p>As the data requested in relation to the place of birth of prisoners in custody on 29 January 2024 relates to nationality data for future publication, we cannot release it at this time.</p><p> </p><p>The removal of Foreign National Offenders (FNO) is a Government priority and we removed 16,676 FNO between January 2019 and September 2023. Published figures show that FNO returns have increased in the latest 12-month period (ending September 2023) by 19% when compared to previous 12-month period (3,577 compared to 3,011).</p><p>We have recently announced measures to further increase removals including the extension of the Early Removal Scheme window to 18 months; working closely with Home Office to facilitate timely removals and using diplomatic pressure to conclude bilateral Prison Transfer Agreements with specific countries.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 05/02/2024 17:30:23 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
	tabling member	350 label Biography information for Sir John Hayes

1687522

	registered interest
	date	05/02/2024
	answering body	Ministry of Justice
	answering dept id	54
	answering dept short name	Justice
	answering dept sort name	Justice
	hansard heading	Prisons: Staff
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of staff working in prisons in England and Wales are not British nationals.
	tabling member constituency	South Holland and The Deepings
	tabling member printed	Sir John Hayes
	uin	12939
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/02/2024 answer text <p>The quarterly HMPPS workforce statistics publication covers staffing information, and the latest publication covers data up to 30 September 2023. The number and percentage of prison staff by national identity is given in table 1 below.</p><p> </p><p>Table 1: Proportion of staff working in Public Sector Prisons<sup>1</sup> in England and Wales by national identity<sup>2</sup>, as at 30 September 2023</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>National Identity</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Headcount</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Percentage of known<sup>2</sup></strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>British</p></td><td><p>29,570</p></td><td><p>94%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Non-British</p></td><td><p>1,774</p></td><td><p>6%</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Not Known/Prefer not to say</p></td><td><p>8,862</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Total</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>40,206</strong></p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>Notes</p><p>1. Includes staff working in Youth Custody Service prisons (Cookham Wood, Feltham, Werrington, Wetherby).</p><p>2. The National Identity field in SOP is a self-declared, optional field. The percentage of staff excludes those where the national identity is not known, either where the field has been left blank or staff have declared that they prefer not to disclose.</p> answering member constituency Charnwood answering member printed Edward Argar question first answered 09/02/2024 16:31:12 answering member 4362 label Biography information for Edward Argar
	tabling member	350 label Biography information for Sir John Hayes